Join us as we dissect each moment of this intriguing film. From the movie's title sequence to its score, we go all out, analyzing Blackula's waking confusion, the nuanced relationship between Dracula's wife and Tina, and Tina's surprising key find in the breaker box. We go beyond the surface, unraveling the underdeveloped female characters and the much-contested movie location. But the fun doesn't stop there! You'll love our throwback to malls, movies, and Candyman - the good old days!
Join the Black Ass Movie Club
Join us as we dissect each moment of this intriguing film. From the movie's title sequence to its score, we go all out, analyzing Blackula's waking confusion, the nuanced relationship between Dracula's wife and Tina, and Tina's surprising key find in the breaker box. We go beyond the surface, unraveling the underdeveloped female characters and the much-contested movie location. But the fun doesn't stop there! You'll love our throwback to malls, movies, and Candyman - the good old days!
Join the Black Ass Movie Club
as someone that has been set on fire before.
TJ:Listen, wait okay, I'm going to pass you back to that. Come on now.
Brooklyn:Welcome back to the Black S movie podcast, where we are putting together the quintessential list of black movies that you have to watch. I'm Brooklyn. I'm.
TJ:TJ.
Brooklyn:And we have a special guest with us again this week. Introduce yourself.
Shiku:Hello, hello, hello. What's good everyone. I'm Chico. I'm excited to be here, yeah.
TJ:Nice to have you on the pod.
Shiku:Never knew when they were going to bring me in, so I was just this has been a long time coming.
Brooklyn:That is very true.
Shiku:I'm just waiting for my, for my movie to pick. And right off the back I had beef to pick with.
TJ:Brooklyn. Why?
Shiku:Because what about me, said you need to watch back Blackula Like out of everyone? You know all the Black folks in your life. You said you know we would love this experience Exactly, chico she would love it.
Brooklyn:Who would love a horror movie that was shot during the Black Sploitation period About Dracula? I mean that that feels like it's right up your alley to me, Right.
Shiku:Because I'm a caricature as a human being. Okay, I got you, that's.
Brooklyn:That is precisely why we did this.
Shiku:I can't even argue with that, because I agree, I love this era of movies. Yeah, um, I discovered them in college for the first time, because I took a cinema class about, like, black representation and media and we had to watch, you know, several movies, but a lot of them were in this area of Black expectation and it just cracked me up because they're just iconic.
Brooklyn:I think this actually might be the first movie of that era that I've actually watched from start to finish. I have references, I've seen things just like my dad. This is like his moment, but so like I've seen some things, but I've never seen one from start to finish, yeah, I have a newfound appreciation.
TJ:It is interesting, to say the least.
Brooklyn:So, if you haven't caught on yet, we have watched Black Gila, the 1972 horror film, because it is defined as a horror.
TJ:I was going to say horror is very questionable for me.
Brooklyn:It is the. It is a modern retelling of the Dracula story through the eyes of a Black man, okay yeah. I'm going to say it I had fun, I had a good time watching this movie, and when we open it, does it does sprinkle a little blackness onto it, which I like where the story is very different. It's not your standard Dracula story, because we meet Dracula in the start of the film.
Shiku:We do.
Brooklyn:And I I'm never going to be able to say his name correctly, so I'm just going to refer to him as Black Gila, that's okay with the group.
TJ:I think, so See, you can do that.
Brooklyn:Mama.
Shiku:Lute, see, you got it.
Brooklyn:Say it one more time for me.
Shiku:Mama Lute, mama Lute Lute. Yeah, that's what I was hearing All right, so let's go with that, that's. Mama Lute Okay.
Brooklyn:So when we meet Mama Lute he is there with his wife to ask Count Dracula for his assistance in ending the slave trade. Yep, crazy.
Shiku:He treats the wife like she's a bag of berries and nuts for trade, like straight up ass. Black Gila. Oh, and you can just leave your preload wife behind. I could use her on my shelf.
Brooklyn:It was given Miss. Was it Miss Millie from Color? Purple she's like come work for me, Be my maid.
Shiku:It makes it sound like such a sweet proposition Like this is going to change your life, as though she wasn't already a queen. You know, she was a queen, oh whole ass nation.
Brooklyn:He's like you want to sell her, I can give you some money. You know about what you look in the slave trade mission thingy.
Shiku:He was going to give over scraps and dimes at best it's and that's the opener.
Brooklyn:Before we even get to like all that, all that subtext, before we even get to the opening credits yeah. Which I would say the design of the title, sequence I really enjoyed. It was cute, do you remember it? Like the black and white, the bat flying around.
TJ:Like I thought it was really interesting and the score of this movie? You stop it.
Brooklyn:It was a great film.
Shiku:I think we can separate into like was it fun to watch?
Brooklyn:Yeah.
Shiku:And then, like the actual cinema of the movie are two separate things. I had a great time. I laughed the whole time I watched this movie. Granted, I did have a little shum shum before I started it, just to really set.
Brooklyn:I think that's probably the best way to go into this movie. The only way is, at the minimum, a glass of wine at the midpoint, some sort of you know, some no no earth, earth natural something season, something legal in your jurisdiction? Okay, that one Exactly.
Shiku:You're crazy. That is the best way to digest this movie, because I just have a question and someone.
TJ:Please answer this for me.
Shiku:So like at the beginning of the movie, right like we see the title card, and then we see Black Ula wake up and he's like where am I?
Brooklyn:at.
Shiku:Right, as most niggas do, yeah.
Brooklyn:When you wake up every morning I say the same thing when am I at?
Shiku:Where am I at? It's got to get my bearings. I just have a question of like when he like meets his new, his new, the woman like the main woman in the movie right, we see her like haul an ass away from him, yeah. Right Like she was ready to lose it all. She dropped the bag.
TJ:She was running with no direction, so there's a moment in there that I wanted to talk about too, just really quickly.
Brooklyn:We jumped ahead a couple chapters because, I can't escape by the gay couple Buying the castle right as we come back from the title card.
TJ:Even in the seventies.
Brooklyn:Because oh my.
Shiku:God, I forgot. They were incredible.
Brooklyn:They're like you have no idea what these antiques are going to go for back in the states. Dracula.
Shiku:Dracula. It's giving us an inside look to the queer experience that I didn't think I was going to find.
TJ:Yeah.
Shiku:I mean, I was just being by that actually, oh hell.
Brooklyn:Because by that couple. Because what is more, what is more fabulous gay than being in a European country buying a castle to get all the antiques inside to sell back in with the California. I think that is so fabulous.
Shiku:And I love that. It's just selling white people their own artifacts.
TJ:You know what I mean. Like.
Shiku:Like they always be taken by folks artifacts. And like jacking up the price, like I should be not getting a Harlem Renaissance poem for $400. But you can buy a candlewick.
TJ:Six hundred Exactly.
