Director: William Crain
Year: 1972
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Accidentally awakened in Los Angeles, an African Prince bitten by Count Dracula finds a young woman who is the reincarnation of his dead wife and woos her while leaving a trail of bodies in his path, forcing them to stop the prince before she becomes his new bride.
Review:
This was pretty good and had a lot to like about it. One of the best parts of the film is the fact that, despite the goofy title, its premise and threat are entirely straight. The vampire angle is never taken as a joke, and the camp factor is toned down compared to others that might take a similar approach due to the subject matter for once. Hearing a few jokes throughout about the cape or the accents is perfectly fine considering that the threat the vampire poses is treated with respect and fear. Also quite refreshing is the lack of overt blackness in the film that could damage it from being seen by a different audience. This could've been made with a different cast and still would be enjoyable. There's nothing in here that really distinguishes it from either crowd, and it is a major compliment to the film.
It is also a decent action film at times as he attacks a large number of victims here, upping his fear factor quite highly as well. The initial sequence that turns him into a vampire is great fun, with the initial brawl following the double-cross and his eventual entrapment, the later resurrection is quite thrilling, and the vampire attack in the graveyard is a rather enjoyable sequence. Beyond these scenes, the fun of the lengthier scenes gives this a lot to like such as the ambush in the dark-room as the initial attack occurs out of nowhere and the ensuing change into a vampire is handled well, the slow-motion attack in the morgue also gets in a nice scare as the vampire thunders down the hall teeth bared, hair whacked out and screaming like a banshee coming out of nowhere as well as the vampire attack in the warehouse which is really effective as more and more vampires crawl out of the woodwork to constantly plague the heroes, and their frequent charges are pretty creepy. The manner of dealing with them is nicely handled, providing some real action and spectacle to the proceedings.
The finale is quite nice, with a great police massacre revealing all manner of deaths for the police squad before the final revelation as the heroes come out into the sun, pulling the cape back to reveal a slowly disintegrating head with maggots crawling in the smoldering eye sockets until all that's left is the skeleton. This wasn't all that bad of a film, as there wasn't a lot here that didn't work. About the only issue is that the relationships aren't all that convincing. Knowing pretty early on that the threat isn't right, which is wisely revealed later on, it's still a little hard to believe that the characters would go into the situations with the knowledge of what's going on. Rather than be a little standoffish, there's a willingness to stay despite there being plenty of evidence to support the views. Being this and a bit of cheese, though, nothing much sticks out as being that wrong with it.
Overview: ****/5
A cheesy vampire guilty pleasure, this is a wholly fun and worthwhile genre effort that comes off incredibly well while being able to hold off a few small flaws that hold this back. Those with an appreciation for this kind of approach, who are curious about it, or who are appreciative of the era of the genre will have a lot to like, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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