NOTES
[1] The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominated Davis for Best Leading Actress along with Prince-Bytewood in the category of Best Director.  The Warrior King also received nominations from the Film Critics Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Satellite Awards, American Film Institute (AFI) Awards, the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Choice Awards, among a voluminous list of others.  Wins were received from the Black Film Critics Circle Awards, the Critics Choice, NAACP Image Awards, Black Reel Awards, and AFI, to name a few--wins for Best Picture/Movie of the Year, Actress (Davis) and Directing (Prince-Bythewood), with members of the ensemble cast, and those working behind the scenes in editing or cinematography also garnering accolades. ​

[2] Bassett won the NAACP Image awards for both 9-1-1 and Wakanda Forever, along with the BAFTA, Hollywood Critics Association, Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and Black Reel Awards for her lead role as Queen Ramonda.  

[3] The Black female actresses who have received Oscars, all for a supporting role:  Hattie McDaniels (Gone With the Wind (1945)), Whoopie Goldberg (Ghost (1991)) Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls (2007)), Mo’Nique (Precious (2010)), Octavia Spencer (The Help (2012)), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave (2013)),Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk (2019)), and Ariana DeBose (West Side Story (2022))​.

Works Cited
9-1-1.  Creators Brad Falchuk, Tim Minear, and Ryan Murphy.  Reamworks/Ryan Murphy Television/20th Century Fox Television, 2018-2023.

“Afrofuturism:  A History of Black Futures.”  National Museum of African American History and Culture.  Smithsonian.  https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/afrofuturism.  Accessed 2 May 2023.

American Horror Story.  Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy.  FX Network/Brad Falchuck Teley-Vision/Ryan Murphy Productions, 2013-2018.

Black Panther.  Director Ryan Coogler.  Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures, 2018.

Black Panther:  Wakanda Forever.  Director Ryan Coogler.  Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures, 2022.

Boyz n the Hood.  Director John Singleton.  Columbia Pictures, 1991. 

Braveheart.  Director Mel Gibson.  Icon Entertainment International/The Ladd Company/B.H.Finance C.V., 1996.

Chi-Raq.  Director Spike Lee.  40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks/Amazon Studios, 2015.

Cho, Kelly Kasulis.  “The Oscars were a milestone for Asian artists:  ‘This is a beacon of hope.’”     Washington Post.  The Washington Post, 1996-2023.  https://                        www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2023/03/13/oscars-michelle-yeoh-asian-winners/#.              Accessed 25 April 2023.  

Contact.  Director Robert Zemeckis.  Warner Bros./South Side Amusement Company, 1997.

Doubt.  Director John Patrick Shanley.  Goodspeed Productions/Scott Rudin Productions, 2009.

The Elephant Whisperers.  Director Kartiki Gonsalves, Sikhya Entertainment, 2022.

Everything Everywhere All at Once.  Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.  A24/IAC Films/AGBO, 2022.

Fences.  Director Denzel Washington.  BRON Studios/Escape Artists/MACRO, 2017.

Green Lantern.  Director Martin Campbell.  Warner Bros./De Line Pictures/DC Entertainment, 2011.

Glory.  Director Edward Zwick.  TriStar Pictures/Freddie Fields Productions, 1989.

“Halle, Denzel Make Oscar history.”  March 24, 2002.  ABCNews.  ABC News Internet Ventures, 2023.  https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/halle-denzel-make-oscar-history/story?            id=101254.  Accessed 25 April 2023.

The Help.  Director Tate Taylor.  DreamWorks/Dreamworks Pictures/Reliance Film & Entertainment, 2012.

The Last Samurai.  Director Edward Zwick.  Watner Bros/Bedford Falls Company/Cruise- Wagner Productions, 2004.

London Has Fallen.  Director Babak Najafi.  Millennium Films/G-BASE/Gramercy Pictures, 2016.

Malcolm X.  Director Spike Lee.  Largo International N.V./JVC Entertainment Networks/40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, 1992. 

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.  Director George C. Wolfe.  Escape Artists/Mundy Lane Entertainment/Netflix, 2021. 

Mission Impossible:  Fallout.  Director Christopher McQuarrie.  Paramount Pictures/Skydance Media/TC Productions, 2018.