Brooklyn:Because that's on reparations and that's why I say this is a great film Because when you look deep at it, when you focus on the details, it is all about black glory.
TJ:Okay, no, it's about being progressive.
Brooklyn:So we find the coffin. We find the coffin down in the cellar hidden room, and now we're back in California. Right Two centuries later, where we, where he wakes up, continue.
Shiku:See, I feel like you should, because clearly you remember this movie better than I do, at least the first 15 minutes. But so, there's right, he wakes up, he's like where am I? And then he kills somebody, doesn't he? He runs into the main lady, the starring lady, tina.
Brooklyn:Tina is her name.
Shiku:And he is convinced that that is his love reincarnated, which is a beautiful idea.
TJ:But the execution of it is questionable.
Brooklyn:But it's very much I'm not sure how familiar you two are with Dracula like the actual story.
Shiku:But that is exactly what happens.
Brooklyn:Oh he is. He is brought to, I think, England in that one and when he meets Mina.
Shiku:She is. He sees her as a ring.
TJ:Just changing the first letter with the name. Great, he got it.
Shiku:Oh yeah, no, not come on.
Brooklyn:I didn't get that it's just this moment. But he sees his wife, Dracula's wife. She kills herself, he goes off to battle and the enemies write her a letter saying that he's died in battle. So instead of living without him, she hangs herself. Oh, wow, and when he gets back she's dead. So when he sees Mina in the new world, he falls in love with her for that reason, because she is that. So it's very much still telling the Dracula story.
TJ:There's a moment when Tina is running towards her apartment in the hallway and she goes to open the door, which I was very confused by.
Shiku:This is where I dropped into the movie. Okay, because.
TJ:I was kind of passively watching it. But this moment she goes up to the door and attempts to open it and I'm thinking to myself as I watched this. I'm like, but why would the door be open? There's no one home, right? You're running home away from this monster that you just saw and you immediately go to just open the door, but then the key she doesn't have her key because her key was in her bag that she dropped, she dropped. Yeah, the key is in the little what is it called Like laundry shoot.
TJ:No, it's where you have the switches for your lights. The breaker box, which I also thought was very weird. Why would you hide your key in a breaker box in the hallway? Maybe it was a spare?
Shiku:It's very odd.
TJ:It stuck out to me.
Shiku:It was a spare, but I just was like oh like, everybody has a key hanging there, so why did she just steal a different pair of keys to someone else's home, because we know that Blackula has her bag?
Brooklyn:He's coming for you. You went home.
Shiku:You went home, you said come you didn't even try.
Brooklyn:This is where I live. I'm doxing myself.
Shiku:And all I got is this little chain in between me and my happily ever after.
Brooklyn:Like okay, Well, I wonder if the rules apply in this universe.
Shiku:Like if he has to be invited in? Oh, because that's vampires.
Brooklyn:I mean, she doesn't know that?
Shiku:No, no, no.
Brooklyn:But I'm just saying in the context of the movie. I wonder if that is a thing that exists.
TJ:If I'm remembering the movie correctly, you're not Sure, fuck you.
Shiku:I said don't, Don't.
TJ:If I am remembering the movie correctly, shortly after that scene she's at her sister's birthday party at the club.
Brooklyn:There's a lot of that. There's a lot of like somebody just died and they're missing, and all that stuff. We're back at the club.
TJ:But see musical break. Here's where my confusion comes in. How did he know to go to the club? Because that's where he shows up with a purse. Oh, okay, so like no, no, no, no Because.
Shiku:I have to do the movie. I was like, when did they go from? She's about to like stab him with a kitchen knife to like, hey, you look kind of good in that cape. There was no, there was nothing that bridged it.
TJ:She just was like that widow's peak is really doing it for me, cause literally the first time they see each other again is at the club.
Shiku:Runny gets her the bag, yeah, and she's all like, oh my God, thank you so much.
TJ:I was very confused. I was like where is the story arc here? What is happening?
Brooklyn:In all fairness, he did say my bad. I'm sorry I chased him.
TJ:You gathered in the silent moment when we were reading lips. Is that where you gather from?
Brooklyn:No, he says it aloud. He says, the first time we met.
Shiku:I didn't mean to frighten you. I didn't mean to frighten you. Yeah, when he has the purse bag, yeah, oh, okay, he does say that. So now we can't trust your recall at all.
Brooklyn:No, that's not true.
TJ:You gotta watch. I'm not gonna watch that I was gonna sink in.
Shiku:That was but the club scenes.
TJ:They were all like I wanted to be there, all 27, 100 of them.
Shiku:I was my kind of mate, we missed the era.
Brooklyn:Oh my God, that seemed like a really fun place to be.
Shiku:Like after work I'm gonna just get Milo in nightcap Talk some shit with my friends Full disco band.
Brooklyn:Let's see Local. Like everybody knows each other.
Shiku:Yes, no drama. You plop at your same table. You're drinking me to there. I loved it.
Brooklyn:Because they got that table Every single time we went back they were never in a different place, they were never asking for permission.
Shiku:And that type of ownership is what I'm striving for. I wanna be that a familiar somewhere like that.
TJ:Speaking of the club, the two things, the scoring for this movie, sweet Jesus, perfection. It was so 70s and so of the time and the era.
Brooklyn:It was perfect, it was perfect, just disco constantly.
TJ:But.
Brooklyn:I will say this it's it made sense.
Shiku:It sounded good.
Brooklyn:And it was 1972. So it was like the music was perfect for the film. And that's all I'll say to that.
TJ:And then all of the cutaways to the band, like a full three minute set. Each time we cut to them I'm like that's a good path for the movie. There's nothing really happening that was padding the runtime that was a good four or five minutes.
Shiku:Which in movie time is a long time to be watching a full performance. Well, they had to give Black ULUT some time to get all green.
TJ:Jesus, why? We have got to get into the aesthetics, the costumes, the makeup of Black ULUT, so they're all I was gonna say with the resident makeup artist in the room help me understand why paint him green.
Shiku:Well he's dead, well I he's dead.
Brooklyn:Yes, but still why green? Of that time there was very limited options for colors that would work on screen for Black people. So I feel like and I'm just educated guesses but possibly he wasn't green. I don't believe. Possibly he wasn't green. It may have been more of a blue tint or something to make him look paler than he actually is the camera just picked up that. But under that lighting, with that camera, with that kind of film, it goes that greenish hue. That is just what I'm thinking.
Shiku:Educated guess.
Brooklyn:Yeah, an educated guess. Based on what everyone else looked like. It feels like they maybe put the exact same color on everyone and depending on their undertone and how it mixed with the foundation. Everybody became blue green purple Like you got that because no one knew how to light us back then. The film stocks that they had available didn't even account for our skin tones. It wasn't until, I think, the late 70s that we started getting films that could actually render our skin tones, and it had nothing to do with us.
