Transcript
Speaker: So hello and welcome to part two of Blackular 1972 by Morgan Kitty, a horror shad. This episode will be going into the context of the film and as this was a Kitty chosen film she will obviously have more context and input so I shall go over to Kitty. Thank you very much. So as I think we really did mention quite a lot
Speaker: This is a blaxploitation film. Yes. So what does blaxploitation mean? The exploitation film movement is basically this kind of movement of cinema where exploitation film tries to exploit current trends, niche genres or lurid content. Is this actually the kind of idea of an exploitation film?
Speaker: Last episode that I hosted, we talked about the Haze Code. A lot of kind of exploitation cinema was because the Haze Code was kind of phasing out. People were able to do these kind of saucy and provocative things in cinema. And with that kind of came this idea of niching and making things specific.
Speaker: How much about exploitation film do you know? I know a little, I know it started the whole, I know Black exploitation, that the exploitation of the Black community, it really hit the ground running in the 70s from, I think it was from this film. There are other films that predate. Ah, okay. For sure, for sure. Well, I read as a link, it was that it was from this film.
Speaker: um but it's yeah this is one of the most iconic black exploitation films like it really did um shake the shaker genre yeah and it's the exploitation of the black community through film and tv and it's a film it's a type of it perpetuates and it exaggerates the stereotypes of the community so you're kind of going more into
Speaker: Black exploitation as a whole, yes. I'm thinking exploitation in general, exploitation cinema in general. So yes, it is that idea of exploiting current trends and niche genres. So it's that idea of cornering a market. For profit. Yeah, for profit. We want to
Speaker: And, you know, to an extent exploitation cinema has never ended. You have very much kind of... I feel like I mentioned Moxie. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Moxie was recently mentioned. Yeah, that's like feminist. That's feminist exploitation cinema. We know like, you know, girl boss films.
Speaker: It's that kind of thing of like, this is a film that is cornering the girl boss market. Yeah. This is the current trend of the time. This is the current market. We are going to use that and get money from it. Yes. And it's that idea of making a film specifically for an audience to get that audience's money. So other exploitation cinema genres, zombie films is viewed as an exploitation
Speaker: genre slashes. Sexploitation, which essentially I was researching that and it's this thing of essentially you're getting dangerously close to just like softcore porn as a film. Yes, how far can you go? Yes, one very controversial exploitation genre is the
Speaker: rape revenge films. Yeah. Last House on the Left being like a very famous one. It's that, yeah, which is a very kind of niche idea of a film. So again, that's why it falls onto the exploitation genre. This is another one, but I never knew why this is called what it's called, Spaghetti Westerns. What? You know, do you know the term Spaghetti Westerns? No.
Speaker: I have always heard spaghetti westerns and I just thought they were like westerns. About spaghetti? No, I just thought like spaghetti westerns is just like, I just hear the term spaghetti westerns and my brain just thinks that, you know, they're kind of like twangy guitar, they're all like this town ain't big enough for the both of us, but that's what I viewed.
Speaker: I just thought it was because I don't know if a twangy guitar for some reason made me, I was like, oh, that must be what it's referring to. It's Westerns made by Italian filmmakers. That's why it's Spaghetti Western. And the reason that's like Spaghetti Western is a very famous kind of genre is because Italian films in general
Speaker: were a lot more gory and violent because Hollywood had its cave code hangover still in effect and Italian films were like, fuck it, we're putting all the good shit in this. I mean, for example, Giallo. I always say Giallo, but potentially it, G -I -A -L -O. Giallo? Possibly Giallo.
Speaker: It's definitely, it's essentially yellow in Italian because pulp books had yellow front covers. So giallo like film is essentially Italian slashes and they are extremely gory. So those are like kind of a ray.
