And it kind of emphasizes the camp more than
like the suspense and the action. Like when Mama
Walde is like throwing water barrels on people
and it's like, oh, this is like the 1960s Batman.
They're mild gripes for like a very, again, influential
movie. Well, everybody, welcome to Camp Kaiju
Monster Movie Podcast. We are your hosts, Vincent
Hannum. And Matt Levine. And we are talking about
all of our favorite monster movies, the good,
the bad, and the downright campy, and asking
if they stand the test of time. Traditional Kaiju,
creature features, space invaders, the supernatural,
and everything in between. All strange beasts
welcome here. Camp Kaiju is brought to you by
Zack Linder and the Zack Pack, powered by Coldwell
Banker Realty. Whether you're looking for your
dream home, a savvy investment property, or expert
guidance in home rehab and flipping, the Zach
Pack has you covered. Check the links in the
show notes for more information. You shall be...
Blackula. Blackula. The Black Avenger. Rising
from his... To fill the night with horror. Blackula.
Dracula's soul brother. Deadlier even than he.
You know, he is a strange dude. You're a nut
that ran in front of my cab. You're the only
imbecile on this street. Boy. Black River. Look
at me. You found me. He's got to be around here
somewhere. I mean, now listen. Well, you take
your hands off of me. I don't know you. He thirsts
for your blood. He hungers for your soul. young
bodies will feed his hunger. Hot, fresh blood
will quench his awful thirst. Thank you. I'm
bloody married. Are you, um, into the occult?
No! How about the, uh, heavy stuff? What do you
think of vampires? Vampires? I think they're
possibly the most fascinating of all. And Dracula.
The Black Avenger. Black Dracula. From American
International Pictures. Guys, we are met. We're
in our sixth year here of Camp Kaiju. We are
over 150 episodes, 160 episodes. And I hate to
admit it, we're finally getting to not just Blackula,
but... I will admit, we're finally getting to
a black powerhouse film with all black cast.
I shouldn't say all black, but predominantly
black cast, black filmmakers. It's long overdue,
but I'm so excited to talk about it. And to help
us break it down is the one and only Sean Pryor.
Hey, Sean, thank you for joining us. Always a
pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Like, listen, like anytime I can come to the
camp, like it's, it always like, you know, it
helps my soul, helps my spirit. And so like,
you know, and because of y 'all, I got to watch
Blackula again for like the first time in like
three years. So that's all, that's always, that's
always a good thing, you know? So yeah, I'm excited
to talk about the movie tonight. Sorry, I'll
tell you. And I mean this, you really are one
of the best things to come out of this podcast.
your collaboration and your solidarity. When
we talk about real life horrors, not fun, but
we appreciate your support. So thank you for,
for the, for being a friend, friend of the pod,
friend of us. You're more than welcome. Like,
listen, man, like we're all in this together.
You know what I mean? And you know, like none
of us are free until all of us are free. And
don't worry, I won't get too heavy talking about
the language of oppressors at this time. We'll
get into it. Yes, yes, we will. Yes, we will.
But no, friendship is just something that's very
important to me. People I strike a chord with,
that I can build a rapport with. It's not about
the whole giving and getting. It's just about
love and respect. And so when y 'all invited
me to the show for Kaiju Unleashed all those
years ago, Like that was that was a moment that
like it left such a good feeling in my heart.
I was like, I got to keep in touch with these
dudes. It's like if I don't, it's like if I don't,
I won't feel right. You know, I was like, I just
won't feel right. And like I said, y 'all are
just, you know, really, really good, really good
people. And y 'all got big hearts. And, you know,
like to be able to vibe with y 'all and stuff
like, you know, stuff like this and like whether
it be Godzilla, Blackula, you know. Robot jocks,
you know what I mean? Like all that stuff. Like
anytime, you know, I can we can do that. It's
a beautiful time. And one day we will all meet
like we will meet in person one day. It has to
happen. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Talk a little bit just
because you're on the show and talk about your
writing and anything you want to spread, spread
the word about to the people. Yeah, sure. As
some of your listeners know, I wrote a book about
the history of Kaiju in film and television called
Kaiju Unleashed, which covers everything from
movies to TV shows, video games, comic books,
multimedia, toys, all types of things. From Godzilla
to Rodan, from Great Grape Ape to whatever have
you, King Kong. It's all across the board. I
had such a blast writing that book. I have a
graphic novel coming out in October. It's a middle
reader's graphic novel called Fast Break about
a basketball prodigy. Her name is Michaela. And
her mother, Michaela's mother, gets the job of
a lifetime. So they move across town right before
basketball season starts. So she goes to a new
school. The basketball coach won't let her try
out for the team because the coach already has
her team ready. And and so she ends up joining
this like new league was a coed league. But like,
you know, she's like, is this going to be beneath
me? Because she's such an amazing basketball
player. But really, it ends up being that she
needs that team more than the team needs her.
And it's also a story. It's also a story that
the tagline for the book is growing up as a team
effort. And so like that book has been in the
making for almost six years. And so working with
artist Del Han, who is incredible, I'm so proud
of what they have been able to do. And so when
everybody gets it, I really hope they enjoy it.
And it's available for pre -order right now.
If you go to fastbreakcomic .com. You can see,
like, the website that has, like, all the stores
that have it available. Or you can go to your
local bookstore and ask for it and preorder it
there. So, yeah, so, like, those are really the
two big things that are jumping off right now.
Everything else is I'm writing books right now
and, you know, trying to pitch some other stuff
and also get my video game life back. Same. I
had time for so many things. Yeah. Yeah, man.
Well, let's get into it. We'll get some quick
nuts and bolts out of the way. You know, this
month in Monster Movie History, we'll talk about
new and upcoming releases and our personal histories
with Blackula. Before we get into the cast, the
crew, some production history, the legacy of
this film, and then ultimately on the latter
half of this episode, we'll talk about the themes
and our own personal takes on the film. All right.
Thank you all for hanging out with us, friends.
Please rate and review this show wherever you
listen. Follow us on Patreon dot com slash Camp
Kaiju for additional videos, reviews, merchandise
and more. Special shout out to our free our Patreon
supporters who have signed up at the free level.
We still love you. I just wanted to give you
some recognition there. But I got to give special,
special thanks to our current Patreon paying
supporters. Jason, Chris, Sean, Peggy, Don, Steffi.
A new supporter, Jim Chaney. Thank you, Jim.
And our anonymous patron. The ranks are growing
here at camp, and we're very humbled and very
proud of you all and the support you give us.
So if you want to get in touch with us, leave
a comment. You can do so at campkaiju at gmail
.com, campkaijupodcast .com, Instagram, or our
voicemail number. All that in the show notes.
All right, guys. This month in monster movie
history, February. And I see Reptilicus from
1961. Mr. Kaiju Unleashed, ladies and gentlemen.
Yes, indeed. That is such an awful movie. It
is so bad. It is a riff. It's a riff -worthy
movie, for sure. The only other one that really...
I mean, because there are titles I'm familiar
with, but... The My Favorite Martian remake from
1999, where they turned the TV show into a film
and had Christopher Lloyd play the Martian. That
is one of the most that is a very bizarre film.
And it does very bizarre things like there's
a scene where because like, you know, you know,
the government's trying to capture, you know,
the Martian per se. And. The Martian gives his,
because it's one of his relatives on Earth who's
actually an Earth person he's staying with. In
the original television show, it was Bill Bixby,
but I can't remember who played that role in
the film. But this dude has a girlfriend, and
basically the Martian gives her something to
eat, which then turns her into a monster for
a moment, and then that monster eats two government
agents. And then like turns back to Norman. I'm
like, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Did she
just eat two people? And, and we're not saying
anything about this, you know? And I'm like,
I didn't know that Disney loved cannibalism so
much. I, you know, like this is wild. And so
I never watched that movie again. Cause I was
like, look, it was too far for me. And this is
a chill. This is a kids film, you know? I got
to be honest with you. I've never seen it. I've
never heard of it. But now it's at the top of
my watch list. Oh, yeah. Same. Is there like
a little like political commentary there, you
know, like the devouring of the government agents?
There has to be something behind that, right?
Oh, man. That's not subtext. No. Right. Color
me intrigued. I look forward to watching that
movie. There are a couple on this list that jump
out at me as well. You know, we recently talked
about The Abominable Snowman, a Hammer Horror
picture on the podcast with Steffi Theodora.
So I'll shout out The Gorgon from 1964, which
is another Hammer Horror picture. Probably my
favorite Hammer movie that I've seen. Those are
a little bit hit or miss for me. But this one,
The Gorgon, is like so bright and colorful. The
sets are like eye -popping and amazing. The costumes
are so... garish and over the top, but so fun
to look at. Yeah, the Gorgon is great. I like
that movie a lot. Nice. I'm going to shout out
Attack of the Crab Monsters from 1957. This is
a Roger Corman picture produced, directed by
the man. It's black and white, cheesy, but surprisingly
better than you think. He's rigged up these giant
crab puppets on wheels. Sometimes you see the
wheels. But the crab monsters are telepathic
and they communicate to these people who have
been stranded on an island. And now they're like,
oh, there's giant crab monsters around. But it
gets kind of dark in places. It goes places you
might not expect it to for all the cheesiness.
So it's not a bad way to spend an hour and a
half. Attack of the Crab Monsters. Nice. Must
have been one of the first Corman productions,
right? From 57? Pretty early on. Yeah, pretty
early on. We'll mention Corman again later on,
just in passing. But yeah. New and upcoming releases.
I'm so excited about this. Or just like monster
movie news. Are you guys fans of Kenan and Kel?
Yes. Do you know about this new movie they're
making? Kenan and Kel meet Frankenstein? Yeah.
Yes. It's legit. Yeah. I don't know. Like in
the great tradition of Abbott and Costello meet
Frankenstein. But you know they're going to do
their own thing with it. Yeah. I love Kenan and
Kel so much. Yeah, I mean, well, like, man, they
are Generation X's Abbott and Costello, if you
think about it. And the fact that, like, they
are, you know, like, they're timeless, and they're
also ageless. So I'm like, like, you know, both
of those guys should be in their 40s. should
be in their mid to late 40s, but they still look
so young. I'm like, this is how they played off
making a good Burger 2 a couple years ago. You
know? And I'm just like, this is wild. And the
thing is, everybody was happy when it came out.