Brooklyn:It was because we were getting into an era where people were liking cherry woods, dark woods, walnuts and things like that, and they weren't reading the way they needed them to to sell them. So by proxy they got better with browns so we started looking better on screen.
Shiku:We got better because of people's furniture choices.
Brooklyn:Yes.
Shiku:I loved it. I mean I loved? No, I can't even pretend that I didn't. I hated those mutton chops they gave this man the worst little fur babies on the side of his face, like he was going to be exfoliating every person he came into contact with, which.
Brooklyn:I don't really understand that part of the aesthetic.
Shiku:The style.
Brooklyn:Because it wasn't a. It's not a Dracula trope for that amount of hair. The mutton chops were in style back then, but why so overgrown?
TJ:And I felt like they always changed. They were not consistent at all. They were never consistent.
Brooklyn:The Nike check kind of shape that was happening towards the end of the film. I truly did not understand.
Shiku:But I see, I think that's just from like the prosthetic slipping, because every actor in this movie was wet the whole movie Like they were wet Well like they took the whole budget for a sequence later because they didn't have.
Brooklyn:AC when they were ever filming. No, no, and I mean, and also I mean at that point in time, the lighting that they had to use just for us to appear on screen was probably like flood lights today, just like it was probably so hot. Oh, my God, and all the foundations are oil based. So, it's just beating it.
Shiku:Cause Black didn't crack in this movie.
Brooklyn:No, it did not.
Shiku:I looked up the ages of these actors and most of them were grown and they're playing college. We didn't cast young back then. These were adults.
Brooklyn:That's amazing. So the first person that I remember being murdered is the cab driver, the woman who comes back at the end running down the hallway.
TJ:Yeah.
Brooklyn:So she was kind of my favorite person, Mainly because we meet her after she almost runs over Dracula and she gets out and she reads him for fill and then she goes. You look a little dangerous.
TJ:Yeah, no, go find her. The first person you're looking for is somewhere around here, so I'm gonna just go ahead and get back in my car, because I want to see tomorrow.
Brooklyn:She doesn't.
Shiku:But she had every intention of making it back home to her baby. I was a mother.
Brooklyn:And you have a question. You have a question. So in this, in the storytelling of this film, dracula or Black is bit, cursed, put into a coffin and then locked away. Where did he develop the knowledge of being a vampire If he was just locked away?
TJ:That he was just locked away for two centuries.
Brooklyn:That he didn't wake up as a baby vampire, starving and needed to eat everybody.
TJ:You mean like everybody else in the film? That's bitten yeah, which?
Brooklyn:like he woke up as a carbon copy of Dracula, and we never really discussed why that is.
TJ:Which is interesting because the cab driver, I feel like, is the least intelligent version of the vampire when we see her later in the film.
Shiku:Oh my.
TJ:God, because she's just screaming.
Shiku:Coming down the hall. She's fun, she's fun, she's fun.
Brooklyn:Slow mo Just pops up out the bed like I am hungry and just starts running. Yes, yes.
Shiku:Knees flailing, elbows in the air. That was wait. Can we talk about our favorite parts in the movie? Because that's one of them.
Brooklyn:Let's do it yeah.
Shiku:Because when she pops up, because she's laying on a gurney right, Because she's dead, so we believe. And first of all, you can see old girl breathing so deeply the whole time, I just like it, I just love it. But when she gets out of that bed and springs on them and then gives us a full vocal performance as she's dying, no lines, no lines. They just told her we got one take. We got two minutes of film left. Give me your best work. Show them what Julliard education is Okay and she did yeah.
Brooklyn:I'm making an audio note here to insert, Insert her screaming into the and then, like her slow meltdown of just like why was that giving kind of a vote?
Shiku:Oh my God, Uh uh.
Brooklyn:I think, well, I guess, if that is the case, if, being bitten, they just get kind of dumber and dumber down the chain that the gay guy with the luxurious afro was one of the first people bitten.
Brooklyn:I love that he was able to figure it out that when he went cruising for food pretty much of that he looked completely normal on the street. When we see him again he's definitely come back to vampiric looking, but like on the street he was like nope, I'm gonna look cute, I'm gonna pick this little white boy up and I'm going to take him back to this factory and I'm going to devour him.
TJ:Yes yes, it was like all of that context.
Brooklyn:That was one of my favorite parts of the movie I.
TJ:before I get to my favorite part, I wanna jump back to the makeup section.
Brooklyn:Okay.
TJ:Because there's a moment in the casket when we go to the funeral home and we are introduced to the doctor quote the Van Helsing character. Yeah, that comes in to examine this body.
TJ:And Sherlock Holmes. Okay, when I was watching it it took me a minute to kind of process it and I was like why did they do this? But he's asking him what happened to the guy, Like the funeral director saying, oh, we found him, I brought him in, got him from the corner, and then he starts to peel back the guy's skin to reveal the bite marks.
Brooklyn:I think it was supposed to look fake.
TJ:Okay.
Brooklyn:Because you're talking to the funeral director who is just covering the mark. So it wasn't supposed to be like this FX thing. It was supposed to just be. He had bites on him.
Shiku:I put some on him and put it there we go and that's it.
Brooklyn:So it was more of hiding it for the funeral, not trying to cover it to make it look real Gotcha. Okay, nothing, we can give him a little grace there, so I will go back to favorite moments and I remembered to write it down.
TJ:So this movie was a lot, it was a lot, it was a lot.
Brooklyn:It was everything. Can you take it Sure?
TJ:however, this quote stuck out to me and I was like, oh, this is so lovely. I wasn't expecting this from this terrible film.
Shiku:A heartful moment.
TJ:Yeah, but it's when Blackie goes to see Tina I think the third time at the apartment, and he's explaining what happened and who she reminds him of and she's like I can't go, I can't, I don't think I can do it, and he goes to the door and he says I've lived again to lose you twice.
Shiku:I was like, oh, that's beautiful. I was like that touched me, that's Black love.
TJ:I was like, okay, now I'm in, I'm strapped in, I'm ready.
Shiku:And I feel like that changed how I watched the movie after that. Then I was like, oh, this is a love story, like I mean there's all these horror tropes in it, but it ultimately is a love story of him trying to get reunited with his lady. That's all he wanted.
Brooklyn:He took his wife with him to this meeting and it ultimately led to their demise, and I can't even imagine the guilt you feel in that moment. So when you find someone that reminds you of her so much that could potentially be the reincarnation of her that everything in you wants to just basically give her back the life that she could have had with you.
Shiku:Because I know she's haunting him and she's whooping his ass in his mind. She's like I told you to shut the hell up multiple times. If you would have just listened to me, maybe we'd both be alive, We'd both be in Africa thriving, but now I'm dead.
Brooklyn:That's a horrible thought. Because she got locked in with him, did he have to basically lay there and listen to her like star to death and die? Yeah, I'm sorry.