Speaker: Just to kind of show you that like exploitation cinema had various niches to various markets. But yes, one of the most famous niches was black exploitation, being a portmanteau of black exploitation. And it's where the characters have to be of the black community
Speaker: most upfront being viewed in the film it's like the protagonists and instead of like the sidekicks or the antagonists or just victims of brutality yes yes it is it is this idea that um you have to be centred on then yeah because you're making this film for the black audience you want the black audience to go to the cinema yeah you're going to put them as the primary protagonists
Speaker: The term was coined in August of 1972. That's why this film is always so closely connected to it. Okay. By Junius Griffiths, Griffin, Junius Griffin. The thing about blaxploitation and the thing that we're really going to get into is whether it is, I guess, a good or bad thing. Now, something that I think is very important to mention here and now is that
Speaker: I, for one, speaking for myself, am in no way qualified to say whether this is a good or bad thing. I am a white woman and I would never... I am not going to sit here and say to any, you know, Black person viewing Black exploitation films who feels that it is offensive, actually know this is a genre that was, you know, coin and blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Actually, some people find it offensive, some people don't find it offensive.
Speaker: It's interesting and similar to what I was saying with Freaks, important to look at these ideas. But yeah, I just, I don't know. I just wanted to kind of... Yeah, specify. And it's like, as well with myself, I am white as well. I am Welsh Maori. So on, especially heavily on the Maori side, there's family have known colonisation and
Speaker: racial hate crimes so but I'm still also white so as well so I whilst I have experience as well with this I still don't have a connection yeah and a connection to it I'm still white I am not of the pop community and yeah I'm also
Speaker: not black as this, which is what we are talking about is the black community. It's the idea of, because I know I watched this film for the second time in mid to late 19, 19, no, I'm not old, mid to late 2020 now. So much conversation was going on
Speaker: oh yeah that was around the time of George Floyd's murder yeah but I remember there was so much talk of when kind of the white community posted the blackout squares and it was very much a kind of we are not qualified to be in this conversation and a lot of the voices I heard from the black community kind of were returned
Speaker: But no, your voices need to be a boost. Yeah. And, and, and you might not be qualified for conclusions. Yeah. But the second you exit the conversation, the conversation ends. Yeah. No, you need to be a part of the conversation. Yeah. It's that thing of like, we are not qualified
Speaker: give any kind of conclusion of, so now we know that Black people should love Black exploitation cinema and there are no downsides to it. Or now we know this is a fully racist archetype that should be left in the past. And we, two white girls, have decided that that's the case. It's an interesting topic to delve into.
Speaker: And we actually had an interesting kind of session in school where, because the school I work in is like predominantly of people of colour. We had a session on like race training. One of the things that they kind of said, and it was almost kind of another thing that was, you know, that whole thing of don't step back because you feel not qualified for the conversation. It's actually a part of it. Yeah.
Speaker: the person said, sit in the uncomfortable. It's that thing of like, have the conversations, even if you're like, oh, I think I said that part right. That there was a student who said, you don't need to tell me you're not racist, because if I thought you were racist, I wouldn't have come and talked to you. Yeah, I just yeah, we just kind of thought
Speaker: That was somewhat important to say, as we were talking about Blackular. So the thing with Blacksploitation cinema is the perpetuation of the stereotypes. Often these, it's good because there are main characters that are Black people, but often those Black people are pimps, drug dealers, sex workers.
Speaker: the underbelly of society. Yeah, it's like with the Latin community or the Hispanic community, they're often viewed as drug dealers, and to do with the cocaine trade, because of stereotypes. Is that idea of kind of, if you are, yes, you're managing to be in the film, but if you're managing to be in the film as a stereotype, is that a step back? Yeah.
Speaker: have you reinforced that idea? I did make a list of kind of, as I was researching it, I was making a list of kind of pros and cons. Some of the pros I have is that many of the films have themes of black characters overcoming the man or emblems of a white majority. Yeah, you have not so much in Blackular, there are certain,
Speaker: aspects of that throughout this film but um yeah it's not heavily prevalent yeah but in a lot of um black exploitation films you do have this this kind of lone um again often drug dealer but often you know often criminal but it's just it's just often heart of gold kind of criminal who's sticking it to the white man a probe i found is it comes in many genres it's one of those things that um
Speaker: Although it's cornering the black community, it isn't just, you only enjoy this kind of film. Yeah. Like, there's, you know, there's horror with Blackular, there's like crime dramas, there was like romances, it's all genres. Yeah. Great soundtracks. That's one of my pros. Oh, yeah. This was a very great soundtrack to this film. Mm -hmm, mm -hmm.
