Blacula (1972)
It is unfortunate that blaxploitation earned a reputation as being rather silly. Some of the movies were, to be honest, not that great, and one begins to encounter that after a bit of digging beneath the more famous titles, but there was also a bit of a perception problem caused by the producers and studios. The poster for Blacula, for instance, makes it look like this is some sort of horror comedy, with the painted-on blood and ridiculous stake coming out of the title character. It is truly one of the worst movie posters of the time and doesn't do the film justice. Despite the exploitative title first-time director William Crain took the script by Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig and made a serious urban horror film. It isn't anything that breaks the mold as it is at heart a retelling of Dracula set in 1972 Los Angeles, but it has enough creativity and a sympathetic villain at the center to set it apart. Horror fans have long known this and the movie is held in decent reg