When it came out, well, this is before the Ellisons
bought Paramount, but that's a whole other story
for another time. Anywho. But yeah, they still
just look so vibrant, and they're funny together.
No matter how this plays out, it's a must for
me. I have to see it. Absolutely. It might be,
I don't know, pure nostalgia bait, but I don't
care. I love those dudes. I love Frankenstein.
Let's go for it. Let's go for broke. I feel like
they should stop trying to remake all the Universal
movies just straight up, like The Mummy and all
that. Do this. Kenan and Kel meet all the different
monsters. I want to see those remakes, not a
straight up remake. You know what I mean? Years
ago, I think there was a hack of Sony, and it
was released, like internal memos, that they
were going to cross over the 21 Jump Street and
Men in Black worlds. Yeah. And I would have loved
that, but I feel like the leak kind of tanked
it all. I don't know, but that would have been
mind -blowing. My whole thing was when that got
leaked and everybody was talking about it, if
I'm a studio head, I'm like, Oh, no, this is
actually positive talk. Yes. Let's go ahead and
see if we can get this done. You know, you know,
as opposed to the Internet fooling Sony into
like re -releasing Morbius. Don't studios watch
movies? Don't they understand what we want? Or
listen to their fans, you know? Apparently not.
Never. Boy, OK. In other. Monster movie news
and other black horror movie news. Sinners made
a splash with a record amount of nominations
for this year's Oscars. Yeah. Was it 16 Oscars,
I think, in total? Something to that extent,
yes. I didn't even know that was the record.
I'm like, damn. Good for Sinners. Yeah. Amazing
movie. My fifth favorite of 2025 for whatever
that's worth. Your fifth favorite. Yeah. Yep.
I have my top 10. Like any good film nerd has
to have their list. Amazing movie. I love centers.
Oh yeah. It's, it's fantastic. Like it's like,
it didn't really have a lot of time last year
to go to the movie theater too much, but I made
time to go see centers and I'm glad that I did.
And like, Like that movie, that movie still sits
with me. Like I got, I got the Blu -ray copy
for Christmas and, and I just, man, it's like,
it tugs at your heartstrings. It scares the living
daylights out of you. It's, you know, it's cultural,
like, you know, talks about cultures and like,
you know, and just like, oh man, subculture and
music. Oh God. Like the, the whole musical journey
in that movie is amazing. It is absolutely amazing.
And Delroy Lindo, I swear, that man needs all
the awards for his performance in that film.
That whole cast is great. That whole cast was
fantastic. I love that movie so much. And such
a good movie theater movie, too, you know, like
if you haven't seen it in the theater and it's
like being re -released in the theaters soon
because of the Oscar nominations, make sure you
see in the theater because it's so stylish. It
sounds amazing. Like, you know, it's it would
be great at home as well. But like, it's just
a different experience on the big screen, you
know. Oh, yeah. Like there was a YouTube video
and I forget who Ryan Coogler was referring to
in the video, but somebody interviewed him. And
like it was like kind of like it's not a documentary
as much as him explaining to people like I film
this with kind of cameras for these kind of shots.
And it's really meant for the theater. You know,
it's meant for the theater. Yes, you can enjoy
it at home. But like these like three or four
shots here, they're filmed this way and they
fill the space. in a way that if you can watch
it at a theater, please do. And I was like, okay,
bet. I was like, I'll be there. So yeah, never
been let down from Ryan Coogler. Well, coming
up on Camp Kaiju, Matt, it's your pick, another
vampire movie. We'll keep the theme going. Yeah,
with a unique cultural perspective. So Alucarda
from 1977, which is a Mexican horror movie. I
don't know a lot about it. Juan Lopez Moctezuma
directed this film from 1977, Alucarda. From
what I've read, one of the greatest Mexican horror
movies of all time. So definitely excited for
that one. Nice, nice. And then after that, we're
going to the region of Reptilicus to Scandinavia
with a Norwegian film. called Troll Hunter from
2013. I saw this movie basically when it came
out. I've been dying to watch it again. And this
podcast is the perfect excuse to do that. So
Troll Hunter. I need to check these out because
I have not watched either of these. Oh, it's
about a giant troll. So it's a kaiju movie. It's
about a team of researchers. And I remember the
CGI being really good, actually. And they use
a lot of. I don't I'm not an expert, but like
real myth and lore surrounding trolls in Norway.
And like you have to feed it a goat to get it
out of its, you know, out from under the bridge
and all the typical fairy tale stuff. I haven't
seen it yet either. I'm excited. All right. Back
to vampires. Blackula, one of the most famous.
What are our personal histories with this here
film? I think I well, I'd only seen it for the
first time just this past week. I'd always heard
of it, Blackula, maybe just because of the zeitgeist
and pop culture. But I had never seen it. I'd
seen clips of it from a documentary that I'm
going to mention a lot, that I do mention a lot,
called Horror Noir, which is an adaptation of
a book by Dr. Robin Means Coleman, which is a
history of Blacks in American horror films from
the 1890s to the present. So it's really like
in -depth history. And in the Shudder original
adaptation of this book, they talk about Blackula
a lot with the director, William Crane. So that
was my first exposure to the movie, really. So
I was very excited to bring it to the show, Camp
Kaiju. I mean, I can go real quick just because
my like my response will also be short and then
Sean, you can take it away. But yeah, like you,
Vincent, like I had always heard about Blackula
and I'd wanted to see it for many, many years
and finally did this past week. I was a little
bit more familiar with another. vampire movie
with a unique black cultural perspective ganja
and hess which came out the following year in
1973 i've seen that movie several times i really
love that movie and but yeah for whatever reason
hadn't seen blackula until this past week so
pretty pretty much new to it aside from cultural
osmosis and you know what's kind of known throughout
the culture about this movie in the title for
me i saw this movie at home I was a child. I
was like seven years old. It was like it was
a cold Saturday. And so like, you know, I couldn't
go outside and play. And my mom was watching
TV. So I was like, oh, you know, because me and
my mom watch TV together all the time. And so
I was like, OK, well, wherever is wherever mom
is watching, I got this. It's fine. And Blackula
was starting. And I was like, well, that sounds
scary because like I'm not as I'm not a scary
movie person. That's just that's that's not me.
But like the whole time, like. I like, I didn't
leave the room. Like my eyes were constantly
fixated on the television because like, you know,
I'd never seen anything like that before, you
know, at the age of seven, I never seen that
before. Like, like, yeah. Like to see like a
predominantly black cast in a, you know, a science,
like basically a sci -fi ish, you know, horror
film. I'm like, I had never seen that. And, you
know, and like, like, cause outside of roots.
and like the jeffersons like that's the only
time i really saw like you know really you know
really like a predominantly black cast but like
i just remember being like infatuated by it and
like not feeling scared like the only time like
i would turn my head and i still do this right
now is that like when they're about to bite somebody
they just start screaming like i'm like i can't
i can't do this i can't nope it's aggressive
It's very aggressive. It's very aggressive, yes.
But besides that, even when we get to the ending,
I remember it didn't freak me out as a child.
If anything, it made me feel bad for our titular
character. But now I still feel bad. I'm like,
but that ending is just gross. But I understand
the point. But still, it's nasty. Yeah, it's
a it's a wicked bit of body horror there. Yeah,
it's an example of maybe like kind of crude special
effects, just like adding to the sort of like
horror of it, you know, because you can obviously
tell how they did it, like the lap dissolved
to like these different maybe I shouldn't give
away the ending. It is it's gruesome. And like
it's like the low budget just kind of just kind
of makes it more gruesome, I think, you know.
Who dares touch these rotting bones? Who dares
call forth the most horrible specter of the dead?
Now he's back. The Black Prince of Darkness,
Blackula. Recalled by the awesome powers of voodoo.
To stalk the earth in a new quest for blood.
Dracula's soul brother. Obsessed with vengeance.
Craving young bodies. Lusting for hot blood.
To create new victims for the legions of the
undead. you something of an edge over the rest
william marshall again as the lord of the vampires
in a relentless search for pam grid of the exciting
star of coffee i need you now he is back ever
more evil ever more fearful Blackula Scream.
The bloodiest legend of our time. Honey Casey
is Dr. Black. Hiya, Doc. No, you can't try that.
A monster he could not control had taken over
his very soul. A screaming demon rages inside,
turning him into Mr. Hyde. supernatural and super
bad that's a cross between the abominable snowman
and willie the werewolf indestructible nothing
can stop him not bombs bullets or bulldozers
no man alive could take that guy but he's on
his feet when he hits the street dr block and
mr hide his victim thinks she's tricked him but
she hasn't a prayer when he leaps through the
air Shot full of lead and he still ain't dead.
In a moment, you'll look like me. Dr. Block and
Mr. Hyde. Don't give him no sass or he'll kick
your ass. Jump out, Jack, or your skull is cracked.
The barflies are trying, but their bodies keep
flying. The dude stood tall till his butt hit
the wall. When the boys go rushing, Mr. Hyde
starts crushing. The crowd is rushing as the
blood comes gushing. There's a heel behind the
wheel when Hyde takes his ride. No man can survive
when he shifts into drive. It ain't no jive trying
to stay alive. Silky won't revive from his final
nose dive. Brother man, this situation is rapidly
becoming insalubrious. Meaning we about to stomp
a mud hole in your ass. From the first verse
to the last flyer. It's Dr. Block and Mr. Hyde.
Starring Bernie Casey, Rosalind Cash, Stu Gillum.
Directed by William Dracula Crane. Dr. Block
and Mr. Hyde. This was Abby. This was Abby. A
woman loved and in love. Until that night. when
something evil came looking for a soul to possess.
I can't stop thinking about your husband. That
creep. Forget him. Was this Abby? Now the fun
starts. Grab her. Hold her. Hear me, demon. Leave
this woman buried. Abby, rate it R. So this film
was directed by William Crane. He was 23 years
old when he directed Blackula. He was a recent
graduate of the UCLA Film School in Los Angeles.
