We recorded this one back in February to close out Sled dSeason, and we've been sitting on it — but good things are worth the wait. A Black History Month double feature that earns its place: both films follow the same blueprint — a Black vampire dropped into a modern urban landscape, chasing a reincarnated love and dragging a Renfield-type ghoul behind him. The parallels are undeniable.

Blacula is historically significant and cinematically rough. William Marshall is genuinely commanding, but the ADR is a disaster and the pacing will test you. Vampire in Brooklyn has the cast (Murphy, Bassett, Hardison, Witherspoon at peak Witherspoon) and still squanders it — a Wes Craven-directed Coming to America with fangs and no teeth.

The real conversation goes deeper: blaxploitation's double-edged legacy, what Blacula actually got right, and how Vampire in Brooklyn ends up undermining everything it seemed to stand for. Plus a hook hand nobody else saw and a very compelling shared cinematic universe theory.