Blacula (1972) KILL COUNT

Zoran Gvojic

Mike Cygan

Blacula (1972) KILL COUNT is the three hundred and thirty-sixth video of James A. Janisse's series, The Kill Count

## Overview

In 1780, African prince Prince Mamuwalde goes to Transylvania to seek the help of Count Dracula in suppressing the slave trade. Dracula refuses, however, and insults Mamuwalde by making a pass at his wife, Luva. After a scuffle with Dracula's minions, Mamuwalde is bitten by Dracula and transformed into a vampire. Dracula then curses him with the name "Blacula" and imprisons him in a sealed coffin in a crypt hidden beneath the castle while leaving Luva to die in the chamber with Blacula.

In 1972, two interior decorators, Bobby McCoy and Billy Schaffer, purchase the coffin and ship it to Los Angeles. Bobby and Billy open the coffin, only to become Blacula's first victims. At the funeral home where McCoy's body is laid, Blacula spies on mourning friends Tina Williams, her sister Michelle, and Michelle's boyfriend, Dr. Gordon Thomas, a pathologist for the Los Angeles Police Department. Blacula becomes obsessed with Tina, believing her to be the reincarnation of Luva. Thomas notices oddities with McCoy's death that he later concludes to be consistent with vampire folklore. Blacula follows Tina after leaving the funeral home but unintentionally frightens her. Tina runs away from him, and Blacula loses her when he is hit by a cab. He then kills the cabbie, Juanita Jones, turning her into a vampire.

Blacula feeds on various people he encounters, including Nancy, a photographer at the nightclub where Thomas, Michelle, and Tina celebrate Michelle's birthday, and where Blacula shows up to return Tina's purse she dropped the night before. Thomas answers a phone call from the funeral director, who informs him that McCoy's body has gone missing. Blacula asks Tina to see him again the following evening, but they are interrupted by Nancy taking a photograph of them together. Soon after, Blacula kills Nancy and destroys the photo she just developed, which shows Blacula conspicuously absent. The next evening, Blacula visits Tina at her apartment and shares how Dracula enslaved him and Luva and how he was cursed with vampirism. He and Tina then spend the night together.

Thomas, Lt. Jack Peters, and Michelle are meanwhile following the trail of murder victims, as Thomas begins to suspect a vampire of being the perpetrator. After Thomas digs up Schaffer's coffin, the corpse rises as a vampire and attacks Thomas, who fends him off and drives a stake through his heart. Thomas calls the morgue and alerts Sam, the attendant, to take Jones' body out of deep freeze and leave. Sam rolls her body out but neglects to lock the door. Jones rises and immediately attacks and kills him. Thomas and Peters arrive at the morgue to find blood smeared on the corridor wall near the payphone where Sam answered the call, but no sign of Sam himself. They walk into the exam room by the freezer, where Peters sees a sheet-covered body lying on a gurney and pulls the sheet back to reveal Jones rising to attack him. Thomas keeps her at bay with a crucifix long enough to open the window blinds and expose her to sunlight, destroying her.

That evening, Thomas, Michelle, and Tina are enjoying drinks at the club when Blacula arrives to pick Tina up. Thomas questions Blacula about vampires and makes it known that the police are planning a search for the vampire's coffin, provoking an uncomfortable Blacula and Tina to leave. Soon after, Thomas searches Nancy's house and finds a photo negative of Tina standing in front of the invisible Blacula. He correctly deduces that Blacula is the vampire they seek and that Blacula and Tina are still together. Thomas rushes to Tina's apartment, finding them embracing. Thomas and Blacula briefly struggle, but Blacula knocks Thomas unconscious and flees, killing a police officer in a nearby alley as he escapes. After McCoy is seen walking the streets of Los Angeles, Thomas, Peters, and several police officers track Blacula to his hideout. They locate a nest of several vampires there, including McCoy, and destroy them, but Blacula escapes.

Blacula hypnotizes Tina into going to his new hideout at a nearby underground chemical plant while Thomas and the police pursue him. Blacula dispatches several of the officers, but one of them accidentally shoots and mortally wounds Tina. To save her life, Blacula transforms her into a vampire. Blacula fights the police, one of whom locates the coffin, and alerts Thomas and Peters. However, Peters kills Tina with a stake, believing that Blacula would be in the coffin instead. Devastated, Blacula climbs the stairs to the roof, where the morning sun destroys him.

## Deaths

### Counted Deaths**:**

1. Prince Mamuwalde - Bitten by Count Dracula - 4 mins in
2. Luva - Condemned to die in prison by Count Dracula - 6 mins in (Last seen alive)
3. Billy Schaffer - Arm bitten by Blacula - 15 mins in
4. Bobby McCoy - Neck bitten by Blacula - 16 mins in
5. Juanita Jones - Bitten by Blacula - 25 mins in
6. Nancy - Bitten by Blacula - 45 mins in
7. Officer Barnes - Bitten by Vampire Nancy - 45 mins in
8. Vampire Billy Schaffer - Stake through heart by Gordon - 53 mins in
9. Sam - Killed by Vampire Juanita Jones - 58 mins in
10. Vampire Juanita Jones - Sunlight is the best disinfectant - 1 hr in
11. Cop on Street - Neck broken (?) by Blacula - 1 hr 8 mins in
12. Guy from Street - Found dead in warehouse - 1 hr 13 mins in
13. Cop at Warehouse - Swarmed by the undead - 1 hr 14 mins in
14. Vampire Bobby McCoy - Lit on fire by Gordon and Peters - 1 hr 14 mins in
15. Vampire Nancy - Lit on fire by Gordon and Peters - 1 hr 14 mins in
16. Unnamed Vampire - Lit on fire by Gordon and Peters - 1 hr 15 mins in
17. Vampire Cop - Lit on fire by Gordon - 1 hr 15 mins in
18. Another Vampire - Stake through the heart by Gordon - 1 hr 15 mins in
19. Cop in Chemical Plant - Neck broken by Blacula - 1 hr 23 mins in
20. Trigger Happy Cop - Beaten to death by Blacula - 1 hr 24 mins in
21. Tina Williams (/Maybe Luva re-incarnated) - Injured by gunfire, turned by Blacula - 1 hr 25 mins in
22. Cop #1 - Electrocuted in circuit board - 1 hr 26 mins in
23. Cop #2 - Tossed down a bunch of stories - 1 hr 26 mins in
24. Vampire Tina/Luva - Stake through heart from Peters and Gordon - 1 hr 28 mins in
25. "Blacula"  (Vampire Prince Mamuwalde)  - Exposed himself to the sun, head turned into maggots - 1 hr 31 mins in

### Non-Counted Deaths

* Count Dracula - Presumably died sometime between 1780 and 1972.

## Trivia

* Blacula is the oldest blaxploitation film to be covered on the Kill Count.
* This is the first 1972 movie covered on the Kill Count