And part of, and this is all new to me, that's
why I love doing my research, part of a movement
called the LA Rebellion. in the late 60s, early
70s, also known as the Los Angeles, the quote,
Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers. Before
the late 60s, which culturally, looking at the
United States, it's a time of major social movement.
I have a social studies license, sure. What am
I trying to say? Women's movement, black power
movement, civil rights movement. You had Vietnam,
so you had a youth movement. And you're seeing
a lot of change. And I think that is reflected
in this L .A. rebellion, as it's called, when
black enrollment increased in the late 60s and
70s at UCLA. And these filmmakers made opportunities
for themselves then in TV and film. William Crane
was among them. He doesn't have a ton of movie
credits, but a couple that stand out to me. He
was an intern on a 1971 film called Brother John,
starring Sidney Poitier. And William Crane then
later directed 1976's Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde,
which I have also heard good things about, but
I have not seen. I have forever been on the fence
with Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde. It's a film that
I truly, truly want to enjoy. I struggle with
it because for me, this person, this person,
for me, if I compare it to Blackula, and as we
continue to talk about Blackula, the film itself,
there are things that Blackula sincerely tries
to do for the betterment of Black cinema, whereas
Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, it doesn't push that
as far. it just feels tame. Okay. That's what
I'm looking for. Like I, I get it. It just feels
tame. And like, it just like hit certain stereotypes,
just hit them. And like, I, so like I, I, but
I, I want to, I want to like it, but I, I can't,
I, I just, I've, I just always, I've been forever
on the fence with it. You know, I just, it just,
for some reason it does not resonate with me.
Hmm. We can go off on a, on a blaxploitation
tangent here. Cause that's, So much a part of
this film's legacy, Blackula's legacy. And we
can unpack that term later on. But just for the
sake of conversation, what I have consumed is
kind of what you're saying, Sean. Blackula starts
this movement off very strong, this black cinema
movement of the 70s. But by the end of this movement,
maybe some of the films in what they're portraying
grow a little more tame, maybe grow a little
more... tired yeah yeah and and and some and
some of the early films in the blaxploitation
era like are like that too where it's just like
you know depending on who's producing it and
who's in front and who's behind the camera a
lot some of them can be very stereotypical but
there are some where like the actors make sure
that they have agency to make the proper changes
to make to like even even if it doesn't always
come across the way they want it it's still worth
watching. And it's also like historical, like
Pam Greer is a perfect example. You know, like
that, like the blaxploitation queen back in the
day, someone who honestly should have, should
have honestly had a better career in Hollywood
than she received, you know, like, you know,
had a, had an amazing run of blaxploitation films.
And so. But like I said, there's good in there.
Like Shaft, like Warner Brothers was like, yeah,
go ahead and spend half a million on Shaft. It's
fine. And it was a hit. It was so successful.
It got another film in. It got like, you know,
a couple, I think it got like a... a TV series
for, like, a year. You know, like, earlier in
the decade, too, like, Cotton Comes to Harlem
from 1970. Really love that movie. And it's directed
by Ossie Davis, who, of course, is a longtime
actor. And, you know, it's such a daring movie.
And that also had a low budget, but it's so entertaining
and so exciting. And, like, Sweet Sweetback's
Badass Song I really love. I think that's from
1971? Maybe it's 73? So, like, yeah, there were
movies before Blackula that were also, like,
very... Daring, but not so much in the horror
genre, though. And I think that's what Blackula
does. That's very unique. Right. And it kicks
off a good number of Black horror films. You
know. So you have your Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde. Later
on, there's Abby, which William Marshall is also
in. It's kind of like the Black version of The
Exorcist in a lot of ways. And I think that if
memory serves me correct, and I may be wrong
on this, because I... I haven't watched every
single Blaxploitation film to date, but I believe
there was a Black Frankenstein movie called Blackenstein.
Yep. And that is one I have yet to watch. But
seriously, there are fantastic films in the Blaxploitation
era. I understand some of the negativity towards
the genre, but also at the same time, so many
Black people. got opportunities from it. You
know, like to be 23 years old to direct in Blackula,
like that's like for like that time, for that
time period, that is incredible. And just a bit
bald hair, but like William Marshall, man, what
a talent. And he was a veteran of not just TV
and movies, but stage. I mean, this guy was classically
trained. Blackula. I mean, arguably is what he's
best known for. And is that because the system,
the systemic racism didn't give him a chance?
They said Poitier is our man. He should be alongside
Sidney Poitier, I think. Well, what also hurt
William Marshall was, was that during the McCarthy
era, when McCarthy was trying to stomp out communism,
also in a way. Also, in a way that America is
doing right now with the whole situation with
ICE and our current government and all this,
all these other things. Basically, what McCarthy
McCarthy McCarthy did is similar to what we're
dealing with right now. But McCarthy is like,
OK, all these people I don't like, I'm going
to put them on a list and I'll make up anything
I want about them and call them communists. And
William Marshall, who was pro black, you know,
and everything else got thrown on that list.
So. Like he's starting to peak in like 1957,
1958. And then the whole McCarthy thing happens.
The movie opportunities start to like dwindle
for like three or four years. Then he moves on
the TV and he does like, you know, spot roles
on TV, like episode of Star Trek, episode of
Gunsmoke or Bonanza, one of those two Westerns
and things like that. But, like, and then, like,
you know, with Blaxploitation there, where Blackula
brings him back. Blackula Scream, Blackula Scream,
Abby, and then I think he does, like, one or
two other movies, and then he's back in television.
And where I, like, and the thing is, is that,
like, as a kid, like, I saw him as Blackula before
I saw him as the King of Cartoons in Pee -wee's
Playhouse. But in my head, I'm like... That's
the king of cartoons. When he first shows up
in the beginning of the movie, I'm like, the
king of cartoons is in Transylvania. This is
incredible. But he deserved so much more than
what he actually received. And that goes for
a lot of actors in the Blaxploitation era. But
for each actor, it's a different reason why.
Like he was just he was blacklisted. So there
are people that would still hire him. But like
like he's a leading man. Like he's got the swagger,
the skill on stage and screen. Yeah. But you
mean to tell me this is this is this is this
is the peak right here. Right. So I'm I'm thankful.
We're all thankful he he had the opportunity
in something like Blackula. The other side of
the coin is. it's great. These black exploitation
films exist and the movement is so beautiful
and so rich, but the culture that led to its
formation in the first place was rotten and segregated.
Yeah. Yeah. And also like the studios knew it's
like, well, we don't have to pay them as much
as we pay our white counterparts, you know, and
we can film these cheap and, and on the fly and,
you know, we'll met and we'll massive probably
we'll massively profit, but. Do any of those
actors get raises if they're sequels? You know
what I mean? You know, because they probably
got stuck with like a two or three movie contract
deal. And so that money's locked in, you know.
So it doesn't matter what it makes, you know,
how much it makes. They're only paying, you know,
X, Y, Z, you know. One more thing I was thinking
of with William Crane. Sorry. Yeah, please. But
I was really fascinated to read that he was part
of the L .A. rebellion because, you know, I feel
like other directors that were part of that movement,
like Billy Woodbury, who made Blessed Little
Hearts and Charles Burnett, who made Killer of
Sheep, you know, are kind of revered figures
in American independent film history. You know,
like Killer of Sheep is seen as. one of the best
American movies of the latter half of the 20th
century, you know, and specifically of black
independent cinema. So, you know, I just think
it's fascinating and kind of unfortunate that,
I mean, those directors are fantastic and they
deserve to be remembered and, and cherished,
but like William Crane, probably a lesser known
name. And it just makes you wonder, like the
horror genre has often been undervalued and underappreciated
and kind of just seen as. and unsophisticated
and all those things. So, you know, is that the
reason why probably a lot of people don't really
remember William Crane, but many people do remember
Woodbury and Charles Burnett? You know, again,
like there should be room to like remember all
these figures, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I have a
thought, but I think I'll come back to that later
on in the episode. So the screenplay for Blackula
is by Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig. The only
other credit they have, at least according to
Letterboxd, is the sequel, Scream Blackula Scream.
Our movie Blackula is inspired by Bram Stoker's
Dracula from 1897. Although it's interesting,
I read a couple things. There's some similarities
to an 1819 novel called The Black Vampire, A
Legend of St. Domingo. by an author named Uriah
Derek Darcy. And that's about an enslaved African
in the Caribbean who has turned into a vampire
and exacts vengeance on his captors. Whether
or not that has anything to do with Blackula,
I love that I learned about an early 19th century
black vampire story. Right. Awesome. I want to
read that. I read part of it online today because
I was also really interested to hear that. I
didn't read all of it, but it jumps right into
the violence and the action. By the second page,
white slave owners are being brutally killed
by this young vampire character. I was shocked.
I would like to read the rest of it. They're
like, we're getting straight to the point. These
folks is dying now. Yeah. Like I, you know, I
was like, Oh, you know, I want to try to read
this, but maybe it's going to like gradually
work its way into the sensationalistic stuff.
But no, I was shocked like right away. It's,
it's kind of diving right into that, which makes
it pretty entertaining to read. Although again,
I didn't finish it. So that's awesome. Yeah.
All right. Cape Cod, you book club. Okay. All
right. So yeah, Sean, go for it. Okay, so executive
producers, Samuel Z. Arcoff and James B. Nicholson.
B -movie maestros from the 50s to the 1980s.
Lots of credit to American International Pictures,
who released Blackula. Some key works, Roger
Corman's Post Cycle, Frankenstein Conquers the
World, The Amazing Colossal Man, C or Q, The
Winged Serpent, The Amityville Horror, and tons
of other films. The thing about... American international
pictures, like their whole thing was like Zarkov's
whole thing is you make them cheap, get them
out fast. Let's make this money and do it again.
It's like, imagine bloom house, but with less
ethics and even cheaper. Okay. That sums it up.
Yeah. That really sums it up. And there's no
shade to bloom house. Like I really like what
they do because like they actually take legitimate
risks. You know, as opposed to like a lot of
movie studios nowadays. But like the thing, the
funny thing is, is that one thing Samuel Arcoff
had while at American International Pictures,
he had this thing called the Arcoff formula where
he took his last name and said and use like the
first like the letters in his last name and said,
OK, A is for action, exciting, entertaining drama.
