The Blaxploitation Horror Film: Adaptation, Appropriation and the Gothic (Horror Studies)

A comparative analysis of how mainstream and Blaxploitation horror films interpret and adapt classic Gothic tales. This book is the first to put Blaxploitation horror films such as Blacula in conversation with both mainstream horror movies and classic Gothic stories. Jamil Mustafa argues that mainstream horror films adapt while Blaxploitation horror films appropriate the vampire, the Frankenstein monster, the evil spirit, the zombie, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the werewolf for their unique audiences and purposes. Ultimately, he reveals how Blaxploitation horror films reinvent the archetypes of Gothic fiction and film, not to exploit but to satisfy Black audiences. This book, the first on Blaxploitation horror films such as Blacula, compares them with both mainstream horror movies and canonical Gothic stories. While conventional horror movies adapt the classic monsters of Gothic fiction, Blaxploitation horror films radically transform them.