Blacula

A frightening film for Friday 13th!

In this Blaxploitation classic, an 18th century African prince, turned into a vampire by Dracula, finds himself in modern day Los Angeles. Played by William Marshall, who changed the original script because he didn't believe it presented a postive image and so suggested the films 18th century, pro-black prologue: changing both Blacula's background information and name from the original Andrew Brown, to the pointedly ethnic Mamuwalde.

Blacula begins his life in 1780 as the African prince and seeks the aid of Count Dracula in suppressing the slave trade; however, Dracula (along with all of his other evils) was revealed to be a racist, and not only refused to aid the prince, but also transformed him into a vampire before sealing him inside a coffin so as to suffer an eternity of thirst for the blood of the living. The rest is at once a horror film and a musical plus a walking tour of 1970s Los Angeles, in particular the African American neighbourhood of Watts.

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