R is for revolution, novel or controversial themes
and ideas. K. Killing, a modicum of violence.
O, oratory, notable dialogue and speeches. F,
fantasy, acted out fantasies common to the audience.
And then the last F, fornication, sex appeal
for young adults. You know, that's a formula
for success. And they rode that until the wheels
fell off. There was a period of time where they
really tried to become legitimate. And I'm not
saying that the Blaxploitation films aren't legitimate.
They're legitimate films. But as far as becoming
more mainstream, it's akin to when the Fox network,
I'm not talking about the news or the cable channels,
but the actual network, when they first started,
you know, it was low comedy fare. But then, like,
it picked up when, like, in Living Color, Martin,
Living Single, and, like, it became, like, Fox
became extremely Black. And but in New York undercover,
like, but it was but the ratings were good and
they were finally starting to knock on the door.
So Fox then, you know, getting all this accreditation
and love and ratings and things like that. They're
like, well, we want the NFL now. So all the black
stuff has to go. So they gentrify the channel.
Here comes the NFL. And, you know, the rest is
history. So in a lot of ways, like AIP, like
AIP. try to do the same thing, but not to not
that heavy of an extent, you know, they saw the
tail end of the black exploitation era start
to hit. And they're like, well, you know what?
How about if we do stuff like there's a film
called Westworld and I forget what studio made
Westworld. And so they were going, was it MGM
that made Westworld? Maybe. Okay. So the studio
was working on a sequel. And then the studio
was like, we don't know if we really want to
do it. And then AIP said, well, we'll do it.
We won't do it for as much as you guys want to,
but we'll pay for the rights. And I think it
was either called Astroworld or Futureworld or
something like that. And they even tried to incorporate
Yul Brynner into the movie, which makes no sense
at all. And it's like, you're trying to do a
motion picture on the level of Westworld with
less money, and you're basing it in the future.
This is not going to work. And it didn't, you
know, but like, but like, yeah, but they eventually
faded in the eighties and like, and so like,
so that's why like all these different distributors
have, like have their movies, you know, because
they went out of business, you know? So, cause
like Blackula, like I have a DVD copy. It's under
MGM slash Orion. you know, my DVD copy. So, so
yeah, man, it's wild, man. But yeah, that's,
that's what I know about, about, uh, our coffin,
uh, American international pictures. No, that's
great. I didn't know that acronym before. And
yeah, ethics aside, I think that that for like
genre filmmaking, and if you could do that, well,
I mean, Blackula has most of that stuff, but
it's done so, so sincerely so well. Yes. Yes,
it is. Yeah. Makes me wonder if Blumhouse has
a similar kind of like first letter or like,
you know, like similar kind of formula. I would
be fascinated to know what that is, if they do.
Yes. Maybe a little bit less exciting. William
Marshall, we already talked about a little bit.
He plays the African prince Mamu Walde. In the
film, in 1787, he visits Count Dracula in Transylvania
to gain support in ending the slave trade. Dracula
refuses, makes a move on Mamu Walde's wife, Luva,
and bites Mamu Walde. turning him into a vampire.
I'm sure there's something we'll talk about,
but the fact that Dracula gives Mamu Alde the
slave name, Blackula, is a very significant theme
in the movie, of course. So Dracula seals Mamu
Alde in a crypt for all eternity, and Luva is
killed. We already talked about Marshall a little
bit. He was an Emmy Award -winning actor with
a long history on TV. We already talked about
Pee -wee's Playhouse, Star Trek, Bonanza, and
many very prominent roles on the stage. He made
his Broadway debut in 1944 and understudied Boris
Karloff as Captain Hook in Peter Pan in 1950.
Can you see it? Yeah. Yes. I don't know. The
fact that they two probably met backstage, that's
like a dream come true. I'd love to be a fly
on that wall in that green room. I love the monster
movie connections that just kind of pop up out
of nowhere, you know? Yeah. Between Marshall
and Karloff. That's amazing. Yeah. Do you mind
if I talk about Venetta McGee real quick? Because
I saw her in another movie recently, coincidentally,
and I'm a big fan of hers. Oh, awesome. Please,
dude. So the movie that I saw that she was in
is called The Great Silence, the spaghetti western
from 1969, I think. It was one of her earliest
roles. And that's a really revolutionary movie.
Like explicitly, the politics are very revolutionary
and it's making allusions to Che Guevara and
Malcolm X and other figures that were recently
assassinated in the civil rights movement. So
The Great Silence is a really fascinating movie
and Venetta McGee plays the black wife of a Mexican
bandit. And there are a lot of kind of racial
subtext in that film as well. So The Great Silence,
I did want to shout that out real quick. Venetta
McGee plays Luva and Tina Williams in Blackula.
Tina is the contemporary love interest of Mama
Walde. She starred in many black films in the
1970s, including Melinda, Hammer, and Shaft in
Africa. This also is probably something we'll
talk about a little bit, but she had an ambivalent
view, maybe a negative and critical view, of
the term blaxploitation. She said that the term
blaxploitation was like racism, so you don't
have to think of the individual elements, just
the whole. Instead, McGee preferred the term
black film genre. Black film, she once said,
is the most valuable art form and picture since
Andy Warhol and Campbell's soup cans because
of the impact it made on the black community.
And I think all that is really fascinating, especially,
you know, the term blaxploitation. There are
so many kind of negative connotations to that,
I think, you know, and that can be repurposed
in a positive way. But I just like what she said
about that. Very, very insightful stuff. Yeah,
like she has such an interesting career. And
the thing is, is that once again, as a child,
like, you know, I was like, OK, this is this
is awesome. She's really cool. But there was
there was a movie with Richard Pryor called Bustin'
Loose. Yeah, I think it was Richard Pryor and
Cicely Tyson as a comedy. And so it was like
the early, early 80s. All right. So you fast
forward to 1987, Universal Pictures is like,
yo, we got a television division. Let's make
a TV show out of Bustin' Loops. We'll make it
a sitcom and we'll syndicate it. Venetta McGee
was the lead actress in that film. She was basically
playing the Cicely Tyson role, but for the sitcom.
And the sitcom is... completely different than
the actual movie itself. But like, that's where
I remember her from, you know? And so now going
back and like looking at, you know, Blackula,
I'm like, oh yeah, that's right. I'm like, there
goes Mimi Shaw. I was like, there she goes. There
she is. So like, you know, this is awesome, you
know? And like the fact that like she got to
work with like Clint Eastwood in the Iger sanction,
you know, which was like, you know, back then
in like 75, that was a big deal. you know and
so um yeah she's she had she had a heck of a
career i think she has a very nice presence in
this movie i mean maybe her character is written
doesn't have like i don't know hugely as dynamic
a role as the others but she plays her part so
well so sweetly um and you believe the love story
between her and mama walde and you know all the
kudos to her yeah very talented Yeah, I feel
like the character... Sorry, Sean, I didn't mean
to... No, no, no, no, please, please go ahead.
I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no worries. I feel like
the character, her character, Tina, could have
been maybe written with a little bit more depth.
Like, I don't know if you necessarily believe
that, like, she is so immediately, you know,
enamored with Mamu Walde, but I think her performance
does sell that idea a little bit, you know? Like,
one thing about Blackula is that even though...
You do have male and female characters that have
legitimate agency. The men still have more agency
than the women. But at the same time, there are
key scenes where, say for instance, when Mama
Walliday is talking with Tina at Tina's apartment
about them being together. and like all this
stuff and like she's real hesitant about it and
it's just like no i'm not doing that and and
then mama walliday says like basically he's like
i'm not gonna force you he's like he's like i
will he said i will not take you by force and
i will not return and he said i've lived again
to to lose you twice and i was like well damn
and then she's like okay you can stay yeah you
know but the thing is is that like William, like
William Marshall sold that he sold that, you
know, because like, and that's the thing that
like, that's the thing that gets me. Like, even
though the women don't have as much agency as
the men, there are moments where women are legitimately
respected and given their space and do. Now there
are times where they are not in the film as well,
but, but yeah, yeah. Like that, like that scene
completely fascinates me. It was so. You know,
no means no. And he's like, you're right, babe.
I'm not going to force you. And I thought that
was rather ahead of its time in a lot of ways.
And it's kind of the ideal from the Stoker novel,
too, that there is this. love between them that
transcends time, you know, that maybe she is
the reincarnation of Luva who died. So like two
centuries ago, you know, and I, part of me wants
the screenplay to like maybe develop that idea
a little bit more, but, but yeah, like the, the
performances again, really do convince you of
that, you know? Yeah. And the thing is like,
it's weird because they squeeze a lot in, in
an hour and 33, but at the same time, it feels
like you didn't get enough in an hour and 33.
It's such a weird imbalance. The club scenes
feel like filler, but even the club scenes are
really telling a story. I felt the same way.
I was like, alright, we got a dance number, we
got a song number. Maybe I would like to see
some more time with our characters. But at the
same time, I'm enjoying it. Well, the thing is,
okay, so here's the thing. So when the Hughes
Corporation sings for the first time in the club,
when the lead singer gets to the final verse
and she's like, here he comes or something like
that, it ties into Mama Walde coming into the
club. And it's like sending this warning. And
I'm like, okay, that's cute. I like that. But
still, there's a whole musical number up in this
film. Okay? There's a whole musical number up
in this film. And it really feels very Shoot
the Rodeo -ish. Okay? For those that don't know,
there's a term that filmmakers use when they
need filler for a movie. And it's called Shoot
the Rodeo. OK, so I say, for instance, like like
you feel like, OK, how can I say this? So I say,
for instance, like if you're doing a documentary
about cowboys and stuff like that and you needed
extra footage and you're at a rodeo. OK, go shoot
the rodeo. Go shoot. Go shoot the bull riding.
Go shoot the crowd. Go talk to people like just
just film as much as you can. Give me as much
filler, you know, as as you can feel as much
as you can film. And if we need to incorporate
that into the movie, we'll make it happen. Another
form of shooting the rodeo. One quick one. It's
a very, very terrible film and you should never,
ever watch it. It's called The Thing with Two
Heads. Also an AIP film. We have mentioned it
on this show before. I don't think either of
us have seen it. Okay. I'm like morbidly fascinated.
