William Crain’s Blacula, released in 1972, was an American adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The film follows Prince Mamuwalde, an Abani African prince who went to Transylvania to seek Dracula’s help in ending the slave trade in 1780. Instead of helping Mamuwalde, Dracula turns him into a vampire, giving him the name of ‘Blacula’, and Mamuwalde lays in rest until 1972 when his coffin is bought by interior decorators in an estate sale and shipped to Los Angeles. After slaying the interior designers Dr. Gordon Thomas, a pathologist for the LAPD, begins to investigate their deaths. Blacula therefore changes the nuances of the story itself, but preserves the undercurrents of fear of foreigners by the invaded society, changing the nuances to create the same feelings in American society in the 1970s.
One of the clearest anxieties felt by Victorians was the anxiety towards foreigners, entering their nation and causing disorder and uncertainty of ones’ place within society. The story of Dracula is particularly blatant about this fear. Dracula is a nobleman from the far reaches of Eastern Europe who enters British society and wrecks havoc on those who aided him in entering the nation in the first place. Since Blacula was an adaptation, it would make sense that the general premise of the vampire as the foreigner falls in line with Dracula, since he, as an African Prince, is an undoubtedly an outsider. The anxiety towards those from the Balkans, whose culture was not understood or commonly replicated in Britain, can be compared to the lack of understanding that white Americans in the 1970s held towards both African and African American culture. Even in the trailer for the film, Blacula is pronounced Dracula’s ‘Soul Brother’, and the use of Funk for a horror movie’s soundtrack makes it clear that Blacula is different, and ‘othered’ from other horror movies.
As a film Blacula has a unique focus on the repercussions of slavery. Blacula was hailed the “Black avenger” in his film, since Mamuwalde originally sought out Dracula to end the slave trade. When he arrives in Los Angels, he is a bought good from the estate sale – making the coffin he was shipped over in even more symbolic. Mamuwalde then turns Americans into vampires, and therefore enslaving them for his dark purposes. This can be seen as a product of the slave trade, as Mamuwalde enslaves Americans before they’re given the chance to enslave him. He was unable to stop the slave trade in 1780 and therefore still holds the fears of that time period in relation to America. Once this line of thinking is worked out, it can also be applied to the original Dracula. Dracula hails from a nation untouched by the British during this period, but in the course of Britain’s history, England has invaded 90% of the world’s countries, and during this time is was an Imperial power. Dracula could therefore be seen as attempting to colonize England before it attempts to colonize him. Even when talking with Harker about his anxieties of moving to London, Dracula mentions that he is a noble in his homeland and that common people know him to be a master. Dracula does not want to give this position in society up; therefore he would attempt to exert dominance in England. By entering a country that is not his own and forcing those already there to accept him as a man of power, Dracula is colonizing England.
Through the way in which foreigners are presented and interact with their adopted societies within the vampire genre, it is apparent that they represent not only the fears of the unknown held by society, but the fear that the harm countries like Britain and America have done on to others, will be done on to themselves.
First of all, I love that a film called Blacula even exists. Your suggestion that both the original Dracula and Blacula are colonizing foreign lands as a form of vengeance is compelling, and I’m especially interested in hearing more about how the victims of both Dracula and Blacula are either similar or different. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula preys on young women, Lucy being the most notable example. You mention that Blacula “enslaves” Americans in a sense by turning them into vampires; are his victims also mostly women, or does Blacula’s goal seem to be just about race? Really interesting post!
This reversal of fears is a fascinating take on Dracula. Both Stoker’s work and the adaptation in Blacula make the fears of the imperialist power blatantly clear – the conquered peoples that we don’t understand may turn upon us. But the fears of the othered character are equally valid. It makes sense that Dracula wants to be powerful in England and that Blacula wants to enslave white Americans before they themselves were over run by these powers. This makes me wonder if there are any adaptations of the vampire narrative that portray the vampire with invasion fears as the protagonist?
This is so interesting especially in terms of the “reverse invasion” that English colonials and many modern Americans fear so much. In both Dracula and Blacula (which could be either a farcical parody or a seriously scary film? I’m unclear), the idea of reverse invasion, of the colonizers coming to your land and terrorizing it, involves fear that the invaders are somehow doing something to what used to be yours. Dracula turns women into vampires (a disease-related fear) while Blacula brings a culture that many people in the 60s and 70s were radically uncomfortable with. The reverse invasion isn’t only these other people coming to your place; it’s also their changes to it, destroying normality.