Montalván, Karla.  “From Best Actress to Best Picture, Hispanics And Latinos Have Taken Over the Oscar Nominations.”  Febrero 09. 2022.  People.  Meredith Latino Network, 2023. https://peopleenespanol.com/chica/hispanic/.  Accessed 25 April 2023.

Napolitano, Laura, ed.  Preview.  Spring/March-May 2023.  North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA).

Olympus Has Fallen.  Director Antoine Fuqua.  Millennium Films/G-BASE, 2013.

The Patriot.  Director Roland Emmerich.  Columbia Pictures/entropolis Entertainment/Mutual Film Company, 2001.

RRR.  Director S.S. Rajamouli.  DVV Entertainment, 2022.

Supernova.  Director Walt Hill.  Hammerhead Productions/Metro-Goldyn-Mayer (MGM)/ Screenland Pictures, 2000.

Vampire in Brooklyn.  Director Wes Craven.  Eddie Murphy Productions/Paramount Pictures,         1995.

Waiting to Exhale.  Director Forest Whitaker.  Twentieth Century Fox, 1995.

What’s Love Got to Do with It.  Director Brian Gibson.  Touchstone Pictures, 1993.

The Woman King.  Director Gina Prince-Bythewood.  TriStar Pictures/Eone Entertainment/TSG Entertainment, 2022.

     Angela Bassett and Viola Davis are two exceptional actresses with extraordinary careers:  Bassett with over a hundred productions in film, tv, and voice-over work, while also directing and producing;  Davis with similar hallmarks as both an actor, director, and producer, while providing voice-/sound-work. Aptly, audiences watched to see the acknowledgements the Academy would confer on them this year. 

​   Shockingly, Davis, a member of the coveted EGOT world--those awarded the highest achievements in entertainment:  Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony--was shunned.  Being the most nominated actress of African-descent to receive Oscar nominations:  Best Actress in a Leading Role for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2021) and The Help (2012);  and Best Supporting Actress for Fences (2017) and Doubt (2009), she walked with the golden statue for Fences.  However, she has, yet, to join Halle Berry as another Women of Color to be recognized for work in a leading role.  Considering these accolades, it is all the more disconcerting that Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King did not receive multiple nominations, not just for Leading Actress, but also, Directing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Picture, Writing (and so on)?  The film did receive such recognition from other venues.[Note1]  I offer such a thought because similar new historicist films like Braveheart (1996), The Last Samurai (2004), The Patriot (2001), Glory (1989) did receives nods from the Academy, not only in terms of nominations but also with wins.  What is the difference...female director...chronicling the height of civilization on the continent of Africa at the start of colonization...the military leadership of women? 

    Clearly, if we allow the facts to speak for themselves, Woman King defies every patriarchal norm, captured in the oxymoronic nature of the film’s title.  We have woman queens and male kings, not the inverse, and so even though Prince-Bythewood’s text offers a factual context for how/why the mythical monarchy of Wakanda would have a Dora Milaje, such truth may have been too unsettling for the Academy membership--at least to be recognized and rewarded.  What a disappointing revelation to have in 2023.  For, in terms of big screen action, storyline, character relationships and development, and most significantly for Davis--the daunting physical, psychological, and emotional demands on the lead actor--there is little difference between elements found in The Woman King that resulted in big wins for other films (ex., Gibson’s combat scenes in a kilt;  Washington’s race across the battlefields, dropping his weapon to pick up the American flag;  Cruise’s mastering of a samurai sword, and so on). 

