BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

GL84 After the death of his mother, a gang-member swears revenge on the newly-voted leader by resurrecting the vampire Blacula to do his bidding but longs to rid himself of his curse and as bodies start piling up everyone races to stop him before he puts his nefarious plan into motion.This one features some really great moments. One of the film's best quality is that it really raises the bar by showcasing a vampire who is struggling with his own inner blood-lust. This humanizes the main vampire character a bit by showing the lengths he is willing to take to get rid of his vampiric side. This isn't really a guy who is trying to cover up for his more dark nature, but rather is one who is warring with himself, striving to overpower his own sinister urges. Key to this success is a noticeable distinction of the two characters, from the obvious physical differences to the human persona which is affecting and interesting with how he seems cultured and amicable enough to want to genuinely mingle with modern society. Although still able to turn into the Blacula character with shadowy eyes, stark cheekbones, a frizzed out widow's peak and some wild hair-patches smeared across his face, there's a strong difference here that makes for an interesting new evolution in the vampire personality dynamic. There's even plenty of fantastic action, including a vampire woman rising from her coffin as an unsuspecting character watches in shock highlighted by a raging thunderstorm that illuminates the set sporadically, a vampiric assault on two intruders of their mansion and a quite ingenious attack on a woman who can't see him creeping up as there is no reflection in the mirror. This also includes the climatic vampires against the police fiasco set in a dark mansion as the hordes come crawling out of the mansion to stop them while the extravagant voodoo ceremony takes place alongside the action which is a highlight. Coupled with some genuinely funny lines, this one really has a lot to like about it as there isn't a lot that doesn't work. This, thankfully, puts a grateful end to the old tradition of vampires turning into bats. This is a thankful element that has been dropped and is the source of a lot of unintentional humor in the genre. For starters, they can't fly, they're not very fast, and they have the directional acumen of a moth on crack. There's a really hysterical scene in here that proves this where Blacula transforms into a bat and we can see him fluttering side by side with cars and buses on a busy metropolitan highway. Realizing that there are plenty of other ways of making more progress down the street than the way he is, he decides to forego his embarrassing flying foolishness and turns back into a human. This goofy scene alone proves that those scenes are no longer needed in vampire films. The worst problem is that the film has no clear-cut ending. It simply ends, without much fanfare or much of anything being resolved. It's quite a disappointment over the great ending that the first one had, and it lowers the film somewhat.Rated R: Language and Violence.

Wizard-8 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.

bkoganbing 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.

GroovyDoom Very camp, very strange sequel to an already outrageous movie. "Scream, Blacula, Scream" was the natural progression in the Blacula mythos: after having committed suicide by walking out into the sun in the original film, Mamuwalde (that's Blacula to you) finds himself unwillingly resurrected by a jive talking voodoo shaman who is insanely jealous of Lisa, a sexy voodoo chick played by none other than Pam Grier. Well, who wouldn't be jealous of Pam Grier? The lady does seem to have it all. But Blacula is no instrument of revenge, and pretty soon a bunch of blue-faced vampires are running around again.Mamuwalde wants to use Lisa's intense voodoo powers to perform an exorcism and remove the vampiric demon from him, perhaps rendering him human again. It's an interesting premise, and the movie is full of appealing locations and personalities. It goes wrong in the silly details though, like some hokey special effect shots of Blacula flying in bat form over Los Angeles, ending with a camp confrontation between Blacula and two jive-talking pimps who make the mistake of trying to mug him. But there's plenty of good to go around, too. The movie is full of beautiful people, both men and women, and the overall tone is very dark and frightening. The vampires violently attack their victims, and there are a number of memorable attacks that are pretty hair-raising. One finds a screaming young woman being stalked by two vampires in a large dark house; an extended chase sequence finds her confronted with both Willis and Mamuwalde, closing on her, until she faints from fright and Willis bites her.William Marshall plays Mamuwalde with his usual utter seriousness and dignity, but the movie will never truly let his character be taken seriously. Blacula apparently has been taking some tips from Count Yorga, too, because he's got a harem of vampire chicks following him around in this one. He also does that crazy thing Count Yorga did, running down the hallway toward victims with hands up in the air like claws, fangs bared, crazy look on his face. I wonder who stole it from whom? "S,B,S" seems to be considered vastly inferior by many, given its low ratings on 'net websites. Admittedly it has some serious problems, and is cursed by an unsatisfying ending that seems to just...stop...before anything really happens. But I still dug it, baby, and if you liked the first one, you probably will dig it, too.