Shiku:How would you pay back if you made? I thought this was right at B-13. It's not.
Brooklyn:I'm traumatized he did. It was just the thought that occurred to me, and that's why she wanted his ass.
Shiku:Because she ate a rat while he laid comfortably in a plush padded coffin and she had a floor. I would be so bad, I'm sorry, but you would not know P's in any lifetime, which is why Tina ran when she saw him, because that was the anger coursing through her body and why she was like Her spirit said absolutely not, not again.
TJ:Like I'm out.
Shiku:And that's why she tracked out of there, yep.
Brooklyn:How do we feel about William Marshall's portrayal of Blackula?
Shiku:Okay, okay, I think, I actually think he did a great job.
Brooklyn:Okay.
Shiku:Like, I think, for the genre that this movie is and the budget that exists, for me, all the realities felt real when it came to him. I could feel the longing, I could feel also a little bit of like the conflict between hunger and desire, that I feel like he was battling with a lot, and despite the fact that he went dead behind the eyes whenever talking to Tina, which I have to chalk up to just being SF- Like special makeup because why was nobody home?
TJ:Right.
Shiku:No one. Ever, Just there and right through her, just telling her I love you in every lifetime. You're my one baby. Help me. I just thought he. I thought he would do a really great job, especially knowing the gimmicks of like when he turns into a bat he committed into that swoop.
Brooklyn:I think he did a really good job and I think that, because I think he took it seriously, it wasn't a trope, he wasn't trying to do what Dracula's in the past have done. I feel, like he very much took this as a I am someone who was trying to do this good thing who's been cursed into this. But I'm here now and this is my goal, and I think he got that script in front of him and said I know who this person is and I can play this straight Because it could have with a different person.
Brooklyn:It could have gone very. Could you imagine someone like a Richard Pryor in this role?
Shiku:But like it would have been a very different movie. It would have been like Vampire and Brooklyn would have been a very different film.
Brooklyn:I feel like he played this. Like he played it very straight, like you would play like a Shakespearean piece.
Shiku:It was like that's what he's Shakespearean trade. I felt it.
TJ:I was gonna say I think, and that's my problem is that he's too serious. Well, no, no, no, no. Like I agree in that the performance from him specifically was really good, but I felt like he was in a completely different movie than everybody else.
Brooklyn:Okay, yeah, Well, I think that that's Cass's fault. Well yeah, because him and the doctor.
Shiku:I think that they were equal Everyone else around them. The stakes were high.
Brooklyn:Was just were people who took the role. They were like, look, it's gonna be $400.
Shiku:They're gonna be shooting for three weeks. They found them inside that restaurant. They said what you doing later? I'm like I could act. Is it big skillet?
Brooklyn:Big skillet, though, was me. I'm picked by the director.
Shiku:He is my favorite person, Mr Connellman big skillet is the kind of man for you, Brooklyn. Yeah.
TJ:He just gives such good old school thug.
Shiku:But like I wanted the hat, like the tip of the hat.
TJ:Oh, yes, yes.
Shiku:There would be no Seduc the entertainer without big skillet.
TJ:You weren't. You weren't.
Shiku:He had to walk for Seduc to run, because them suits were everything.
Brooklyn:Just a quick little tidbit Marshall, who played William, marshall, who played Blackula, attended New York University. And then transferred to the actor studio, of course, and he also studied at the American Theatre Wing.
Shiku:So that's a classically trained man.
TJ:I was gonna say it shows in his voice, oh yeah.
Shiku:Yeah, yeah, you're a toot Toot.
Brooklyn:Oh, he's a Broadway girlie too, of course he is. He made his Broadway debut in 1944 in Carmen Jones.
TJ:Oh, that makes a lot of sense.
Shiku:Yes, so he was the driving force behind this movie.
Brooklyn:And why needs to be studied Like I feel like he was cast and then everybody else was kind of thrown out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Shiku:They said who's? The hottest commodity right now, but his Miss Tina is gorgeous. I mean, all the women in this movie are stunning.
Brooklyn:She is pretty, yeah, her acting ability. Oh see, I didn't say that though.
Shiku:Okay, I was gonna say it. I never said that.
TJ:It's the cat moans throughout the movie, for me, oh Just concerning I was like why do we need that?
Shiku:It's like she has rabies, like, and she got an itch. She can't scratch At all times. I mm-hmm, I heard it yeah yeah, jesus. But constantly in danger Like can you try? Okay, that made me upset, though. I was like where is the agency in any of the women in this movie?
Brooklyn:It was a little odd Because they were in Dracula. This is like the early 1800s when this is taking place. The women in that.
Shiku:They're props, look, are like, yeah, they're very gentle, they're very docile.
Brooklyn:They're just kind of there for the ride. And the men kind of drive the story, so you can't translate that into 1970s LA yeah.
Shiku:Wait, this movie is set in LA, allegedly.
Brooklyn:It's in California somewhere. I'm just saying that based on, like the palm trees and things that are in the background.
TJ:So I don't. There's one thing we've learned on this podcast.
Brooklyn:There's one thing we've learned is that just because it's shot there doesn't mean it takes place there, you know what I mean.
TJ:Let's go back to blank man.
Shiku:I thought it was Chicago and they just threw in. Because you know, I don't think they were so concerned about consistency or continuity as we saw throughout the whole film, so I was like oh, what's a palm tree?
Brooklyn:I would give it more of a Chicago, but the reason I think it takes place in LA is because there's never a public transit moment and I feel like if you put this in a Chicago, you're bound to do something In. New York. You're definitely going to be on the train. At least once it could be something like a Detroit which I don't believe has like a big public transit.
Shiku:Like underground like a subway system. You walk, jesus, you sure walk.
TJ:Are there any? This is one of my favorite questions to ask.
Brooklyn:Is there any favorite cinematic moment for you which I will preface by saying, cinematically, this movie is you two are going to make fun of it, but you don't know that I'm going to say this and I will stand by it. It is not the best, looking at it through today's eyes, and what we've been able to see. But that transformation to the bat was for the time period for the budget that they likely have for this movie.
TJ:It was really really well done. It was really well done.
Brooklyn:It wasn't like Bewitch, where they just kind of freeze. The next thing is Exactly. It was like no, they took the time to shoot this transition into the bat. I thought that was really beautiful.
TJ:I would agree with you. I was surprised that it happened so smoothly and not so rugged.
Brooklyn:Also, just before someone else goes, I'm saying the fire stunts.
Shiku:How dare you? How dare you? Oh, was that you? I'm so sorry. No, you can have it, I can pick something new.
Brooklyn:Those fire stunts, those were, those were shockingly good, those were hot.
Shiku:Excuse my French, it's hot. They were sexy the way people were crisping up. I was like, ooh, I know that hurt as someone that has been set on fire before Listen.
