People are voting emotionally.

A Brilliant Conflict

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

William Marshall, the Christopher Lee of Blaxploitation horror, returns as Blacula, resurrected from the dead by voodoo cultist Willis (Richard Lawson), who wants revenge on Lisa Fortier (Pam Grier), destined to be the cult's next leader. As in the first film, Blacula sets about creating a small army of blood-slurping followers, while ex-cop Justin Carter (Don Mitchell) puts together the pieces of the puzzle and comes to the only conclusion: vampires!This rushed into production sequel isn't a patch on the original, lacking that film's fun factor. Marshall once again puts in a strong performance, but the plot is deathly dull, with very little of interest happening for much of the time. Pam Grier, so often the strong female lead, is relegated to helpless girl-in-peril, at least until the very end when she kills Blacula via the use of a voodoo doll. Funniest moment comes when narcissist Willis realises that he can no longer see his reflection in a mirror, although the library scene had me chuckling a lot as well: check out how many copies of Summer in Sodom, The Erotic Revolution and The Zolotov Affair they've got on the shelves!

Although knowledge of the first "Blacula" movie is pretty well widespread, even by those who have never actually watched it, the sequel "Scream Blacula Scream" is mostly unknown even by fans of the first movie. The reason for it is pretty obvious when having watched it: It's not a very good movie. Though the returning William Marshall brings with him the instant charisma he brought to the first movie, his actual performance often comes across like he's phoning it in. And Pam Grier lacks the spunk she brought to the movies where she was the headlining star. I think the lack of enthusiasm by the actors comes from the fact that the script is kind of a mess. For example, it's not made really clear why Blacula was resurrected from the dead, and it remains a mystery what his plans are until near the end of the movie. And the direction by Bob Kelljan lacks the - ahem - bite that was found in the original movie; the horror sequences, for one thing, come across as routine and flat. One of the better scenes in the movie is where Blacula is outraged at the sight of two people of his race pimping out an African-American woman. I think that had the plot gone across more along those lines - a black vampire directly confronting various aspects of modern African-American culture - the end results would have been more interesting.

William Marshall makes a second and final appearance as the vampire Blacula whom you thought might have been killed off. But he returns in this film to become part of a power play in a voodoo cult.As the queen of a cult lays dying her last act is to select Pam Grier as her successor passing over her son Richard Lawson. Lawson ain't about to have anything of that so obtains the bones of the now legendary Blacula and with a few incantations Blacula reappears. But he lets Lawson know that as a vampire and an African prince he ain't about to be doing his bidding.In fact when he hears that Grier has powers and abilities far beyond the usual voodoo black arts practitioner and she might even cure his vampirism Marshall starts seeing thing her way in the power struggle. Marshall wants Grier to start doing the voodoo she does so well. In all of this former police detective and now writer of the occult Don Mitchell tries to be the Van Helsing of the film. But he's not up to the task as Thalmus Rasulala was in the original Blacula.I guess there were no more demands for future Blacula sequels so with these two films Marshall got one of his two career roles, the other being Dr. Dengstrom in a Star Trek episode. Scream Blacula Scream was an enjoyable piece of entertainment in the horror genre.But as I said before Marshall came along too soon or he would have been James Earl Jones.

Following up "Blacula", the title vampire is resurrected by a voodoo priest, who is promptly converted into one of the undead.I think the flaw in this movie is that it is never really clear what happens to people when they are converted into vampires. Do they just retain their normal urges? Or are they mindless minions of the master vampire? This movie has it both ways.Anyway, Blacula is trying to get a cure for his Vampirism by local Voodoo priestess Pam Grier, queen of Black Exploitation films. This movie only seems to hold together in that the main characters never talk to each other. Blacula says he wants the cure immediately (despite the fact he's sucked the life out of one of her friends) and wants to talk to her the next night, but he waits three days to do it, even taking time off to banter with her boyfriend, ex-cop/art collector/publisher dude.The movie ends with a fight between vampires and cops that seems a little pointless other than the bookkeeping.