Pam Grier – Tripping Through Gateways

Blacula was a straight forward vampire film. And it spawned a sequel. Because if Dracula can keep coming back, why can’t Blacula??!!

In this film, the embittered son of a voodoo priestess seeks revenge against the Voodoo Community names another member as her successor. He raises Blacula from the dead, who swiftly turns him into a vampire. Again they start to build a vampire army.

A police Detective, Justin Carter is trying to solve the case of mysterious deaths, which lead him to Lisa. Lisa is the woman chosen by the Voodoo Community and a former lover of Carter’s. Blacula comes to desire Lisa and also believes she may be able to cure his vampirism through voodoo.

The film has some weird points, such as the bizarrely Nice Racist trope in the sheriff. He does not hate Justin, but he is dismissive of him at times.

While the film is not quite as good as Blacula, it does have some great moments. And both Marshall and Pam Grier turn in great performances. There is one scene between Blacula and Carter where there is a cat and mouse dance. It is an effectively tense scene.

It is kind of interesting to note that this came out the same year as Ganja & Hess. They approach the vampire myth from very different perspectives. Ganja & Hess is a deep dive into addiction and is largely an arthouse horror film. Scream, Blacula, Scream is a very standard sequel that is about quick scares and blood.

Really, though, Scream, Blacula, Scream manages to be a pretty entertaining follow up to the first film.

In the future, the terraforming of Mars has begun There are colonies all over Mars. The world is now a Matriarchy. A police force is sent to Mars to transfer prisoner Desolation Williams. They arrive to find the town empty except for some folks in lock up, including Desolation. He and the others have no real answer for what is happening.

They soon discover that there may be more to it than a murder spree. The ghosts of Mars indigenous population are taking over the bodies of earthlings. Melanie Ballard is a tough space cop and finds herself aligned with Williams, who proclaims his innocence in the murders of countless colonists. While she believes he is not a killer, she believes in following her orders and bringing him in, but survival requires them to wait on that and work together. The spirits or organisms (whatever they are) take over people…in stage one they stare intensely at their hands. Then they start mutilating themselves. Then they get violent.

The exploration of the mystery gets slow at times, and there is a lot of running around that feels like padding for the story. The film is bloody and violent when not being slow and expository.

The story is basically told in flashback with Ballard giving testimony about what happened. Then there are the flashbacks in flashbacks. This gets tiring fast as characters show up to tell Ballard what she missed.

In addition, the acting is fairly weak in most cases and nothing is to compelling. The reveal of the cause it a twist that neither surprises nor adds to the situation.

It is interesting to note that the film started as Escape From Mars, a Snake Plissken tale. The studio got a bit uncomfortable with a third Escape film and opted to have Carpenter change up the story.

There is no telling if Escape From Mars would have been a better film than Ghosts of Mars, but this is easily the worst of Carpenter’s work.

John Carpenter’s first sequel. Escape From L.A. brings back Snake Plissken. The setup here is that in the late 20th century, a Presidential predicts a major earthquake will hit California and Las Vegas because of their sinful ways. Unlike Pat Robertson, his prediction comes true. American makes the now island of Los Angeles a one way prison. The president was elected to a lifetime appointment. They instituted a theocracy. If you were to sinful you were sent to L.A. (but you get the option to repent of your sin and be immediately electrocuted).

In the future of 2013, the President’s daughter (oddly named Utopia, because a hyper-religious parent would name their kid Utopia? Or is the implication that he used to be a hippie?) has stolen an important prototype and run off to L.A. Like before, the government calls in Snake Plissken and forces hm to make a deal to go into L.A. and get the prototype back so a potential invasion of America can be averted.

Plissken runs into all sorts of Oddballs, such as evil plastic surgeons and a surfer gang. He gets help from the morally ambiguous Map to the Stars Eddie and the sexy Taslima. He takes on Cuervo Jones in an attempt to get the prototype.

Like most sequels, Escape From L.A. mimics Escape from New York a lot. There is even a scene where he walks into a club and finds a dead Rescue Team member he was tracking. On the other hand, the film really amps up the action.

The film has stuff that does not really make sense. The Evangelical President outlawed eating of red meat? I mean, it might make more sense if the laws were based in Old Testament. The effects are not..well…effective. Many scenes are clearly green screened. The basketball sequence just does not compare to the gladiatorial combat of the first film.

This is not to say the film is terrible. The cast, including Steve Buscemi, Valeria Golina, Pam Grier, Stacy Keach and Cliff Robertson are all good. And Russell slips right back into the skin of Snake Plissken with ease. One of the most entertaining moments is when Snake is captured by the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills (Played by Bruce Campbell). He leads a group of surgically enhanced misfits…they need to keep replenishing their body parts and look like the surgical disasters of nightmare on E! Television.

Escape From L.A. is fun, but comes no where near the classic status of Escape from New York.

Tag: Pam Grier

Voodoo Salvation (Scream, Blacula, Scream, 1973)

Ghosts With Tattoos (the Ghosts of Mars, 2001)

I Love L.A. (Escape From L.A., 1996)