TJ:Wait, I'm going to pause. I'm going to pause, pause. Come on now. Can we elaborate?
Shiku:Okay, so quick little side story. There was a coworker I had for a show that I worked on and her roommate was a stunt performer. So we had met during opening night. We were talking and he was like, yeah, you guys should come hang out. They live in Jersey. And he's like, and we can just like, Maybe we can try some of these stunts. You know what I mean? We can set you on fire and listen. I had been in red flags from the get-go and you was a black person, absolutely.
Brooklyn:I'm going to go to Jersey and get set on fire.
Shiku:Yes, I did, she was never heard from again. And I lived to tell the tale, you're right, but I mean he was a white man, so like I was, like there's me and my best friend, like what could really go wrong? A lot.
Brooklyn:Famous last word, merch it sure was.
Shiku:So we get there and he pours the gel on us. He's like put your whole body in it's thick, it's like Vaseline, but it's really cold.
TJ:Sounds like my first time.
Shiku:Ooh, that's not true.
TJ:That's not true. Cold, you know moving on, it's cold.
Shiku:It's nice to the touch. Then he sets it on fire and like the gel starts to like burn off obviously. So like you'll start to feel it like on your skin because you can't take away the heat, obviously you are burning.
Brooklyn:It's fire.
TJ:It's fire, she's gonna do what she does. It's famously hot, mm-hmm famously hot. You know, that might have been the most interesting thing that I've learned about you, that was hurtful.
Brooklyn:You have not been in the office with me.
Shiku:It is yeah.
Brooklyn:I'm also like that should have been your intro. There's many layers to this.
Shiku:I should have. Can we just like slice that back to the beginning? Thank you, thank you, I'm gonna do something for the bit, because then we spent the whole day in Jersey. Like you know there's a big ass mall over there.
Brooklyn:That thing was incredible which you want Westfield or Newport.
Shiku:The one that's closest to the MetLife Stadium, garden State.
Brooklyn:Is that Garden State?
Shiku:Yeah, so it's like water park, ski slopes, escape rooms.
Brooklyn:That is not Well I would say that's probably new, since we've been there. No, I know what mall that is. That's the.
Shiku:It's like right off the GWB.
Brooklyn:Yeah, that's where Sierra takes the kids every now and again when they go to that indoor water park.
Shiku:Yes, because there is that Uh-huh and there's like an indoor amusement park. It is incredible.
Brooklyn:We have not been there yet.
Shiku:You need to just to walk around, like, just to feel like you're back in the suburbia.
TJ:Yeah.
Shiku:Every time I miss the suburbia.
Brooklyn:Sometimes I was talking to my mom about this is completely gone. I've talked to my mom about this, about how I miss just walking around the mall.
Shiku:Oh, my God.
Brooklyn:Like just walking around the mall, and I sometimes think about just getting on the path train.
Shiku:And going to Newport and just walking around.
Brooklyn:Yeah, Because it's nothing like it and it's like. Kids today will never know that joy of literally just walking around the mall Right after school, like stopping and getting like free samples from the chicken at the Chinese place.
Shiku:The Mongolian barbecue that was ours.
Brooklyn:I actually might get this. I'm not going to get it no, because $8.
Shiku:I'm poor and I have 20 for the next two weeks Exactly.
Brooklyn:And I'm just walking around, not buying a damn thing.
TJ:No, I was going to say I'm about to show my age, but I remember going to FYE.
Shiku:Where are you from?
TJ:What FYE, FYE yeah, when they used to have the like listening stations.
Brooklyn:Did.
Shiku:FYE exist in your life, and I'm sure you did not. Yeah, what Is that? A mall, is it?
TJ:It's a store in a mall.
Shiku:What did they sell?
TJ:CDs, movies, tapes no, I had a J's video.
Brooklyn:So I kind of know you know like yeah, so like FYE was like what you would think of like best buy-ish, but like really really shrunk. No, no, no no.
Shiku:More music.
Brooklyn:More music. They definitely had movies. But, they had like.
TJ:They had like figurines from like movies, like or mungo pops.
Brooklyn:Like some stuff that you would find on Spenser Like a hobby store almost.
Shiku:Yeah, what have they been really that?
Brooklyn:Kind of like a. It was a place that you can go and get movies and CDs, but also had like random memorabilia.
TJ:Yeah.
Shiku:From said movies and music.
TJ:Did you ever go to a Spencers?
Shiku:Yes.
TJ:So it was like a TV film version.
Shiku:Of Spencers. Yeah, got you. I locked in. I know what's happening Great.
Brooklyn:We went off a little. You know, we all girl, we all.
TJ:But favorite cinematic moment for myself. My goodness, I think, is it's so terrible when?
Brooklyn:it was so bad.
TJ:But the section towards the end of the movie when they're in the power plant yes, the all of the fight scenes that are happening, when him just throwing barrels from the balcony and hitting people in them, just falling down.
Brooklyn:It was the disrespect of the second barrel, the second barrel. Why did he do?
Shiku:it twice. Man is already down.
Brooklyn:He's dead. It's just Bitch. He was mad.
Shiku:But it's a silence, it's a cinematic choice to have no sound in that moment. That just made it so green.
TJ:You know what I mean, yeah.
Shiku:I'm telling you there's nothing quite like this movie. That was, and you wouldn't believe us unless you watch it. You have to watch it. You have to watch it and understand what's happening.
Brooklyn:If you are going to watch it. It's currently available, unfortunately, with commercials on Amazon Prime. So if you have a Prime membership, it is free to you. It just has some commercials. They are very randomly placed and I apologize in advance for that. I think they're strategically placed, but I think you can also rent it on Apple. And it's fairly inexpensive if you want to skip the commercials. But I'm saying, just do it for free the commercials.
TJ:Yeah, it's a great inspiration.
Shiku:Add to the experience Because they'll be like mid slur when it goes into Truvada. Can I help say Right?
TJ:Okay.
Brooklyn:So that brings me to my next point. With the language used in this film, do you think that it has aged well?
TJ:Absolutely not. Absolutely not no.
Shiku:Why, why Is?
Brooklyn:it because they used the, because they say yes Multiple occasions.
Shiku:But I say it on multiple occasions and that's disrespect.
Brooklyn:Well.
TJ:I feel like you're in a different time now.
Shiku:And as a triple homicide I feel like that word's owed to me. I just think I need to reclaim that. I think the thing about it about that word being used.
Brooklyn:The way it was used is it was just used.
Shiku:Yes, it was thrown out.
Brooklyn:It wasn't a slur.
Shiku:No, it was a good color, that was just how they described it. Right.
Brooklyn:Oh, look at these two.
Shiku:Like you're describing what they're wearing Like oh yeah, those two had black shirts, and also they were. They hit me that button one more time.
Brooklyn:And they were, and I know they felt good saying it Like at the funerals, Just being like the two you know.
