Vampires are some of the coolest and most popular monsters in the horror canon. You can fear them but also be attracted to them in a way that you can’t be attracted to a zombie or a ghost. While an argument can be made that zombies and vampires are the same archetype of fear, an argument that no less a horror master than Stephen King has put forth in his book Danse Macabre, there is a sensuality to vampires that the zombie does not have. The drinking of blood and the seduction are both horrifying and sexy at the same time. The king of the vampires and the first fictional vampire is usually thought to be a white man, Count Dracula of Transylvania, but he’s not the only vampire in the castle or in the world.
What about the vampires who are the other, even within the realm of the monsters? Black vampires have a history rich with iconic characters and films that have contributed much to the ever-evolving myth of vampirism. The films featuring Black vampires have not only given innovative ideas to the subgenre but have characters that are equal to and, in some cases, surpass the characterizations that have gone before or come after them. Even when the film isn’t stellar, the work of Black actors as vampires is frequently some of the most excellent in horror films. These characters are intelligent, charismatic, beautiful, proud, and with power that mesmerizes the audience.
On the 51st anniversary of the release of William Crain’s Blacula, starring William Marshall, let’s give thanks to the Black vampires who slay our hearts in the horror films that we love.
Prince Mamuwalde – Blacula (1972) and Scream Blacula Scream (1973)
William Crain’s film was an exploitation movie, but it was the movie that he wanted to make rather than the first script that was offered to him, which he found offensive and offensive to the dignity of the actor he wished to cast as Prince Mamuwalde. That actor was William Marshall, a theater actor who had studied at The Actor’s Studio with Sanford Meisner, worked on Broadway, played Shakespearean roles, and was an opera singer as well. Crain was a black filmmaker and successful television director. Blacula is the first black vampire to appear in a horror film.
Prince Mamuwalde, as portrayed by William Marshall, is a magnetic and debonair man, intelligent and commanding. He is everything that the Dracula in the film is not. He is disrespected by Dracula when he comes on a diplomatic mission to seek an alliance to oppose the European slave trade, and Dracula tries to seduce his beautiful wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee). Mamuwalde doesn’t cower in fear. Dracula scornfully names him Blacula and traps Luva to die in the chamber, where he leaves the Prince sealed in a coffin. You can see the themes of pride and strong senses of self in the Prince and Princess Luva’s bearing, characters, and resistance to European oppression.
The film’s themes differ from many other vampire stories because the Prince never loses faith in his identity. Mamuwalde never believes that he is anything less than Dracula or any of the characters he encounters when he is released into the modern world, even though he considers his vampirism a curse. This pride, his love for his wife Luva, and Marshall’s skills as an actor make Prince Mamuwalde / Blacula as compelling a character today as he was in 1972. I had the privilege of watching Blacula on the big screen courtesy of the American Cinematheque with director William Crain as a guest. His joy at a theater full of cinephiles eager to see his film was wonderful to see. Read more about Blacula, with interviews and analysis celebrating 50 Years Of Blacula.
Dr. Hess Green and Ganja Meda – Ganja & Hess (1973)
Filmmaker and novelist Bill Gunn was offered the chance to make a black vampire film, and he took it despite the fact, as he said, that he wasn’t really interested in doing so. He cast Duane Jones, the powerful actor from George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, as Dr. Hess Green and Marlene Clark as Ganja Meda. The film is a mystical experience with elements of magical realism. It is an art film that details the romance between the doctor who accidentally is cursed with vampirism and his assistant’s widow. He is stabbed with a ceremonial dagger by his emotionally unstable assistant, and his widow comes to find him. Dr. Green is handsome, rich, and an anthropologist studying an African nation where the people drank blood. It was rare then to show a Black man as that type of character, and essential as representation in film. Too often, intelligent and incredibly talented actors of color are forced to play roles that are stereotypes of racist and bigoted beliefs about Black people or other people of color.
The struggle within the doctor to deal with his religious beliefs and the guilt of being a vampire is the existential question that would face many vampires in films produced after Ganja and Hess. It is a torment that characters like your average Dracula never face and, I believe, was very influential in the subgenre and the vampire mythos. Duane Jones is another brilliant actor with great power but has perhaps more subtlety and more of a vulnerable quality to his performance in this film. Marlene Clark was a fashion model who became an actress. Her work as Ganja Meda is strong and beguiling. Duane Jones was a Phelps Stokes exchange scholar in Africa and taught literature and English. was the head of the English Department of Harlem Preparatory School. oversaw the literature department at Antioch College and taught at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Spike Lee remade Ganja and Hess in 2014 as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus.
Read more about how love has such a strong effect on characters in horror in BE(ware) THE SWALLOWING Love Will Tear Us Apart in The Sadness, Titane And Ganja & Hess, and more about actress Marlene Clark in Eaten Alive! Marlene Clark’s Black Femme Monsters
Akasha – Queen of the Damned (2002)
Aaliyah’s performance as Akasha, Queen of the Damned, or the progenitor of the vampire race, is, without a doubt, the best thing in the film. Without Akasha’s alluring and casually selfish and evil persona, the film wouldn’t be as entertaining as it is. Akasha doesn’t even have that much screen time since the film is ostensibly centered on the Vampire Lestat (Stuart Townshend). By some counts, it is estimated that she appears for about 20 minutes of the film, but what an impact she has. The characterization of Akasha runs away with the film entirely. It’s more interesting when she’s there and less interesting when she is not.