Speaker: And these films brought popularity to black characters in mainstream cinema. You know, you have these films which are fully centred around black characters, black stories, black narratives, and they became so popular that you had kind of mainstream cinema having black characters in them. So if you didn't have these films that were truly just about black characters, you probably wouldn't have had
Speaker: a lot of others that are now. Yeah like in like in Die Hard there's the two agents and one of those agents is a black man and I know that's one of the examples that people point to of like you know like if we've had that movement yeah yeah yeah it is that idea that like um there was clearly such an audience for Black Meditation Cinema the
Speaker: directors and filmmakers started to realise, oh, we can start putting them in regular films. Yeah, but as well with Black exploitation, as well, you said with exploitation film as a whole genre with specific, like narrowing down on the niches of the time. Whilst Black exploitation was originally aimed at the Black community, Hollywood had to realise the potential of racial exploitation
Speaker: and expanded its audience across other racial and ethnic groups, as well, from this whole Black conversation movement, essentially. Yeah, yeah. You also have this idea that it allowed for exploration of various kind of, it's so strange with all the words of just kind of like how the Black struggle
Speaker: What I mean by that, and I think what people kind of tend to, in a film like Black Killer, they can talk about the Panthers, you know, the Black Panther movement. This is a horror movie, and yet organized protest movements. Yeah, revolutionary organization. Is getting mentioned.
Speaker: And whilst this film was 1972, the Black Panthers were founded in 1968 and were on the bigger rise in 68. And this is only 72, this is only a few years later, and it's already made it into film. Yeah, yeah. And also, one of my kind of, yeah, there's this film Mandigo, but it's one of the, I think, earlier
Speaker: Black exploitation films, which is often kind of cited as a bit of a, I guess this is my transition from prose to cons, often cited as being quite controversial in his depictions, but also it was, it's a film about plantation slavery. And
Speaker: it was able to show like a brutal portrayal, which was able to highlight the extreme brutality of it. Yeah. Which again is that kind of thing of, because it links perfectly with a con of slave exploitation, which is even Nisha,
Speaker: became a bit of a sensational genre, where it was all these genres about essentially slave exploitation. It was all these films about slavery, in which it was very much focusing on the black pain, as opposed to the stories where they are centered. It's focusing on the victimization.
Speaker: again we've mentioned a lot the hotbed of like drugs and crime that always tends to kind of be portraying black culture as um seedy and um then there is just the nature of the fact that it is exploitation yeah the films were created for a profit yeah they were created to bring in more money for hollywood yeah yeah
Speaker: And the thing is this profit rarely like re -entered the black community. Yeah. You were taking that out of - They didn't get any from it, yeah. Yeah. So I guess, cause I was talking about this with friends as I was kind of, I was doing my research and they were kind of asking me like, you know, we met up after I'd done this research and they were kind of like, oh, what are you being up to today? And I was kind of like,
Speaker: just spent an hour researching blaxploitation cinema and like various really dark things. And then we were talking about I was kind of trying to explain blaxploitation cinema as a kind of concept. That thing of well, it would be good if this was something that people wanted to do about it being for profit. Yeah. Which
Speaker: Yes, that would be good if people wanted to do this without profit. To a certain extent, I think we are in a capitalistic world and we do have to come to terms with the fact that profit is the drive -in motivation. Yeah, and it's the margin, it's the means. And that just made me think of the story of when I went to see Wonder Woman. I went to see, I did physics
Speaker: at university. So the majority of my friends at uni were boys. This was during the Marvel heyday. And so superhero films were a dime a dozen and male superhero films were coming out of my ears. As a friendship group, we all went to see the Wonder Woman film. And
Speaker: It's a terrible film. It's, should I say, it's a terrible film. Gal Gadot was pregnant, was filming it. Woda. Yeah. Wow. It's a film that isn't the best film. It definitely is, even in terms of like superhero movies, it's probably lower on the list of craft in the Ponzi way of saying craft, but it's Ponzi.