TJ:Yeah, jesus.
Brooklyn:That were murdered.
Shiku:What, where the heart ER, I mean.
TJ:I expected that going in because of the type of film. It was that part.
Shiku:I thought this was the rise of the AH. No, is that the 90s? I think so, okay.
Brooklyn:Because I don't think we started saying the way. We say it with a heart A and to New York started rapping.
Shiku:Oh okay, so yeah, that's hit 90s.
Brooklyn:Okay.
Shiku:Because I was shocked. I had like physical whiplash the first time.
TJ:I heard it in this movie.
Brooklyn:I was like oh.
Shiku:I said I might need to pray. She was like. That hurt me my heart.
Brooklyn:There are definitely some things that you could not get away with.
Shiku:No, not only Not with that, shitting the whole studio down and coming for your family.
Brooklyn:All right, so we were to remake this today, alright.
TJ:Who has like gravitas, like with, like current age and everything, not just.
Brooklyn:Well, yeah, I would say someone at least above 40 today. Okay, right.
TJ:I immediately go to. I can't remember his name, but he was in Black Mirror in the movie that you won't. Let me say the name out loud. That's why I immediately go to.
Brooklyn:He who I don't say out loud, because if you say his name in the mirror he'll kill you.
Shiku:Oh, oh yes.
Brooklyn:Yes, that movie. I will kick you out of my house. I don't play.
Shiku:No, I don't either, because I like, I feel, like I don't believe and I do believe all at the same time.
TJ:I just don't want to find out.
Brooklyn:It's better safe than sorry. Exactly.
Shiku:I'm gonna leave y'all to kill yourselves and not me, what is his name? He was on Broadway recently.
TJ:Yeah, he was in Top Dog Underdog. He was in Top Dog Underdog, he played, you know not Corey Hawkins, oh yeah.
Brooklyn:Oh, we're talking about the remake.
Shiku:Yeah.
Brooklyn:I was thinking about the original.
Shiku:Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That man is ancient. Yeah, that's what I was like. He's not ancient. The original Candyman he has got to be in his head of these I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Brooklyn:When did we just start dropping the sea bomb like that? Jesus, sorry, sorry, absolutely not. No, he's not that old.
Shiku:I'm pretty sure he is because I just watched that remake recently. He's not that old Because I'm on a huge like black horror cinema. Kick Tony.
Brooklyn:Todd is currently 68. Oh really. Yeah, he could play Black Miller with no issue, because 68 today is not 68 and 62 and 72, I mean yeah. So I was like I feel like. When you said it, I was like, oh yeah.
TJ:I see that?
Brooklyn:What about Keith David?
Shiku:Oh, I was just about, yeah, I was just about to say that would be. He has a, he has a timber for it. And that man's great Like he just performed. Dr Facilia says what is that song? He sings in Princess and the Frog.
Brooklyn:Friends on the other side, yeah, he just sang that and I was.
Shiku:it was so juicy. Yeah he's got, he's got the, he's got the vibe for it.
Brooklyn:OK, I would agree, keith David, keith David for.
Shiku:Black Miller. Who's Tina? Zendaya, because she gets every fucking thing I will not stand for the slander of my girl.
Brooklyn:We're going to take that back.
Shiku:Please run it back. Run it back.
Brooklyn:Who would be Tina? Probably Zendaya.
Shiku:I feel like you could go with someone not as known, though.
TJ:Yeah.
Shiku:But like maybe overcasting people.
Brooklyn:We know. Ok for the sake of this exercise this exercise.
Shiku:People like we know no, because, yeah, I know, I know Zendaya. Yeah, multiple times Multiple times I feel like Bianca, lawson would be a good choice.
Brooklyn:Who is that?
Shiku:She's the black woman that's been playing a teenager for like four decades.
Brooklyn:OK, so she's charmed.
Shiku:She was in PL, liars she was she, she's you know who she is you do?
Brooklyn:I didn't even pull a paper she.
Shiku:Oh no, she hasn't been in something in a long time.
Brooklyn:But she's literally been playing a teenager since we were babies.
Shiku:Yeah, and it's still currently playing as he and she's grown.
TJ:Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes OK.
Shiku:I think she could she was Beyonce.
Brooklyn:Steps is to for a little bit, for a little bit.
Shiku:Yes, she, yes, she, yes, she was my God. Um, if not her, then I mean it'd be nice to see like a dark skin I would love that I think that'd be better.
Brooklyn:Um, because there was definitely some. The men were dark, the women were light in this movie.
Shiku:Yes, yes, yes, they sure were.
Brooklyn:Um, because unfortunately I don't like, if we're updating the cast, we're also updating the story where you'd be looking at someone who could play a more present Tina, because I, if you think, I'm trying to think of somebody who could play kind of like that Whisper of a person that she was in the film.
Shiku:Um, like I still want the idea of like an ingenue. But just give me a little reality to let me feel a little bad when you ultimately meet your demise Because I laughed. That was one of my favorite parts of this movie is like you have this cop who's lined up and he literally closes one eye to get a clear shot, misses the first shot because he hits Portina and then doesn't think to like calibrate, Like he just stays in the same spot and then still misses.
TJ:Yeah, just shooting blanks.
Shiku:Like he had money to blow. I hear her name is she's a British actress and she's the one of the hot commodities right now.
TJ:Um was she on Morning Show no oh British. Yes, she is who played Belle.
Brooklyn:Oh, you're talking about the season one.
TJ:Yeah.
Brooklyn:I'm sorry about the current. I was like the current.
Shiku:I was like she's not.
Brooklyn:I was thinking um so random, uh, coco Jones as Tina. I was like that'd be we could have, like you, put Coco Jones in it. She's absolutely gorgeous. She makes sense as both the characters of the queen from Africa and the reincarnation of her as Tina. But also you can get a moment of one of those random cutaway music breaks of her actually singing.
Shiku:Oh, that's true. I kind of love that.
Brooklyn:I love the idea of Blackie La walking into the bar and she's the person on the mic and that's how they oh that's good, I do like that, Thank you.
Shiku:And Coco Jones has one of those faces that's like she can't be anything but a modern woman Like there's. No, I wouldn't believe you. You're from the roots era, so that feels, but she does give you know, regal presence. I can't find this other actor, so you know it wasn't meant to be Well. We got Keith David, coco Jones and who's going to play the doctor.
Brooklyn:That is Coco Jones Gotcha. Yes, you don't know about Miss Coco she's more contemporary, so it's like she hasn't been in a lot of things that we would have watched together. No she was recently Hillary on the reboot of.
Shiku:Bel Air Gotcha, which I didn't see.
TJ:Okay.
Brooklyn:So Keith David is Blackie La Yup. Coco Jones is Tina Yup. I think that the is it. Is it Yaya, the person who was in the remake of, who was just in Top Dog Underdog? Yeah, I think he'd make a great doctor, yeah. Like I think that those two could play off each other really well.