For all the wrong reasons. It is so bad. It is
so legitimately bad. I have a set of friends
who have a podcast and I went on because they
wanted to talk about that movie. It's awful.
But the thing is, the thing is, is that in the
movie, like. Cause like, I forget the two, like
Rosie Greer and I forget the white actor's name,
you know, cause like the white dude's head is
on like the black dude's body and Rosie Greer's
head is still there too. And, and then, you know,
it just doesn't make any sense at all. But anyway,
they're running away from like the police and
like, they're on like a dirt bike, like, you
know, a motorized dirt bike. And somehow they
end up in a BMX race. And literally, literally.
10 to 15 minutes of the movie is this BMX race
that no one cares about. And then they finally
leave the BMX race. Shoot the rodeo. Shoot the
rodeo. Oh, my goodness. All right. We will not
have you back for the thing with two heads. Oh,
no, no. Please bring me back because I will talk
so much trash. If we need filler on this show,
if we need to shoot the rodeo. We'll just go
to the thing with two heads. Yes. I have to say
that's like skyrocketing to the top of my list
for like when we do our like preview of the next
season, whenever that is, like it's, it's going
to be on there for sure. Oh no. Don't, don't
do this to me, Matt. We have to, it's a sacrifice
for the sake of art, you know? Yes. Just real
quickly, the cast also features Tholmus Rasulala
as Dr. Gordon Thomas. He's a medical examiner
who notices similarities in the deaths of Mamawaldi's
victims. He works as a detective with the police
to find the vampire. I was confused what his
actual role was. He says he's with the scientific
investigation division, I think, which I don't
think that exists, but it's one of the campier
elements of the movie. Another good performance,
though. He kind of plays the Van Helsing type
counterpart. Yeah. Yes. There's even like the
inevitable scene where like he and his wife or
perhaps girlfriend, Michelle, I think is her
name, right? Yes. They check out a bunch of books
on vampire lore and like the undead and everything.
I loved that. That's like a standby scene in
like vampire movies, you know? Yeah. Speaking
of Michelle, she's played by Denise Nicholas.
She's also Tina's sister, in addition to being
Dr. Thomas's girlfriend. Michelle often works
alongside Dr. Thomas to solve the mystery. Denise
Nicholas had a long career in TV, and Blackula
was her first feature film. of the of because
of the era that this movie is made is very frank
about the gay community you know and like there's
there's a couple there's a couple of there's
a couple characters that get real frank and get
real frank with that gay slur i mean this movie
so like i understand if gen z or gen alpha is
like no i ain't watching that i get it i get
it you know but like but at the same time He's
trying to defend the gay couple that got, you
know, bitten by Mamu all day because he's like,
well, why don't you have why don't you have information
on these two? I thought y 'all had information.
Y 'all lost that information to like you lost
that information about this other black kid and
all this other stuff. He starts to really get
into that and he gets on people like like, yeah,
he can kind of be a jerk. But the thing is, he's
like, nobody's getting anything done. I need
y 'all to work so I can do my job. And I need
y 'all to take care of us like we take care of
you. And so he really does some cool stuff. Honestly,
he should have had a series of movies like Hunting
Monsters, in all sincerity. The character would
have worked. Because when that man says he's
part of the science investigative division, I
was like, Negro, you lying. There ain't no division
like that. You want there to be. And I thought,
but he was smooth though. A note I wrote down
was I could watch this man light vampires on
fire all day long. Yes. That scene was amazing.
Yes. We started so much ass. When that, when
that last police officer that got bitten was
a vampire. And like, he kept telling Peter's
like, Hey, throw it, throw it. He grabbed me
just like. Oh, I actually, that was the last
thing I watched before hopping online to talk
to y 'all. Oh, that's a good one. Good for you.
Yes. Yes. And, but no, he's like, I know he,
like he, he died early. I believe it was like
either due to cancer or kidney disease, I believe.
I can't remember, but like Denise Nicholas, first
off, Denise Nicholas, I, I, I've had a crush
on her since childhood. Like she was just beyond
beautiful. You know, for me. And so, yeah, she
did like a lot of TV work. But I'll be honest
with you, if she wanted it and if Hollywood would
have accepted it, she would have been an amazing
scream queen. Oh, yeah, I could see that. She
would have been an amazing scream queen and,
you know, and just an amazing actress, period.
Like, it breaks my heart that she didn't have
a bigger movie career than she did, because like
I tell you, man, like as a teenager. Like I heard
Denise Nicholas is going to be in a movie. I
was like, Oh, she's going to be in a movie. Which
one is it? Ghost dad. You know, and then this
is an older Denise Nicholas, which is fine. You
know, like I don't, I don't worry about that
kind of stuff, but like, I just, I loved, I love
her. And I was like, well, I guess we're going
to go see ghost dad. Huh? Got to sit through
that. Some of my favorite moments in Blackula.
And my, one of my favorite scenes is, is when
she's getting involved with. with gordon thomas
like they're at the graveyard and she's got on
her old clothes and she's getting her hands as
dirty as he is so and she sells it she just has
like a really great rounded energy like i could
be friends with her even though she is a bombshell
and way out of my league i feel like she's a
cool a cool chick yeah it just the whole the
her whole charm and whatnot like i will not say
every single word in the sentence that she said
when like when gordon when gordon thomas was
like yeah come on baby we gotta go to the graveyard
together and go dig up this body and she was
just like you ain't getting this beep going to
a graveyard tonight like like just like the chemistry
with the chemistry was there like because like
now you know rasulallah is gordon like he's really
one note he's very one note he's smooth with
it but he's very one note but denise nicholas
could bounce off of anybody yeah but when she
said that line man like i completely forgot i
just started laughing because i was like i just
said the same thing it's that chemistry 100 Yeah.
And Sean, that's basically what I was going to
say to the chemistry between those two characters.
And like, you know, even though the Gordon Thomas
character is, you know, like we said, kind of
a kind of a hard ass kind of one note. Like,
I think it's a very loving relationship between
them, like so loving that he invites her along,
like to the cemetery in the middle of the night
to dig up a corpse, you know, and like, it's
just kind of actually. refreshing in a way to
see like a very loving relationship between two
characters who are just like in it together no
matter how ridiculous it gets they're gonna like
support each other you know and i and he's like
see vampires and she's like yeah i wouldn't have
believed you and there's that kind of rapport
oh yeah it's a nice comedic and almost like sort
of heartfelt moment as like heartfelt as this
movie gets you know yeah yeah they're made for
each other yeah I feel like we've talked so much
about the backstory and the release and legacy,
but let's go through this and just see what we
haven't talked about. So the origins of this
film, William Crane has said in many an interview
that American international pictures, AIP came
to him. They said they were in the red financially
and wanted to do a quote black vampire. Now this
original script that William Crane and William
Marshall were presented. was called Count Brown's
in Town. And William Crane's quote says, it was
full of shucking and jiving. I don't feel like
I need to elaborate more on that other than to
say the tone of that script was beneath Crane
and Marshall's talents and self -respect and
sensibilities. So Crane and Marshall worked with
the producers and introduced these ideas, introduced
the backstory that... Our lead vampire was an
African prince named Mama Walde, not Andrew Brown,
which was the original name for this character,
and just really heightened, elevated the material
they were working with. The film was shot in
Los Angeles, and William Crane was the only black
crew member. He talks about this in an interview
in that aforementioned horror noir documentary.
He said, quote, he did face tangible resistance
and resentment on set. from certain members of
his crew. For example, as he retells, his assistant
director on the nightclub scene wouldn't integrate
the dancers and wouldn't listen to Crane's insistence
that he do so. Remember, Crane is the director
and the AD is refusing to integrate the dancers.
This went all the way up to the executive producer,
Sam Arkov. It should never have gotten that far.
No. But clearly, Crane got his way. Here's the
problem. This is one of the problems I have with
the black exploitation era is that going back
to agency again. Okay. Crane's the director,
but there are no other black crew members at
all, at all. Okay. Yeah. You got black actors.
You got a black director, but does that black
director actually get the power needed? to say,
I need this done without having to constantly
go back to Arkoff and be like, listen, man, y
'all want me to make this movie, but your people
aren't listening to me. So it hinders the production.
You're slowing down the production. I am honestly
surprised that both Crane and Marshall were able
to get the story changed. Because the thing is,
Count Brown's in town is right up AIP's alley.
Nothing with two heads. Yeah. Thank you. Exactly.
Yes. It's right up their alley. And so the fact
that Crane and Marshall came in with like enough
power to be like, no, no, if you want, if you
want to make money, this is what you got to do
instead. And even though, like I said, the story's
got its flaws for sure. Still, what they were
able to pull off is incredible. This is a tiny
bit of a tangent, but one of my favorite parts
of Black Klansman, the Spike Lee movie, is the
conversation about blaxploitation because that
movie's set in the early 70s. And the main character
kind of saying that he thinks it's a negative
force for African -Americans and media and kind
of reiterating a lot of these harmful stereotypes.
Or maybe I have that the other way around. I
think maybe he likes some blaxploitation films
and the one that he's seeing is a little bit
more critical of them. I haven't seen that movie
in a while. But I think that's a fascinating
conversation and maybe... I mean, Spike Lee,
he does often talk about the representation of
African Americans in film, obviously, and I just
think that part of Black Klansman maybe shed
some light on some of Black Yale a little bit.
Maybe some of the representations do seem a little
stereotypical on the surface, but to think of
what Crane and Marshall were able to do and subvert
some of those representations, which could have
been even worse, is obviously important to keep
in mind. The film was released in August 1972
to a tremendous success. It made Variety's top
films list of the year and is one of the biggest
money earners of the year. Black Hello is the
first black vampire on film. Think about all
that we know. Well, it starts with this movie.
Yeah, that's huge. Yeah, like it's it sincerely
kicks off the black the black horror genre, you
know. And it made, and like, the thing is, is
that like, you know, it made some studios say,
well, Hey, maybe this, this can work now. Granted,
how much would they be, how much would they be
willing to sacrifice to, to make that happen
is another thing. But yeah, like, but think about
it's 1972, 1972. It was 54 years ago. Yeah. Yeah.