Speaker: homophobic, it feels like it probably is coming from the same root as poofs. Oh, do you mean? No, I've not really heard it that way. I've heard it as pansy. No pansy, definitely. Yeah. But I feel like ponsy is also a word. Probably everything we say has problematic roots, but I'm not getting stuck on that. But
Speaker: There's a moment where Wonder Woman, everyone's in the trenches, they get inhaled with bullets and missiles and Wonder Woman goes out over the trenches and walks through the mist of no man's land and it's just the most superhero moment of all time and I looked
Speaker: at a friend of mine, like there were three girls in my group. And like three girls and like 11 boys or something like that. It was, you know, ridiculous. That's what it is. And I looked over at her and she had tears in her eyes and I had tears in my eyes and it was such a beautiful hero moment. Tears of joy.
Speaker: It was just this moment of this is what it feels like to see a superhero and see yourself in them. It was that moment that like in answer to that thing that my friend said about exploitation of cinema being only for profit, yes. And yes, it would be good if they could do these things without needing a profit.
Speaker: But to a certain extent, I know Wonder Woman was made just for profit, but no one can take away that tear of joy that I had.
Speaker: seeing her walk across no man's land. Yeah it's like um when Moana came out and that's uh my re -film. Yeah yeah. And and I went to Timah with my family and my dad to watch it and it's he had tears in his eyes when watching the film. He was he felt that connection he felt
Speaker: like it was home, essentially. And it was just... Because not only is it... It's an actual myth, isn't it? Well, it's the... Okay, so it is part of it, like Maui is an actual demigod within the belief system of the Maui. And so a lot of it is centered around the belief system.
Speaker: yeah actual actual yeah and it's how he it was his hook that pulled
Speaker: Otoro, New Zealand, out of the ocean and brought up this land. And yeah, so a lot of it. And I know a lot of those, because Mary, they are part of the Polynesian Pacific Islander group. So some of the diamond gods and gods and all creation and mythos travel across through to like Hawaii, the Samoa, Tonga and a few other places as well.
Speaker: So those communities, those cultures as well would be able to see parts of their own culture and their own beliefs within that. And yeah, it is that thing of if cinema speaks to you, to a certain extent, it doesn't somewhat relate to that death of the artist question in that somewhat, as the only thing I can think of to relate to it, it's that thing of if art speaks to you,
Speaker: does it matter if it was created just for money? If art speaks to you, does it matter why it was created? Because with me and Wonder Woman, with your dad and Moana, if you have that moment, is the intention important? Which kind of feels like what we started this podcast with, that idea.
Speaker: But yeah, so that's why I think black exploitation and exploitation cinema in a wider way as well is so interesting because it is that question of technically exploitation is in the title. Yeah. And you, you haven't got reaction of exploitation bad. Yeah, because I think especially if when some films will take it the exploitation too far.
Speaker: And they don't do it respectfully. But the thing that I find with Black Exploitation Cinema is, I guess the counterpoint that I have to the fact that the Prophet was rarely re -entered back into the Black community. So many directors, so many Black directors cite Black Exploitation Cinema be in this moment for them.
Speaker: Spike Lee, who directed Black Clansmen. Have you seen the film Black Clansmen? No, but I've heard of it. It's a very good film, Cliff Notes for Black Clansmen. A very fun film, has a lot of Black's flotation elements in terms of like music. There's a whole scene where they talk about Black's flotation cinema.
Speaker: And it's essentially a film about a black man who joins the KKK to find out information to actually arrest some members. Yeah, to take it down from within. Yeah. So I would very much recommend that film. It's got, oh, is it John David Washington? If you've seen Tenet? No. He's a gorgeous man and he's in it.