Shiku:Yeah, cause it also sometimes felt like they were trying to do a parallel between Blackie La and the doctor.
Brooklyn:There was. There was a little bit of that at play, so I think that would be Well, he definitely, he was the, the Van Helsing character of this story, yeah, which is someone who knows, yeah, who knows about vampires, and it's kind of like the authority on. They call him because these weird things are happening.
Shiku:So it makes sense that he would be the one to go huh yeah, and also have a little bit of background knowledge and open to that being a possibility, being a possibility that that was happening, right Cause, why did he just have that big ass resort Isario just chilling in his home Like Condemn he was?
TJ:giving life size Like you don't just take that a church?
Shiku:Like he special order day, he painted it and it's been sitting pretty in his apartment Just waiting for this day, waiting for the day, I think you know since, we're still on casting folks that like Shaniqua Shandai, Shande, Not sure how you say it, I'm not sure I said her last name, but I think Shaniqua would be a great.
Brooklyn:I think that with a little bit of retweaking of the script. I don't know if she'd make a good Tina, but the the wife in this one? No, in this one she's the sister, but in Dracula she's a friend, her name is Lucy and she's the first person who gets like seduced by Dracula. I think that if that character was to make an appearance in this movie she'd be wonderful, because Lucy in Dracula is kind of the, the modern woman Right.
Shiku:She's like.
Brooklyn:I got she's like I got. I got suitors who are trying to marry me. Okay, my dance card is full. She's very much like and I feel like she would carry that so well She'd be dripped in it dripped in it.
TJ:I was going to offer up someone else um Naturi from um Power. Okay Place Tasha, oh, or fame.
Shiku:If you remember, the thing is I, the thing is I don't hate that, I don't hate that.
Brooklyn:I don't hate that 15 years ago.
TJ:I was going to say I feel like she could go toe to toe with Keith.
Brooklyn:I think she's a touch too much to, and I don't say I won't, I don't want to say too old now, but I feel like if they're she wears her hair age yeah, so like.
Shiku:And I think the big point too is that, like Tina is so much younger she's supposed to be so much younger, she's supposed to read his youth and innocence to his much older. Yeah.
Brooklyn:So I think that someone like Naturi around the time that she was playing little Kim makes, then I could be like absolutely but right now. She's lived a life We've seen what she can do. I think if we were going to give her a role, she would probably be like Tina's mom.
Shiku:Yeah, yeah, auntie, auntie, older sister, she's got too much wisdom in her eyes and I need someone a little bit more, a little empty behind.
Brooklyn:Like, but I feel like, I feel like her and the character who does not exist In this film. So we're totally putting somebody in, but like the mother who's like, I don't know about him.
Shiku:Yeah, and you just sneak an up into the world. You need to watch that, yeah.
Brooklyn:She eventually gets killed by Dracula because she's of course, she's a hindrance between his love.
Shiku:Yeah, but I feel like that's very much a character.
Brooklyn:Okay.
Shiku:Dang, I didn't realize how much backstory I needed to watch this movie.
TJ:I know right.
Shiku:I feel like I'm understanding it in a whole new light. Thank you, professor. Oh, I do what I can.
Brooklyn:Because this is one of the. This is one of the films that we have watched thus far. Mm, hmm, that I could say I've never seen. Yeah, I had no idea. Never yeah Like until fairly recently I think we were watching it was a documentary on Shutter and it was about black, the black element in horror films, and they go back like way back up until current. And I didn't know Blackula, like I thought that that was a joke, like I didn't really think that that was a real thing, like I'd heard the name before, but it sounds like a parody.
Shiku:It sounds like something he's finding on black Twitter. Yeah.
Brooklyn:So to find out that it no, it's a thing it had sequels in this character exists. But then to watch the film and it be like, oh Okay, so we tried to actually make a movie. This wasn't a what black expectation would eventually become to like shoot them up, pimps and hoes, kind of things Like this was very this was a grounded horror film.
Shiku:It was storytelling.
TJ:Yeah. It was like genuine storytelling.
Brooklyn:This is one of the moves I've never seen. I'm really happy that I got a chance to watch it. I'm really happy I got to watch it with you all.
Brooklyn:Because you could see the you could point out the absurdities of the film, but also appreciated for what it is as well and I kind of love in some of these movies. I love that I don't feel like there was really an antagonist. I feel like I kind of could understand both sides of it Like I wasn't. I didn't think that Blackhealer was the villain but, I, also didn't think that the doctor character was the villain. They were just coming at it from two different places.
Shiku:It was.
Brooklyn:He is trying to protect Tina. He wants to love Tina.
Shiku:That's it. That's it. I do really like that, I do.
Brooklyn:And I love that it was. And this is to say nothing about the white element in horror, but I do love that this was a black movie. Like all the leads were black. There was never. There was never that outside element needed to tell this story the way it needed to be told. I thought that was really Right cause even the characters that are played by white performers like could have just been black.
Shiku:I just really enjoyed that. I didn't have to see that many black people get nuked. You know absolutely slap silly, disrespected on the dome by Blackhealer and the way they make him seem so strong to in this movie. I think, is a cultural lesson for movies, because it's just a simple back of the hand.
Brooklyn:Like mm-hmm, it's a slap, it's a slap. It's just a threat of it all Disrespectful slap. No, it's like I'm not even gonna respect you enough. You weak little thing, bitch, slap across my ears.
Shiku:Okay, like a rat, like just swat in flies. It was amazing.
Brooklyn:I enjoyed that. I can't get over the barrel. I'm sorry. I'm never gonna get over the second. I think you have to insert the clip of the barrel yes, yes.
Shiku:But just like a little like, add some edits where, just like it loops itself on that second throw when he's already down. Oh my God, so stupid. He flattened him out. He was making pasta out of that. My man, my goodness.
Brooklyn:Yeah, okay, so we've come to the part in the show where we rate the movie.
Shiku:Rate the movie.
Brooklyn:And I'm gonna go first to get us kicked off. I'm sure everyone will not agree with me, but what is the scale? That's the fun part, yeah.
Shiku:Okay, okay.
Brooklyn:I'm gonna give this movie eight mutton chops out of 10.
Shiku:Out of 10? Out of 10. Eight mutton chops.
Brooklyn:Eight.
TJ:Okay, all right.
Shiku:Eight.
Brooklyn:Yeah, there are, and the reason it gets deductions for me is a lot of the things that didn't age well, the things that the story plot holds, that could be improved upon.
Brooklyn:But I think that other than that, it still sits above the average for me, which is like a five, because there are some things that I really appreciate about it. I love that it showed elegant black masculinity without having to be aggressive or intoxic in a way. I love that the way they chose to explain how he became Blackula was that he was trying to stop a great evil from happening, and I love that they painted Dracula as a more sympathetic character, because you could sit in a place of understanding where he's coming from. He's not the monster going oogity boogity under the band. Yes, I said oogity boogity.