Oh my God. Sorry, Sean. It's okay. I'm 50. So
it still hits me. I'm like, Oh God, I'm close
to it. Oh geez. Anyway, but, but still like,
if you think about it, William Marshall started
acting in the 1940s. Yeah. Okay. And so like,
and the thing is there are people acting before
him, black people acting before him, you know,
like even if we went to the, to the age and era
of Oscar Micheaux. Yeah. Legendary black. director
who like helped black people and making made
wonderful films for black audiences in a time
of segregation. You know what I mean? Yeah. Still
through all that hundreds of years, or actually
I was, I'll say a hundred something years. There's
still like, you know, from like the birth of
actual film until 1972, like black horror is
something that's just like next. It doesn't,
it doesn't exist. Yeah. I was just thinking about
this. There's mainstream Hollywood, which is
all white. And I've been watching so many poverty
row movies, you know, so bad. They're good. B
movie, Z movies, right? There actually are a
lot of black actors that pop up at these movies,
but they're not playing deep roles. They're playing,
you know, servants, comedic characters, zombies.
I just say that I don't, you know, take it for
what you will, but good and bad. And there's.
you know, and the, and the channels in which
these actors can really thrive are not that great.
It's, it's fascinating. Like, I just want to
say like the history of cinema, but when you
get into things like black cinema, there's just
so much to be mined and, and dug out of this,
out of this story. Oh yeah. Like one of the thing
is, is that like, you know, Blackula is like,
seriously, like it. like I said, for its flaws
and for its problems, because like, it does also
like have problems with like the angry black
woman syndrome when you're dealing with the cab
driver. So like, you know, and like, and when
she finally, you know, comes out of her frozen
coma to start killing folk, you know, like it's
still this angry, angry scream to the, towards
the camera. And it's like, it, it's, it's like
the full epitome of angry black woman coming
in. Okay. You know, cause like, you know, when
she hits Blackula with the taxi, which I did
laugh when that happened because once again,
I forgot. And I was just like, this is ridiculous.
And she gets out of the car. Doesn't say if you're
okay. She's like, why are you jumping in front
of my car for, you know, and like just harasses
him the whole time. And then she would have been
fine, but she had to call him boy. And, and he
was just like, well, I guess you got to die now
too. And so it's so, but like, So you have the
angry black woman issue. You also have the issue
with the way that the gay couple is treated in
the film. Because at the funeral home, the person
that runs the funeral home says that the dude's
husband is his associate. That they're not a
couple, that was his associate. And then... And
then Gordon Thomas, when he's talking with one
of the cats at the PD, LAPD, is saying, calls
that couple a gay slur. Even though he's like,
no, we need these records. Y 'all won't give
me records. Y 'all don't protect them or us.
So what do you need? I need these records to
do my job. But he's trying to help, but still
he's using negative connotations. on those characters
and the thing is is that also like with the exception
of like a couple police officers all of the vampires
are also also black so it's like so then like
it's this weird dichotomy of black people using
black people to hurt other people and so like
that plays into it too once again i still love
this i love this film through and through I love
it through and through. So when I'm criticizing
it, it comes from love. It comes from love more
than anything else. I know people really overuse
this phrase, it's complicated. But with Blackula,
it is complicated. I mean, reading about its
legacy, it is almost universally loved for what
it did for... the filmmakers and cinema following
it. But I think we wouldn't be critical thinkers
if we didn't rightly critique its flaws and its
dated elements. So yeah, that's what we're going
to do. Buckle up, everybody. Well, let's get
to our sponsor break. Open some Menia's mailbox
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notes for more information. Matt, our Menia's
mailbox is overflowing with mail. I got mail
coming in from Don, from Sean Childers, from
Jim Chaney. From our anonymous patron. And it's
a wonderful problem to have. Amazing. Yes. And
we're going to read anonymous patron's very thoughtful
email next time. So hang tight, anonymous patron.
But just for the sake of time, let's pick out
a letter from Jim Chaney. Yeah, I'll just go
ahead and read that. I don't know exactly what
Jim Chaney wrote, but he does have a recommended
double feature. If you like Blackula. um or if
you haven't seen it before and you want to check
out black ill you absolutely should jim cheney's
recommended double feature is to pair it with
vampire in brooklyn starring eddie murphy directed
by wes craven i think if i remember correctly
yes yes um yeah thank you jim that is an awesome
double feature uh vampire in brooklyn is it's
a rough movie but there's a lot to love about
it for sure oh it has oh it definitely has its
problems for sure and it's also But the thing
is, I think the thing that people remember most
is the fact they don't think about the film.
It's more of, what the hell is Eddie Murphy doing?
Yeah. You know what I mean? And the thing is,
he plays multiple characters in this film. And
so this is the precursor. A couple years after
this, Nutty Professor comes along, and he's on
top of the world again. But he wanted to do something
different. And I get it. Because, like, you know,
you kind of get tired of being put in a certain
box. And so, especially with actors, you know,
it's like, hey, can I please do something different?
But he had the pull to get it, to make it happen,
but people just weren't feeling it at all. And
the thing is, that movie's got a good cast. Mm
-hmm. That's what it's like, right? Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So it's got a heck of a cast.
So, like, Kadeem Hardison, Alan Payne, yeah,
Angela Bassett, Eddie, a bunch of other people,
too. Is it good? No, no, but I, I appreciate
what it was trying to do because like around
that time, we also got like a couple other black
scare, black horror films, you know, like, you
know, like tails, like tails from the hood and
stuff like that. So like it has its benefits
and also it's, you know, it's not. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And as much as I sorry, Vincent,
I was going to mention as much as I love Wes
Craven, probably not the right choice for that
movie. And like if it were made 10 or 20 years
later, I don't think he would have directed that
movie, but probably not the right choice for
that one. What I'm going to do is I'm going to
we you two really mentioned so many great movies
for people to check out. I'm going to share a
list definitely with our patrons. But stay tuned,
listeners, for a comprehensive list on on what
you should be checking out. All right. Peter
Lorre, he's somewhere in space and time. He's
going to talk about Poverty Row Picture called
The Phantom Speaks from 1945. According to our
Letterboxd synopsis, it reads, The spirit of
an executed murderer enters the body of a physician
and forces him to do its bidding, namely murder.
Sounds great. Great title. The Phantom Speaks.
I love it. Yes. You know, if anything, these
movies always have great titles, great synopses.
Is Peter enjoying himself overseas? Oh, yeah.
He's got a tan for the first time. Hmm. Yeah.
Hard to imagine. Pasty Peter. What? Hard to imagine.
Right? Yeah. He's like wearing one of those old
-timey one -piece bathing suits on the beach.
Oh, no. Drinking pina coladas. Roasted like a
lobster. Well, I'm glad he's finally getting
a rest. He deserved it. I think he needed it,
in fact. Most definitely. Welcome to Poverty
Row Studios on the other side of Hollywood, where
the stars were dimmer and the red carpets dripped
with blood. Together we will watch the best of
the worst. Movies known for their limited budgets,
outlandish concepts, and questionable performances.
But with enough haunted houses, zombies, ape
men, and devil bats to keep you up at night.
This is the Poverty Row Picture Show, and I dare
you to sleep through these nightmares. I am your
host, Peter Lorre. You may know me from Hitchcock's
The Man Who Knew Too Much. No, not the Jimmy
Stewart one. No, thank you very much. I was in
the first, 1934. And yes, thank you. Thank you
for watching this film, The Bachelor. I always
love hearing how much people loved my movies.
So eat your heart out, Jimmy. This one holds
a special place in my rotted heart. It was the
first English -language flick I made. My... I
mean, good grief. Well, in this bathing suit,
you wouldn't know it. Anyways, while yes, ironically,
I was never in the trenches of poverty row myself,
it sure feels like it reviewing these bad boys.
This week's picture is a Republic film called
The Phantom Speaks. It is about a convicted murderer
who is executed for his crimes, but not before.
A psychic scientist visits him and tells him
that life beyond the grave is possible. You just
need the willpower to bring your consciousness
back. And indeed, this murderer's will to enact
vengeance on his double -crossers provides enough
juju to bring him back. Don't I know the feeling?
Well, well anyways, the madman proceeds to possess
the body of the hapless scientist and compels
him to murder those dirty double -crossers. Oh
yes, listeners, terror ensues, and it's up to
a wisecracking journalist to solve the mystery
of how a dead man can commit such crimes. The
Phantom Speaks was released in 1945 to mixed
reviews. Critics praised the performances, hauled
out the derivative story. Yes, as interesting
as this blend of crime and the supernatural is,
it was a common theme back in the day. In fact,
Phantom Speaks seems to go beyond merely innocent
riffing and appears to totally rip off the universal
picture Black Friday, in which Boris Karloff
plays the murderer's spirit and bumps Bela Lugosi
off along the way. Yes, both movies even share
actors and specific plot points. It is wild.
Additionally, anytime a consciousness possesses
the living from malevolent deeds, you are going
to remember that Kurt Siadmak novel. Yes, Donovan's
brain strikes again. As well as the Poverty Row
adaptation, The Lady and the Monster, also from
Republic. It appears as if the folks at Republic
could not let the good thing, or in this case,
brain, die. Nevertheless, The Phantom Speaks
presents a surprisingly polished film for the
Poverty Row. Strong acting and stylish direction
go a long way in overcoming any of the worn -out
tropes. You certainly can't go wrong with this
one. I mean, I know the bar is low, but trust
me, because you know what we're going to do next
week, Yance? We're meeting that bar where it
lies on the cold ground. Next week, the film
called The Vampire's Ghost. A little vampire
story set in the jungles of Africa. Oh. Oh, boy.
Yes. Hold on to your garlic for this one. Something
tells me Prince Mama Waldy ain't going to be
having a good time. I think the first and foremost,
the biggest theme for me that resonates as a
viewer is just this legacy of slavery and oppression
and how even from the very beginning. When Mama
Walde is interacting with Count Dracula and Dracula
condemns him to a life of quote unquote slavery
by vampirism and and curses him with the name
Blackula, which is a joke. It's a cruel joke.
