Better than anything called "Blacula" has the right to be. William Marshall effortlessly raises the level of the film with his deep, rich voice and complete dignity. The story is goofy, yes, but goofy with depth and interesting ideas. Just great fun.

Rewatch. Competently made blaxploitation horror film with a few original wrinkles. Its main weakness is how boring and slow it frequently is, especially the unnecessary song numbers. The best part is William Marshall, a handsome 6' 5" classically trained Shakespearen actor, with a deep, rich bass voice...playing the part of "Blacula" in a cheesy blaxploitation film. Which ended up being the most memorable role of his career.

I was about to make a Blackenstein joke, and just now I found there is actually such a film. Fuck.

They only manage to put in about 5 minutes--spread across 90--of stuff with Blacula and his objects of affection, so the love story is hella weak. And why did they decide to put almost all of the funk music into a full-length song number instead of having it, y'know, play in the background a bit more? Blacula himself does turn in a convincing performance; it's a shame he doesn't have much to work with. The last shot of the film creeped me out.

The eponymous character evokes soul and dignity in abundance making for a better film than the title might lead you to expect.

The funky side of Bram Stoker

I was so pleasantly surprised at "Blacula". Don't get me wrong, it is an exploitation movie and it feels like an exploitation movie. But it was still enjoyable. William Marshall is absolutely mesmerizing as Blacula. He has so much stage presence it's ridiculous. Sure, it's not a "good" movie. I guess I would say it's a bad movie. But I still found myself enjoying it, which was something I did not expect when I went into it. Recommended as long as you're not expecting cinematic gold.

The story isn't quite good (or bad) enough to sustain interest through the entire running length, but the screenplay is decent enough and a couple of the "scare" scenes are surprisingly effective. Worth a once-through, but doesn't quite live up to the campy promise of its title.

While certainly campy, this was nowhere near as ridiculous and self-aware as I was expecting. Surprisingly well performed and borderline poignant in stray spots, with a few legitimately creepy moments as well.

A great mix of camp and scares, this film manages to be both entertaining and rather creepy at times. While the low budget and the lack of true skill somewhat hurts the picture, the film still works pretty well. Mostly as a subversion of the vampire genre, and also a blending of blackexplotation and the Hammer horror films of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Worth a viewing for fans of cult films, and those looking for a decent way to kill a couple hours.

It has that low-budget 70's charm, but it's not as funny as I expected it to be.

Just so black at times.

Blaxpoitation horror flick... You don't want to see this why???????

Abysmal blaxploitation pic.

Longtime Shakespearean thesp Marshall is excellent as a culture-shocked 18th-century African vampire. Though the pic takes an eventual turn toward the predictable, it's a better-than-average bloodsucker romp. The singer Ketty Lester, as a nipped cabbie, and vet Cook contribute memorable support.

Hilarious, but not quite hilarious enough.