Speaker: okay so you know watch it for the plot yeah watch it for the music watch it for the conversation of blaxploitation and watch it for a gorgeous man it's ticking a lot of boxes but yes spike spike lee has has often said like blaxploitation cinema is what he kind of started his love of cinema so you kind of have i guess a redemption yeah blaxploitation given that it has helped it has helped so many black men find a voice black black directors in general
Speaker: black men specifically. It's helped them find their voice, helped them find a way to actually get out what they want to say and help them actually do the job that they want to do. Yeah and I guess do the job that blacks flotation cinema said it would but never could. Yeah. It's like we're gonna, we're gonna finally tell your stories but we're actually only gonna tell stories of drug dealers and pimps and then
Speaker: the viewers of that cinema were able two years later actually to have
Speaker: that voice. So it kind of, yeah, other context of this. Again, I've done a lot of research. Yeah, I have another note. Sorry, I have a note. It kind of fits in with this whole backspoitation part. And it's on William Marshall, who plays Manuel all day. He revealed in an interview how he wouldn't do the film unless he could use his black
Speaker: heritage as a character point. And this is what caused the change of Prince Mamawalde from being Andrew Brown to Mamawalde.
Speaker: So do we know what Andrew Brown would have been? Um, I did not find that. Oh, no. Andrew Brown was the original name of. Yes. Yeah. He was going to be Count Browns in town. Yeah. Yeah. But the reason the name changed was because Marshall. Marshall wanted to have that heritage, that African heritage be found in the centre. Yeah. Yeah. So.
Speaker: I'm part of, and I didn't actually send you the... Shutter. Yeah, I forgot, I didn't ask either. It's okay, I'll send it to you. It was a busy weekend. Yeah, I still do want to see that. So one of the things that is so kind of interesting about Blackular as a film is the amount of times is the violence around the police. Yeah. So we didn't really talk about it so much this time around on the recording that
Speaker: when mama all day stands on the roof and is talking to Tina obviously at this point there's where was this whole fight in the warehouse and so essentially the block is on curfew
Speaker: And you just have all of these swans of police officers in a bit of black neighborhood. Yeah. Essentially keeping them in. Yeah, and not telling them why. They're saying you cannot leave. You need to stay in. You need to get back indoors. And they're doing it, you know, like in the, you know, when people are doing protests now, when you see the police with that, get up with the shields and the batons.
Speaker: that is what they were like. It was just walls of them like that would just probably go in for it. Yeah. Hushing them against the walls and to the sides, being like, you need to get back in your house. But I mean, they could have just, if they said, hey, everyone get back in, there's a killer on the loose. There's a dangerous murderer on the loose. Yeah. Any kind of thing that... People would have gone back in automatically. Yeah. Anything that kind of shows that they are actually on the side of the people. Yeah.
Speaker: Um, we would like you to be safe. Please go back inside. Important context for this film is, so this is 1970s police brutality. And again, in the same way that we said in part one, 50 years later, there is still shoddy police work that is using files relating to black victims. Police brutality of white officers to black men.
Speaker: black women, black people in the 1970s was rampant. In my research, I did look up several, several, there is a Wikipedia page that is just black people killed by police officers in the USA. And it's just name after name after name. And it's pre -2000s. And then after that, it's each year. And it is chilling. It hits hard. Yeah.
Speaker: It's chilling. I wanted to, basically I looked it up because I wanted to see if there was a specific increase or a specific thing about 1972 of why they linked it so much. But I guess the thing is, and I guess it's quite a depressing fact of there was no specific increase. There just always has been a suppression, a murder of black people by the police force. Martin Luther King was a junior.
Speaker: was assassinated in 1968. This is a fact that's brought up
Speaker: in relation to another film in the Shaddaa documentary. But I also do still think in 1968, you were saying about 1968 and the Panthers. Yeah, because it was... We were only four years later. It was established, 68. That's when the Panthers, after his assassination, they started becoming a prevalent and pushing the agenda. Yeah. And so, you know, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated.