It's a it's a mean spirited name that that Mama
Walde now has to live with. Okay, so, like, other
thing is, when you're talking about the whole
legacy of slavery and oppression, like, the thing
is, when you first watch the movie, like, it
takes place, like, you know, hundreds of years
ago in Transylvania. Mama Walde, Luva, and Count
Dracula are all talking. And he's like, you know,
and basically Mama Walde is like, listen, you
know, like, our people would thrive here with
your people. We could do all these amazing things.
Here's the deal. If you want this to work, here's
a list of demands. And like, you know, and so
like, you know, Mama Wad is about, you know,
hey, freeing our people, ending slavery and all
these other things. And like and even in 1972,
that's really bold. That is extremely bold on
film. That is bold to have a have a black man
say, no, if you want this to work, you will free
all of us. And then and then we can build this
great society. And, you know, and so like it's
like still to this day, every time I watch that
scene, like it gets me because it's just like.
It just really gets me. And to have Dracula just
like, hey, I ain't doing none of that. I'm just
going to let your wife rot, and I'm going to
turn you into a vampire. And so, yeah, this whole
film makes you feel something for Mama Walliday.
Because his heart is in the right place, but
now he has an insatiable thirst. And and like
he's also obsessed with the love that he lost.
And so even with even in all the evil things
he's doing, because like, you know, so much of
this, like, no, dude, this is bad. You shouldn't
do that. But you still feel for him because like
in his heart, he's a good dude. Like when when
Tina dies at the end of the film, like he just
stops fighting. He's just like. You know, I fought
for all of this for her. This is all I wanted
was her. And I just want to be left alone with
her and be happy. Now you've taken that away
from me. And instead of going on a killing spree,
he's just like, you know what? I quit. And just
walks right out into the sun. Yeah. And like,
even as a kid, that like really messed with me.
I was like, wait a minute. What do you mean he's
quitting? You know, I'm like. Ain't you going
to fire me? If you die fighting, great. You fought
for your love. No. I'm not doing this no more.
That's why I kind of wish there was not a sequel.
Because the sequel in concept, in concept, the
concept is good. The movie is not. I still got
to watch it, though. Just for William Marshall.
Oh, yeah. It's the only reason. It is the only
reason like the concept is interesting, but it
nothing like, but nothing really connects, you
know? And so, and so, yeah. So, but yeah, but
you know, and also like I said, dealing with
black power and pride and, and, you know, and
things of that nature, you know, like Gordon
Thomas is extremely pro -black, you know, you
know, as is Michelle, his girlfriend is extremely
pro -black. And Mama Walida is extremely pro
-Black. And so once again, like you said, agency
in that sense, that they are there for their
people. They want to help their people, protect
their people, protect their neighborhood. Even
when they joke about it, like Gordon Thomas is
like, man, we're going to move to the suburbs.
Yes. She says, yeah, just like last year. Yeah.
It's awesome when it says stuff like that. But
yeah, but oh, and last thing, I'm outside of
the whole, and we can all talk about together,
we talk about the masculinity, patriarchy, homosexuality
thing. We've talked about some of it, but one
thing that gets me, and I love this line, is
when Mama Walde's talking to Dracula, and after
Dracula's like, no, man, we ain't doing none
of this. You know, your people are savages, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah. And William Marshall
says, Suddenly, I find your cognac as distasteful
as your manner. Man, I got up and started clapping.
It was so dynamite. Just Marshall's ability to
deliver those lines. And, you know, I've never
disliked Dracula as much as I do in this movie.
Yeah. Because of his. juxtaposition to this very
classy man at the table, Mama Walde. I thought
that was a really interesting point in the Fangoria
article that you shared with us, Vincent. The
critic, Leah Anderson, I think is her name. She's
talking about how, you know, it's playing on
our conceptions of Dracula because there is this,
like, romantic mystique around him, you know?
Like, he's a count. He's, like, European nobility,
and he has this, like, love that he's looking
for beyond the sands of time. So, like, of course,
Dracula is, like... persistent figure in like
our cultural consciousness and Blackula right
off the way, like, you know, less than five minutes
into the movie is like, no, he would be a slave
owner. He would be like a vile racist, probably
horrible person, you know? And like, you know,
Blackula makes that point right away and you're
like, oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Why
did I never think about that? You know? And that's
like, I love the first five minutes of this movie.
So maybe foreshadowing a little bit of my criticism
of the film, I think maybe there could have been
more of that commentary throughout. But at the
same time, I think a lot of that commentary is
implicit, you know? And I think if the movie
was about sort of inequities in Los Angeles in
the early 70s, it would just be a very different
film, you know? So I'm kind of of two minds about
that. But like the opening scene is really incredible.
And again, just makes you rethink this. really
huge figure in like horror history you know maybe
in ways that a lot of people haven't thought
of before yeah on that note why don't we just
get to our our individual breakdowns the good
the bad and the campy with this film you cannot
deny the historical importance particularly in
the realm of black horror cinema just like really
a groundbreaking influential movie and in some
ways You know, I mean, we already talked about
this, but Black Horse Cinema leads back to this
movie, at least in the American perspective of
it. And yeah, I want to hear more what you guys
think. So there's more that I like about it,
but I'm just going to leave it at that for now.
Let's see here. Like a lot of, some of the good
things, William Marshall, just amazing in the
entire film from start to finish. Like even to
the point where it's a low budget film, but like
towards that final act, After Gordon burns all
those vampires, throwing those firebombs, Mama
Walde shows up. But the way he enters the scene,
it makes you think that he's just transformed
from a bat to a human and he lands, like he just
finished flying. To do that with no special effect,
it's a real cheap and easy thing to do, but he
made it look smooth, though. Even when they turn
him into a bat, let's low budget. It's still
freaking cool. Okay. Cause I didn't expect them
to do that. I didn't. I love all the bat stuff
in this movie. It looks great. Yeah. The, the,
the credit sequence, the, the, the opening credit,
like the credit sequence where like, you have
like basically like a drop of blood turning into
a person or like, and it becomes like, and like,
you see like, like a little vampire bat and it
becomes like this game of like Pac -Man and whatnot.
This constant. thirst for blood. The opening
credits are great. But the other thing, and this
is just me being silly, but in the beginning,
after he gets into that argument with Dracula
and Dracula's goons come in, William Marshall
starts fighting, and he does the Captain Kirk,
I'm going to hold this one hand, I'm going to
hold my fist with one hand and bow and hit you
on the back and make you fall. Whoa. When he,
when he did the Kirk punch. Oh man. It made me
so, it just like, I got hype. I got so hype.
I was like, man, whoop all these dudes asses,
please. But no, but in Denise, Nicholas, Veneta
McGee, they're amazing. Thomas Russell, Russell
Lala. Uh, fantastic. Yeah. You know? So yeah,
like, yeah, that's, those are a lot of the good
thing. Like I got more, but that's where I'll
stop. Yeah. I think this movie for me. It's an
actor's showpiece. I think the cast is so, the
chemistry is so tight, the ensemble. I mean,
the script, I don't think, like the script might
be some of the weakest stuff, but the actors
are supported by their director too. I think
William Crane. I was immediately taken by how
much time his camera just lingers on William
Marshall. The first time Marshall comes out of
the coffin. In 20th century LA, he's in this
warehouse. Crane just lets Marshall do his thing.
You see the actor realize, I'm in a new place.
You see the actor breathe air for the first time
in 150 years. And it's just really tender. All
the moments, William Crane just lets breathe,
just lets the actors do their thing. And then
there's the technical stuff with the camera.
There's so many visual shots and components to
this movie, but the one that always stands out,
I think, is when the cab driver, Juanita, she's
the vampire and she's thawed out and she comes
running down the hall. That's a clip you always
see in clip shows, but William Crane had special
delivered a high -speed camera to shoot that
one moment in slow motion as she's running towards
the camera screaming. And yeah, I mean, it's
a frightening moment of the undead coming at
you. So I think William Crane is directing the
hell out of this movie, and the actors are so
natural in this movie. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like
I didn't say a lot of my good category, so can
I just add on real quick to what I said before?
Please. It's basically what you said. I think
the actors really do add a lot of personality
and depth to even supporting characters. And
I think one example of that is the woman who
works at the nightclub who, you know, she's kind
of like, she's taking pictures. She's like going
from one table to another and like taking pictures
that she then sells to the patrons of the nightclub.
But I was just surprised that there's this subplot
featuring her where then she goes back to her
darkroom and she develops a picture of Tina and
Mama Walde, but he doesn't show up in the picture.
And then she becomes one of his victims. And
I just loved that. you know, she seemed at first
like a throwaway supporting character, but like
she has a lot of personality. Like she lives
apparently right next door to this nightclub.
And I was like, Oh, that's, I want to know more
about this person, you know? And then of course
it's like, she's dispatched pretty quickly. So
that's sad. But like, you know, I, yeah, I like
the actors and I just like how this picks up
on what you were saying, Vincent, but just like
this movie seems to have. compassion for its
characters and like it treats them not as just
like victims but like you know what it actually
kind of cares about what they're going through
in some cases not in all of them yeah yeah critiques
of the film i will say once again the use of
gay slurs is not a good thing you know and i
know that's a that is a legitimate product of
its time But the movie does have issues with
homosexuality. It also has issues with, even
though the ladies in the film do have a form
of agency, it's still less than the men have
in the film. Even though the women are assertive,
they are, and they are assertive. They make their
own decisions and their own choices and whatnot.
But still, the men still have more agency than
they do. So that's an issue too. But once again,
that is also a product of its time. That's a
product of its time. So I get it. But those would
be the bad things. And besides that, the fact
that they were going to make Count Brown in town.
You know, which just sounds like such a horrible
idea. Like, that gets stuffed in the bad bag,
and then that bag gets crumbled and lit on fire.
Gladly, yeah. But I didn't, like, intellectually,
I'm watching the movie, and I'm like, okay, maybe
this is a filler scene. I would like to see a
little bit more of this character, and oh, that
was an interesting dynamic. Let's dig into that
a little bit more. But by the end of the movie,
I was like, I mean, they didn't ultimately distract
me from what I was watching because I was feeling
it was a choice to meander with certain characters.
