Fusion of Film: Scream Blacula Scream

And greetings to you, gentle readers for Day 4 of Fusion of Film. Well we have had some thrills, chills and in general screwy flicks... So how about a sequel? Oh c'mon... Okay to relieve some of your anxiety it is not a latter A Nightmare on Elm Street because, well I don't want to put us all through that crap. I mean you are just reading it, I have to watch the piece of crap. No, this time I am reviewing a sequel to a blaxploitation horror film. Yeah imagine trying to say that five times real fast. American International Pictures brings us the continuation of Prince Mamuwalde, voodoo and some seventies funk. This is Scream Blacula Scream.

No hickeys!!!

The aging Voodoo priestess of L.A.? Is dying and Mama Loa picks her adopted daughter and apprentice Lisa Fortier (Pam Grier of The Big Doll House, Women in Cages, The Big Bird Cage, Black Mama White Mama, The Arena, Coffy, Foxy Brown and Jackie Brown) as the next Voodoo priestess and her son and blood relative Willie (Richard Lawson of Streets of Fire, Poltergeist, All My Children, Wag the Dog, Angry Boys, Royal Family Thanksgiving and Royal Family Christmas) who vows revenge, gives a false front of everything is cool, baby and hustles outta there. What a toolbox. Willie goes to a former Bokor (practicioner of black magic and zombification)of the group and buys the bones of Mamuwalde from the last film when he burned in the sunlight. The Bokor warns him of the power he is trying to enslave and he take heed but our boy again is a total tool so what could happen? Willie brings back Mamuwalde (William Marshall of Star Trek, Skullduggery, Zig Zag, Blacula, Abby, Rosetti and Ryan, Pee-wee's Playhouse, Maverick and Dinosaur Valley Girls), screws up his circle of protection and Mamuwalde puts the bite on him making him a servant of darkness. Back to life or undead, Mamuwalde walks the streets and ends up at a party former officer Justin Carter (Don Mitchell of I Dream of Jeannie, Ironside, Short Walk to Daylight, Ironside TV series, Wonder Woman, Perfume and The Return of Ironside) is an amateur archaeologist and collector of African antiquities when the prince finds a stirring, an attraction to Lisa... well given it is Pam Grier the prince may have seen Foxy Brown.

What do you mean tips are mandatory??!!!

A string of bizarre murders happen and Carter with an interest in the occult proceeds to have a look around with no one on the force really busting his chops that he is an ex-cop looking into existing homicides. Lisa's friend Gloria (Janee Michelle of The Love-Ins, The Mephisto Waltz, Scream Blacula Scream, The House on Skull Mountain and In the Heat of the Night) dies at the party has returned from "BEYOND THE GRAVE" and tries feeding on Lisa but is stopped by Mamuwalde in time. He begs Lisa to lift the vampire curse from him so he can be a normal man once more. Carter gets his former lieutenant on board with him and they prep stakes medium rare...um I mean they sharpen some wood to be driven into bodies.

Can Lisa end Mamuwalde's curse? Will he have to atone for his vampiric crimes? Can the undead serve a life sentence?

A few thoughts on the film.

So no mention of Tina or Dr. Gordon Thomas from the first film. Apparently they just up and left L.A.or maybe they went on a honeymoon as this is only a week after the first movie.

I did enjoy the film goof of Mamuwalde knowing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata that was composed in 1801 when Mamuwalde was imprisoned in his coffin around 1774 so pretty sure he never heard it, let alone had an instructor to teach him to play. No I am not a historian but my younger brother was a pianist so kinda became familiar with composers.

While there were none of the original cast from the first film, this movie's mood, setting and atmosphere holds it own and you still feel bad for Mamuwalde as he is truly cursed by Dracula all those centuries ago. Its tone is a bit softer and yes it is a bit on the cheesy but most exploitation films were lacking a huge budget to work with. All in all, not a bad movie nor was it a bad sequel.

A.K.A. Coffy A.K.A. Foxy Brown.