Speaker: and it's 1972. The thing is, again, the whole point of this kind of, I guess, the whole point of this podcast is to look at the film as is and then to look at the context of where the world was when the film was made. What state was the world in? What ideologies have been brought into the film because of the beliefs at the time? Yeah, yeah. And I think you really do just have to look at, yeah, like only four years later
Speaker: And the impact that, you know, still to this day, Martin Luther King Jr. is a, an icon. Yeah. And it's taught throughout. Yeah. And so to, you know, only be four years on his murder and legacy would still be felt. So I did just kind of want to, to bring that in terms of the context that we're at in a somewhat lighter way, in a somewhat lighter shift is what I mean.
Speaker: The Black Noir is a documentary that I have found on Shada. I feel like I've seen that it is found elsewhere as well. If anyone wants to look, actually, do you know what, you are banned. Have you seen, oh, even just mentioned in this, have you seen Night of the Living Dead? Yes. Okay, that's fine. I was gonna say, you can't watch Horror Noire until we do Night of the Living Dead, but if you've already seen it, that's fine, don't worry.
Speaker: It was obviously for Black main character in that film. Yeah. Essentially, Horror Noir is a documentary where they look at Black characters throughout the genre of horror from its, like, beginning right up until now. And they have lots of directors and actors talking about each film as they go through the decades.
Speaker: and it's all kind of chronological order and you have William Crane talking about this film and it's a really good, I specifically watched the bits just where they talked about Blackula. It's a really good film and the thing I wanted to mention is it didn't even really occur to me but someone mentioned that the fact that we start in the 1700s and Mama Waldo and Luva
Speaker: a wealthy was unheard of. I hadn't thought about that either. Yeah. And you're seeing them. And again, this is why I love that Louvre is in her gorgeous outfit. You're seeing them wealthy, but you're not seeing them wealthy in a Western view. No, you're seeing them wealthy as to who they are. Yeah. I was watching it and it didn't even occur to me.
Speaker: But yeah, it is... I think it didn't really occur to me because he stated he was a prince. Yes. But it's not just a wealth, it's erudite and intelligent. Yeah, it's not wealth in terms of money, it's wealth in terms of knowledge, language, understanding, and the self -restraint as well. Yeah, yeah. And the way that they would carry themselves in that conversation.
Speaker: Yeah, any of William Crane mentioned that they wanted to call it Count Brown's in town and he, William Marshall, so Crane and Marshall both like put their foot down on that. Yeah. Crane mentioned that he was the only black man in the crew behind the scenes. Yeah, the crew. And they did not want, they basically didn't want to make, put any kind of money into it.
Speaker: because again, that's very much the reason why Black's Ploitation Cinema has a kind of B -movie reputation is because no money was really put into it. Nobody wanted to give the Black community money to create these films, yet they still wanted to exploit the money out of them. So they did it in a way that they didn't give them too much money. They gave them the bare minimum that they needed.
Speaker: iconic scene with the cab lady and the slow motion very nearly didn't happen. Oh, because they did not want to give them that like expensive slow motion camera. It was a thing that like and that's one of the most iconic scenes. Yes. Yeah. Like it that that shot is perfect. And it's a masterpiece really didn't it truly nearly didn't happen because they weren't giving him resources. Yeah.
Speaker: and he really had to put his foot down and be like, look, I need this. Another thing that he really had to put his foot down on was the club scenes. In the club scenes, there are black people, there are white people, it is a mixed club. And Crane wanted this.
Speaker: Crane was very definite on it being a mixed club. He didn't want the barrier, the split, the divide. And so, you know, we were like, okay, we'll have, you know, mixed cast. And then he went into set and it was all the white actors on one side, all of the black actors on the other side. And that was the way they were going to do it.
Speaker: And he was like, no, no, if we're doing this scene, we are going to have everyone integrated. We're going to have the mingles. Yeah. He was very definite about the look of this film being very mixed. And it almost does feel, not post -racist, but it doesn't feel like it, there are scenes when it doesn't feel like it is in an era.