That is a great compliment to Aaliyah’s work, considering her youth and because she was working with actors who had a lot more acting experience. There are a lot of exciting actors in the film, but her magnetic performance blows everything else away. Her Akasha does something that actors playing vampires rarely remember to engage in. She doesn’t seem human or even interested in humans. The performance is true to the character of this ancient and arrogant Queen, content in her being and contemptuous of all others. She doesn’t even like her children all that much and doesn’t even consider them a threat. It is not only enthralling but an excellent characterization of a vampire because vampires, especially ancients, aren’t really human anymore. Her Akasha doesn’t fall into the trap many actors fall into; their immortal beings are all too human.
Maximillian –Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
Vampire In Brooklyn is a horror comedy directed by Wes Craven. We can’t neglect horror comedies, especially when said horror comedy is directed by a master of horror like Wes Craven. In this film, Eddie Murphy deploys his considerable charm as Maximillian, a Caribbean vampire who must find a Dhampir, or half-vampire with Caribbean heritage, and turn them to continue to live. It is essentially a vampire romance that follows the pattern of the story of Dracula, where an abandoned ship delivers Maximilian to New York City, just like the Demeter brought Dracula to London.
It’s a horror comedy, so it isn’t a particularly subtle film, but it is one of Murphy’s most charismatic and unselfconscious roles. He fits into the vampire persona easily. Perhaps Murphy should have done more horror films. The film was initially supposed to be a horror film played straight, and Murphy was to be more of a villain, but Wes Craven felt that the audience needed to care about the character more to make the film work. Murphy brings a real menace to the character and has a glee you can see in his eyes. It’s underrated as a vampire performance.
Blade – The #Blade Franchise (1998 – 2004)
The Daywalker. Wesley Snipes as Blade is a revelation. The actor has staked out his territory of the vampire mythos. As Blade, aka Eric Brooks, half-vampire and half-human, his work in the films is masterful underplaying. Everything that Blade feels is locked inside of him. To survive, he has had to hide every part of his human nature, all his emotions, including love. But Blade really enjoys his work destroying vampires, and that mirth is always within him. His pride is evident as he refuses even to entertain the taunts and insults of vampires and familiars. His insults, in return, are better. Even while you don’t see much on the outside, you can feel his pain when the one person he loves dies and the tentative vulnerability when he is reunited with his mother.
He is a warrior in his intense focus on his one and only goal. He is a superhero in the mythology of Marvel and on film. Capable of mercy, but only when the person deserves it. He has his code and sticks to it. Because he has the ultimate faith in himself and believes he will win, like in the philosophy of Sun Tzu, he does. There’s a reason why the Blade films were so successful: Wesley Snipes and the actors and characters he interacts with Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and Karen (N’Bushe Wright). The film is wonderfully cast, but the core is Snipes’ performance as Blade. The father-son aspect of the relationship between Whistler and Blade is that they love each other so much that Whistler is the only one who can tease Blade. Stephen Norrington, the director, and David Goyer, the screenwriter, did a great job setting up a realistic world of vampires with artful touches.
Racism does raise its head in the Blade Franchise. In Blade, the pureblood vampires are contemptuous of anyone who was not born a vampire and was “merely turned.” Deacon Frost calls Blade the slur “Uncle Tom.” In Guillermo del Toro’s sequel, Blade meets with The Blood Pack, a group of pureblood vamps who sneer at Blade because he is Black and not a pureblood. While the Blood Pack is introduced in the standard “look at this badass team” way beloved by superhero films, Blade quickly shows them who is in charge. Spoiler alert: It’s Blade. It is an excellent moment for the character because the most racist vampire, Dieter Reinhardt (Ron Perlman), only spends a few moments trying to anger the Daywalker when Blade puts a stop to his hatred. Blade counters their belief in their superiority by staying ahead of the Blood Pack and their leader, Eli Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann), never getting angry or showing his hand. He knows exactly what they are up to the whole time and allows them to play their game until it is time to spring his trap. David Goyer again wrote the script, and del Toro, who is Mexican, put even more humor into the proceedings.
It wasn’t until Blade: Trinity that Blade was treated more as a secondary character, with other new characters clearly being brought forward to continue and enlarge the mythology. Still, Wesley Snipes’ Blade was still the most compelling part of the film.
Temptress – Def by Temptation (1990)
Technically, the Temptress of Def by Temptation is a succubus, a mythical demon that seduces men with sex. As played by Cynthia Bond, Temptress is beautiful and righteous. Her victims tend to be men who are unfaithful or disrespectful of women. She can be seen as an avenging force, and Cynthia Bond plays the role well. It might seem wrong, but you can’t help but sympathize with what she has done to her first two victims. She is a much more compelling character than the male leads. As a woman, she doesn’t bother with any of the conventions that most women are coerced by. She doesn’t try to be nice; if you anger her, she will retaliate. There’s something very freeing for women in the character and the performance. Cynthia Bond as Temptress is the fantasy of revenge for women. Read more on the subject of Black Vampires in Be(ware) The Swallowing: Black Vampires In Blade, Def By Temptation And Suicide By Sunlight.
Katrina – Vamp (1986)
Grace Jones plays Katrina, an artistic dancer at a strip club who is also a vampire. Hence the name of the film. She doesn’t just dance; she enchants the patrons with her beauty and strangeness. In the role, Grace Jones uses her glamorous and huge stage presence to entice and draw the actors playing college students and the audience in. Artist Keith Haring painted her body, and Jones is terrifying and inhuman while inhabiting this character. Jones, too, understands that vampires are not human and don’t act like human beings. Her stage persona actually tends to have an ironic distance and fierceness that serves her well in this role. Like some other actors on this list, she is not in the film as much as you might hope she is, but this otherwise average film catches fire when she’s there. Read more about Katrina, Maximillian, and Akasha’s seductive ways in Be(ware) The Swallowing: Black Vampires In Vampire In Brooklyn, Vamp And Queen Of The Damned.