It was a choice to just give us a flavor of this
or that. So I could come up with bad things,
but I didn't really have any bad things with
this movie. I totally agree with everything you
said. The script could have been improved on
in certain ways, I think. And again, I loved
the opening scene. And then I think that introduces
so many fascinating subtexts to the movie. But
then I think for much of the film's running time,
there isn't a lot of that. I know I kind of already
alluded to this, but I might have preferred a
little bit more emphasis on the social and political
commentary. But again, you can read that into
it, like some of the stuff about sort of police
ineptitude when it comes to gay and black characters
like that's there. And I think, you know, you
can like that's an overt theme of the movie.
And there are some other themes that you can
read into it as well. You know, with like very
low budget films, I'm always kind of a little
bit ambivalent. I love what resourceful filmmakers
can do on a low budget. And maybe at the same
time, I would like a little bit more polish and
craft to some of the scenes, especially in like
the water treatment plant, I think is where it's
filmed at the end. Like there could have been
some really exciting moments. And it kind of
emphasizes the camp more than like the suspense
and the action. Like when Mama Walde is like
throwing water barrels on people and it's like,
oh, this is like the 1966 Batman. So, but that's,
you know, that's the camp and the pleasure of
it too at the same time. So I can't criticize
the movie too much for that. Yeah, those, you
know, they're mild gripes for like a very, again,
influential movie. Yeah, you're on the money
with that. Mama Walde throwing barrels. I thought,
is this what he would do? He's a little more
dignified than that. Right. He has no problem
just grabbing somebody and literally backhanding
them. Because when he backhand slapped Gordon
Thomas, man, I laughed so hard because Gordon
Thomas did a spin and hit that couch like, oh.
I recently watched the movie three, the hard
way. I don't know if you guys have seen that.
It's a blaxploitation movie that has like, it's
fun. It's a very fun movie, but like the action
scenes, you can tell it's like, I just fight
in front of the camera. We're not going to choreograph
it at all. Like even Jim Kelly, who plays a karate
expert in that movie. I don't know if they choreographed
any of the fight scenes. So it's like, it's very
entertaining. It's very amusing, but it's like,
Oh, I might've liked to see an actual action
scene here as well. You know? Yeah. Yes. It's
so entertaining at the same time. Yeah, I never
I never get tired of him throwing the barrels,
though, even though it doesn't even though it
doesn't fit with everything else this man has
done in this film. You know, he normally just
lays hands on you. That's it. And bites you.
Oh, man, I got through these barrels, though.
Also, he's also at the end of his rope. Like
he knows his time is short. I mean, yeah, even
even Mama Walde can be like a rat in a corner.
He's just like, I'm desperate. Yeah. So you could
read it. You could read that narrative into it
too. Like what else are you going to do? Yeah.
Yeah. Final act of rage. Well, we're talking
about a lot of campy things. I'll add the, the
medical assistant with the hook for a hand. Yes.
Like why not? The actor went to props or costumes
and said, can I get a hook? And crane probably
said, yeah, let's put a hook on you. I love that.
I love when. Mama Walde orders a Bloody Mary
at the nightclub. It's almost, it's too on the
nose, but it's also perfect. Yeah, I love that.
I love the white police officer. I think his
name is Peters. He really does seem inept. No
shade to that actor, but his lack of emotion,
especially in that scene. Sean, you were talking
about this before, but he just cannot throw that
Molotov cocktail bomb or whatever it is, and
he's just standing there. I'm sure he's flummoxed
by the vampires that have come out of nowhere,
but still, that actor's performance, I love just
how... Blank faced it is. That's a very campy
moment to me. Gordon Thomas is like, listen,
I'm not dying tonight because of you. Get out
of the way, man. Oh, man. As far as the camp
goes, there's tons of it. There's tons of it.
Y 'all have had perfect examples. But the thing
for me, as far as camping, it's not that it's
really campy. I just really love... william marshall's
like a lot of william marshall's lines are just
so spot on they fit the mood every time before
he said you know suddenly i find your cognac
as distasteful as your manner like he was like
sir are you ill see like stuff like that is just
dope like and like he just the word he like when
um with gordon thomas and mama wall they start
talking about vampires Yeah. Like you could cut
the tension with a knife. That's that. Yeah.
Like it's perfect. It's the classic. It's the
Dracula Van Helsing dynamic you want in a Dracula
movie, right? They're sitting at a table pretending
everything is normal, but underneath they're
just jabbing at each other. Oh, so juicy. That's
a great scene. Love it. Yes. Yeah, absolutely.
Matt, I might have to watch this again the night
after I get off this call. I'm telling you, I
might buy this movie after we get off this call.
I don't know if it's going to be easy to find.
Now, you might be able to find, like, a DVD pretty
cheap at, like, you know, like a used DVD place.
Like, a couple years ago, actually, it was longer
than a couple years ago, there was a re -release
on Blu -ray that came with both Blackula and
Scream Blackula Screen. But it was a short print
run. So, actually, let me go look right now.
Let's see. Okay. And Blackula Blu -ray. Be my
buddy. Just be my buddy and say that like it's
been re -released again. I mean, I've seen it
on eBay and stuff, but yeah, it's weirdly hard
to come by. Yeah. Okay. So Shot Factory under
their Scream division had put it out. And so
like, it's kind of difficult to get now. So like
price averages between 50 to 70, a hundred dollars,
but, but like overseas, if you've, if you've
got a region free Blu -ray player, there's a
Blackula complete collection for like $20. I
think that's where I got hung up on the, on the
regions. Yeah. Why that is needlessly complicated.
Oh, very complicated. Very, very complicated.
So yes. But, so yeah, sorry. I didn't mean to
put us on a tangent. Like when we start talking
about Blu -rays and stuff, I get excited. So,
you know. Totally. No worries. Well, let's give
our final thoughts, our final ratings. Matt,
take us away. Set us up. Yeah, absolutely. As
always, at the end of Camp Kaiju, we give the
film a rating. Our rating system is, number one,
it's a timeless classic. It definitely stands
the test of time. Our second rating, there may
be some antiquated moments, but overall it's
great. It stands the test of time. Number three,
it may be historically significant or just fun,
but it does not stand the test of time. And our
lowest rating, it's not worth revisiting. It
definitely does not stand the test of time. Well,
I can real quick kick us off. I'll keep it brief
and then turn it over to you guys. For me, there
may be some antiquated moments. There definitely
are antiquated moments, and we've already talked
about some of the offensive dated moments that
some modern audiences may have issues with, and
there are some other flaws as well. But it stands
the test of time. It is such an influential movie,
and there are so many little things beyond that
historical importance to recommend, little surprises
here and there that are surprising and sometimes
delightful, sometimes darkly delightful. You
know, I have to agree with Matt. There may be
some antiquated moments, but overall, it's great.
It stands the test of time. I mean, I can never
be disrespectful to this movie for everything
that it's done in the history of cinema. You
know, like, come on, man. Like, if there isn't
a Blackula, does Jordan Peele... start making
horror movies after he decides like acting ain't,
you know, he's like, I'm not doing this acting
stuff no more. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah.
You know, and like, and the thing is, is that
we've had like, you know, so many like black
directors since William Crane, you know, and
like, you know, so, you know, so like, you know,
there's so much influence in this film and, you
know, outside of the story, outside of the campiness
and everything else. Like it's a classic. It
is absolute classic. Like I can't give a time.
It's classic because of some of the things that
it says in the film, but, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It stands the test of time. I love this movie.
I couldn't agree more. I fell in love with this
movie right off the bat. I'd like this kicks
so much, but, and it's so well done and it's
got so much heart, but the very definition of
antiquated moments is in this movie with the
language. And so, like, really unforgivable.
It's dated. But don't let that stop you from
watching it. Right. It is the legacy and the
influence is monumental. And I don't think enough
people real. And I'm going to include myself
in this group of people in the world who have
heard Blackula and they think it's a joke. Even
I watch this movie on the Roku channel. Forgive
me. But on the. The title on the screen and then
underneath, it's got the running time, it's got
the director and then it's got like the genres
and it says horror and hilarious. Right. And
I'm like, this isn't actually a funny movie.
It can't be right, but it's not a comedy. But
I think that's the reputation it has to Joe Schmo
on the street. And I think that's a mistake.
And I think people should watch this and understand
the historical impact and the artistry involved
with this film and the talent involved. So it's
a classic through and through, despite some antiquated
moments. Sean, thank you so much, man, for joining
us on this. This conversation wouldn't have been
what it was without you and Matt. I just want
to thank you for your research and your know
-how. Thank you guys for making the show what
it is. Thank you for hanging out with us, friends.
What a fang -tastic episode with Sean Pryor.
Please check out his books and his work and his
writings in our show notes, along with some in
-depth reviews of Blackula. We'd love to continue
this conversation over on patreon .com slash
campkaiju, over on Instagram at campkaiju at
gmail .com, campkaijupodcast .com. Leave a voicemail
with our number, 612 -470 -261. and let us know
what you think about Blackula or any of the other
films mentioned in this episode. Or what you
think about the upcoming episode, Alucarda, a
1977 supernatural horror film from Mexico. It
looks downright diabolical. Can't wait. Let's
see what you think about it. Camp Kaiju is recorded
in Minneapolis, St. Paul with Menia's Mailbox
Music by Ben Cook -Felps. Thanks, friends. And
until next time, stay campy. Camp Kaiju is brought
to you by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack powered
by Coldwell Banker Realty. Whether you're looking
for your dream home, a savvy investment property,
or expert guidance in home rehab and flipping,
the Zach Pack has you covered. Check the link
in the show notes for more information. You find
merit in barbarity and barbarous from the standpoint
of a slave, perhaps. Intriguing. I'm delightful
for mine. I would willingly pay for so beautiful
an addition to my household as your delicious
wife. Sir, are you ill? Oh, I meant no insult,
Prince. It is a compliment for a man of my station
to look with desire on one of your color. Sir,
I certainly find your cognac as distasteful as
your manner. You're behaving like some animal.
Really? Really.