Speaker: with segregation and things like that, you know what I mean? Yeah, I picked up on that feeling as well when watching the film. Because with the mix of the characters, in some scenes you don't really see that prevalent racist -ness until you actually get into the scenes where they use it, such as like with the two white beat cops. Yeah, yeah. And they make that comment. Yeah.
Speaker: And when Gordon's mentioning about the report. Yeah, with their case files being missing. And then Jack's like, oh no, one of the victims is white, so it will show up. And it's almost this thing where because it's so not race focused, not racist, I guess, in other scenes, I feel like extra highlights in it, extra shows it to be so jarring. Yeah.
Speaker: when they do use it to that effect. It's that thing of like, well clearly we know this to be wrong because look at these integrated, you know. Yeah, it has an added shock to it, to the audience, especially if it hasn't been prevalent so much throughout the film. And so you're not really picking up on that. And then all of a sudden you get hit by it and you get hit with it so strongly because it's not mentioned as much.
Speaker: It's only in these short little scenes. There is also... Her name is Rachel True. Played Rochelle in the craft. Okay. The black witch in the craft. Yeah. This is... She's one of the people interviewed in horror noir. Oh. But she was talking about black...
Speaker: And she was mentioning about how there was so much... I mean, we talked about how gorgeous Mumald is. Oh, yeah. And she said... And Gordon. And Gordon. But she was talking about how Dracula had never really, like, peeled to her. I mean, she... Yeah, he's not... He was this kind of... I think... Was it like a metrosexual white man?
Speaker: It's just this kind of like slightly not attractive to her discourse. Yeah. They're all normally disheveled and not made to be attractive. They've kind of like Count Orlok. Yeah. But Balor Legosi, we used these... Oh, gorgeous, gorgeous. Yeah. But she was just kind of, I guess it's that kind of, no one had ever made a Dracula who was meant to be attractive to... Yeah.
Speaker: black women. No. Obviously like attractiveness is can go beyond race but it's that thing of, um, you know, specifically the Christopher Lee's are all these beautiful kind of, um, extremely white looking, you know, you know, Christopher Lee and like extremely kind of well put together dandy esque, um, vampires that, um, and they were made for the white audience.
Speaker: Yeah, that Rachel True was saying Malol all day, Blackula was like, she was watching it and she was, she had this like proper sexual awakening, essentially, where she was like, oh my goodness, this man, and he's, and he's terrifying, but I kind of want him to catch me, but I, oh, it's, it's, yeah, it's just this thing that, you know, when you, when you make films with a wider audience or
Speaker: in this case, not so much of a wider audience, a very narrow audience in mind. You are allowing them to experience what other people have experienced in cinema of ages, who are making films for them. And she had that moment.
Speaker: Yeah, I was watching a show with my dad a little while ago, and there were some of my reactors in this show, which you don't really get, especially, and this was on Netflix as well. You don't really get that on Netflix, on like major platform TV
Speaker: And he was able to, he was like, oh, he got really excited that they were on screen, that he was watching them. And then I know one of the actors, she was from the same tribe that my family, my dad's family comes from. And he was like, oh, that's my cousin. And he just got, he got so excited that he could see part of himself on there.
Speaker: that he could have that relation. And it is that so much more of that kind of direct connection. Yeah. I just, it's just the thing about Black Killer is its legacy is, yeah, there's Miguel Nunez Jr. who is a Black actor who is in films such as like Friday the 13th. So like, like a horror. Again, like all of these people interviewed for
Speaker: documentary are horror -specific Black actors or actors who have had iconic roles in horror. He actually cites Blackula as one of the main films that has inspired him to become a actor. It's just one of those things where I feel like it has such a lasting impact
Speaker: of like, you know, the generation of black people who saw it and kind of, you know, had that direct connection and, you know, sexual awakening or acting awakening or any kind of awakening where they saw themselves in cinema or saw what they wanted to see on cinema. And I feel like that was especially an even bigger effect at the time because it was 1972. I feel like that that's as much context as I can kind of
Speaker: delve into. But it is, I think when I first saw Blackular, I was very nervous about it. And probably a lot of that nervousness comes from a heap in an unuseful amount of white guilt. You know, I went into watching it being like, Oh, no, it's Black's Pollutation Cinema and I've heard that's a bad thing because of, you know, exploitation and all the things we have discussed.