Shiku:I want my monsters to say oogity, boogity, you're willing to face them? Then Eight mutton chops.
Brooklyn:Okay, what are your?
Shiku:scores. I'm talking shit like. I'm not about to rate this movie a seven out of 10 mutton chops, Because I feel like A you can't enjoy modern black horror films without seeing this to know where it came from.
Shiku:And there were moments where I was genuinely scared, like the scene because we didn't get to talk about it earlier. But the scene where he's, where one of the waitresses is, like developing photos and Blackula goes to kill her, like genuinely had me a little spooked. I jumped, I was like, oh whoa, I felt a danger in that moment. That thought was great and, like you said, blackula is that guy, like he would go to the ends of the world for his lady and I think all men should step up to be like Blackula. You know what I mean.
TJ:Like lay your life down in the sun for me. Or it's not really love.
Brooklyn:Well, I agree. Just really quickly before you come in, TJ, just a tidbit that I learned, that I never understood this. The reason that vampires cannot be photographed is because until recently, until before digital photography, that it was with mirrors and they don't have a reflection. So the fact that all of the cameras use mirrors to take the picture that they wanna show, up in photography.
Shiku:I just want to put that out there.
Brooklyn:Okay, brooklyn, with the history, Professor.
Shiku:Professor, you're here. Professor, you're getting you a Starbucks gift card. You want five dollars. It's all I got. You burned it. I'll take that.
TJ:TJ, it's a solid six button chops for me.
Shiku:That's higher than I thought.
TJ:And as to, yeah, I was it, and I will say the turning point for me, because it was sitting at a three until we got to, don't?
Brooklyn:look at me like that. I wish you could see my face right now. People, I'm out of disgust with you right now.
TJ:It was sitting at a three for me until the quote, and that's when I got strapped in.
Shiku:Oh, can we repeat it for us one more time, tj, please, please, let me go this Shakespearean love line Of this 90 minute movie.
Brooklyn:Will you let me finish my point? It sat at a three, Is that you? Yes?
TJ:yes, it was sitting at a three, I mean this was pretty.
Shiku:The quote that I am referencing yes, but let's hear it. Let us be blessed. Dramatic reading.
TJ:It was when Blackie LaSette and I quote I have lived again to lose you twice.
Shiku:You better talk your shit, TJ you.
TJ:That's an audio vibe for your real Okay that was exquisite. But yeah, so it gets a solid six for me. That quote changed the trajectory of the film for me and made me really understand the like undertone of love in the film that I did not know was that present until that happened. Got you yeah.
Brooklyn:I feel like maybe because I do have a little forehand, like knowledge of the story of Dracula that I knew walking in, that it was going to be a love story between these two people.
Shiku:A little bit of knowledge. Honey, you were the professor of a goddamn novel, just full description of that.
TJ:You know what I'm saying. Like you, spent years I love horror. Yeah, sweet Lord, don't you All right.
Brooklyn:So at this point I say your scores mean nothing. They mean absolutely nothing. This is where we decide if the movie goes on the list or not. It is a majority rule.
Shiku:There are three of us here. I love that.
Brooklyn:So two people.
Shiku:Overpower the other one On the other.
Brooklyn:So it's a decision on whether or not it goes on. The list Happens right now, so you are the guest, so you get to cast the first ballot on whether or not this goes on to the list of black movies that you must watch.
Shiku:So that people can throw the first stone at me. I see what you did there. Okay, in my opinion. I think if you are a connoisseur in black culture and you love the horror genre, you have to watch Black US. You can't get out of it. You need to know where we begin, to know where we're going.
Brooklyn:The humble beginnings. So everyone will now know how I'm voting. Continue.
Shiku:But TJ.
TJ:TJ. What are your thoughts?
Shiku:What are your thoughts?
TJ:Surprisingly, because last week that one did not make it on the list. Surprisingly, this one makes it on the list for me.
Shiku:Oh yeah, Despite the three, it's sad at Come on three Mutton shops. Do you want a little? I do.
TJ:Oh, that's okay, I will give it to you.
Shiku:Thank you, you want to do it again. Yeah, I want a horn.
TJ:All right, oh, okay, calm down, we get the kind of budget.
Shiku:But I offered the five dollar Starbucks gift card OK.
Brooklyn:So, TJ, are you saying you're putting this on?
Shiku:the list.
TJ:It is officially on the list.
Shiku:That's right.
TJ:Well, yes, and truthfully, mainly for myself, I agree that, like it's films that come from, like Jordan Peele, I don't think can exist without something like this.
Brooklyn:Yeah. So, yeah, it is a true, it's a first step. Because it's not the first step? Because I want to say that Night of the Living Dead Was the first one, which would have probably been the first we had like a black male lead. He did die in the end, but you know.
TJ:Damn.
Brooklyn:Yeah, we'll talk about that on another month, because that one is not a black movie, but yeah.
Shiku:Yay. So we all know how I felt on the film. I don't think we do. I think we need a real clear statement.
Brooklyn:I really enjoyed it from top to bottom. There are a few things that, of course, I would take out of it. I think that it is a true stepping stone in horror, and I wish that I had seen it a lot earlier. I will probably privately be watching the sequels Because Scream, Draggy the Scream I feel like it's going to be awful Just in the best way.
Brooklyn:It's going to give Black. Ella did well. So we're going to completely flip the script and it's going to be like real black exploitation, like black at it, black, black black.
Shiku:Like he's just going to be running on a boardwalk. Just like bite it next, like I feel like there's going to be someone in the movie named Superfly.
Brooklyn:I just I know it, I know it, I know it. There's going to be a bunch of white women and just get like tossed around Just running, it is going to be that and I cannot wait to watch it. But this film definitely 100% needs to be on your watch list, and I think it's a really fun one. It's not a long movie.
Brooklyn:You can get through it fairly quickly. If you want to get through it faster, you can definitely skip some of the musical breaks that go on for far 20 minutes Far too long, but you need it for the fashion yeah.
Shiku:You do need it for the looks.
Brooklyn:That's true. The looks, and oh.
Shiku:Oh.
Brooklyn:See, see, see, that's not that's.
Shiku:That's where we messed up, because we didn't talk about the look. We did not talk about the looks, I just want to say watch it If you were looking to upgrade your personal style like some of these choices. It's giving.
Brooklyn:Yeah, I love a good Energy.
TJ:Yeah, love a good Kate. It's cozy.
Shiku:Like a full suit, Like if you were doing full formal. Come on.
Brooklyn:So that'll be for our next podcast, the fashion horror review. Thank you, thank you, yeah.
TJ:And that's a wrap. Thanks for listening to the black, as you can find us on Instagram at the black movie podcast. We'll see you next week.