SCREAM BLACULA SCREAM (1973)
Article 2593 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-11-2008
Posting Date: 9-18-2008
Directed by Bob Kelljan
Featuring William Marshall, Don Mitchell, Pam Grier
Country: USA

When Blacula is resurrected in a voodoo ceremony, he seeks a voodoo priestess who can rid him of his curse.

I’ve heard tell that BLACULA is the best of the horror blaxploitation titles of the seventies, and that this sequel doesn’t quite measure up to that one. So I’ll refrain from making any judgment on the original based on having watched this one except to say that it must certainly share this movie’s great strength, which is William Marshall’s excellent performance. His Blacula has such a commanding, authoritative presence that he single-handedly raises this film several notches in my eyes. This is good, because the movie has a few problems. Perhaps the worst one is that the movie’s believability at any one moment is in inverse proportion to the amount of jive talk being used on the screen at the time; this movie has some of the least convincing jive talk I’ve ever heard. Marshall only uses jive talk in one speech, and though it’s the best line in the movie, you can clearly hear the quote marks around them. The performers who are given the least jive talk fare best; both Don Mitchell and Pam Grier come off all right. Still, the story takes an interesting approach, and occasional moments work quite well.