Speaker: I feel uncomfortable with talking about race and all of those things, you know, going into watching it that first time, I was like, oh, this is going to be a Grit and Barrett type of watch. And then I was so pleasantly just surprised by this amazingly romantic film. And that in itself is enjoyable. Yeah. And every time I've watched it since
Speaker: I have found more. Sometimes through unfortunate, not even unfortunate, but you know, like I said, I rewatched it again in 2020. You know, partly because it's a wonderful film and it was October, I think, when I watched it. You know, it was Halloween. I wanted to watch a horror film. But, you know, on my mind, part of that was because of
Speaker: the things that were happening in the world at the time. Yeah, with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Yeah, Breonna Taylor. Yeah. And so yeah, I feel like each time I rewatch it, sometimes there's more to discover. Sometimes it's heartbreaking when there's more to delve into. But I've been talking a lot. What do you think?
Speaker: No, I really enjoyed it. I know when I was going into this film watching it, I didn't quite have that same feeling that you did when you first went into it, because I'd heard from you that it was a good film, that it was fun to watch. So I was like, okay, I'm going to watch this. But then I also had the, you said that it was one that you needed to do a lot of research on.
Speaker: So I did have a little hesitation, I kept in the back of my mind, okay, what exactly am I going to be expecting? But I was very pleasantly surprised in, especially for the time that it was made, I was very pleasantly surprised with how well it was done. And for it to be, I wasn't expecting it, because you didn't say that it was going to be a romance at all.
Speaker: So I did not expect that romance, and I quite liked that. Because I've never really watched horror romance before. Because I'm not... I mean, Candyman? Oh, yeah. I'm not like... It's not a big thing. No, no, no. It definitely... You think of comedy horror films. Yeah, you think of comedy horror, action horror, sci -fi horror. You don't... Romance horror is not...
Speaker: one of the ones that's up there that you think of. Yeah. Yeah. And this is truly a masterpiece. Perfect. It's beautiful. And as I've said in a previous episode,
Speaker: I am not normally brought to tears with films. It's a very rare occurrence and so when a film does water my eyes up or makes a tear roll down my cheek or if I'm fully crying then
Speaker: It is a hard -hitting film, it is a very good film. It's like when we watched Woman King, that one, that had me crying. And it was just, oh, it was so hard -hitting, it was so beautiful. But yeah, it's like with this one as well, it was just, I was not expecting it, that romance, and it was beautiful. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like I said, after the,
Speaker: introduction scene. I'm assuming that you've now listened to the whole of the plot summary. Yeah. Has entirely been spoiled. But again, this is one that I really would urge you to watch even though we've told you the whole plot. Yes, we can only save it a line deliveries as well as we can. Yeah, we do not give those lines justice. Yeah.
Speaker: like trust me when I say William Marshall will do. Yeah, you need to hear out of his own mouth. That is probably all that can really be said on Blackula or at least all that can really be said at this point in time by these exact people. Yeah. At 11 .24 at night. Yes. On a school night of all occasions. Yes. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you. We have been, Morg and Kitty, of A Horror Shared. Please do follow our Instagram. Is it a underscore or just yes? Yeah, I think it's a underscore horror underscore shared. Yes. And the Gmail is a horror shared, no underscores, at gmail .com.
Speaker: Please feel free to talk to us on any medium you prefer. We would love to hear your thoughts, feelings, opinions. If you know anyone who would appreciate this podcast. Share onto them. Share onto a friend. Introduce us to your friends. Yeah. Through podcast form. Next week, Mug will be doing... A Carnival of Souls. A Carnival of Souls from...
Speaker: 1962? Yes, 1962. Yes. Make sure to watch that film before the episode comes on. I need to find it. I have no idea what it's about and I'm looking forward to finding out. And as always, until next time, stay groovy.