       In regards to Bassett, who could not understand her disappointment in hearing Jamie Lee Curtis’s name announced for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role?  Mind you, I, too, am a Curtis fan, having watched her father’s films on tv as a child and seeing fans gravitate to every reiteration of the Halloween plot-twists.  In this regard, I am happy for Curtis, who also has a loooong movie career with some interesting roles, but is Deidre Beaubeirdre’s character really that enduring or memorable?  No one will forget Queen Ramonda and the legacy she reflects as Queen-Mother of the Black Panthers:  T’Challa and Shuri!  Here-in, Bassett may have happened upon that once-in-a-lifetime, pinnacle,  “je ne sais quoi” moment in her career.  I, certainly, will never forget her bereaved speech about “having given everything.”  You could hear a pin-drop in the theater, and all were equally overcome when she gave her life to save Riri Williams/Ironheart.  Were such spellbinding moments created by Curtis in Everything Everywhere All at Once?  In addition, Bassett’s rendition of Queen Ramonda comes after so much other, brilliant work:  Athena Grant in 9-1-1 (2018-2023);  Marie Laveau, Desiree Dupree, Ramona Royale, Lee Harris, and Monet Tumuslime in American Horror Story (2013-2018);  Erika Sloane from Mission Impossible:  Fallout (2018);  Lynne Jacobs in London Has Fallen (2016) and Olympus Has Fallen (2013);  Miss Helen in Chi-Raq (2015);  Doctor Waller in Green Lantern (2011);  Dr. Kaela Evers in Supernova (2000);  Rachel Constantine in Contact (1997);  Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993).  What these roles have in common--and note, I haven’t mentioned her celebrated roles as a mother, wife, or love-interest in popular Black films like Boyz n the Hood (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), or Waiting to Exhale (1995)--are representations of powerful, enduring, and endearing women who are unwavering in the face of insurmountable odds.  Do you see the point?  In essence, Bassett has played indomitable personalities for decades and, finally, she happened upon a striking part that was perfect for her and this moment in time.  (Consider Ruth Carter’s receiving a second Oscar for her costuming designs for Black Panther:  Wakanda Forever, with productions on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC) special exhibit on Afrofuturism (“Afrofuturism”), along with North Carolina’s Museum of Art (NCMA) displaying her work from April-August of 2023 in their “Ruth E. Carter:  Afrofuturism in Costume Design” (Napolitano)).  For these reasons, the Academy must be commended for Bassett’s nomination but why not the win, accolades she did receive elsewhere? [Note 2]

    Yet, again, I don’t want paranoia and conspiracy theories to reign, but it seems as if the status quo does not want women of African-descent to have a monarchal presence.  Even so, we are rightful heirs to this unprecedented fact.  We are Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Makeda, Sheba.  They are our cultural and historical ancestors, and no matter how much the image is thwarted or transferred to another (casting these characters as non-representative women of African-descent), the remnants remain.  For me, then, it was disheartening to not see Davis’s face with Michelle Yeoh’s, when the majority group of Anglo-descended women were named for Leading Lady and for Bassett’s name to not be read for the winner in the role of Best Supporting Actress.  Such an observation takes nothing away from the brilliant performances the other actors gave in their range of riveting roles.  The conundrum remains, however;  there seems to be a comfort in seeing and applauding women in the trials that they surmount, but Women of Color, especially those who are African-descended, should not reflect royalty.  [See NOTE 3, which lists the Black female actresses who have received Oscars, all for a supporting role.]. Thus, whether this is the intended message or not, an impression is being sent that 1) Women of African-descent can't be Oscar-award-winning Leading Ladies, and 2) they can't be captured as sovereign.  Such an impressions is only compounded by the absence of Oscar nods to two queens, literally and figuratively (or one queen and a woman king) at the 95th Academy Awards celebration. 

    Fortunately, for the Asian-American community, this was a laudable year, with wins for an Actress in a Leading Role (Yeoh);  Supporting Male Actor (Ke Huy Quan);  the many other wins for Everything Everywhere All at Once (7 oscars, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director); along with Indian artists, M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose, for “Naatu Naatu” (from the film RRR);  and another Indian documentary, The Elephant Whisperers, which “made history as the first Indian documentary short” (Cho).  Honestly, I might have voted for Yeoh, myself, but Davis definitely should have been a contender.  Embracing diversity along these lines is valuable and necessary, but the precedence remains:  why must it be one or the other--Black wins (ex. Halle Berry’s Lead Actress, Denzel Washington’s Leading Actor in 2002, the same year that Sidney Poiter was given a second Oscar for Lifetime Achievement (“Halle, Denzel”)), an overwhelming number of nominations for LatinX creators in 2022 (Montalván), and Asian achievement (this year)?  Such a conundrum was all the more pronounced in having Berry--in Will Smith’s absence--announce this year’s winner for Lead Actress.  In other words, in light of Smith’s debacle last year--for which he should have been ejected from the ceremony with no chance to deliver an acceptance speech and, perhaps, anticipating the acrimony that would arise in shunning Davis, Bassett, and Prince-Bythewood--the Academy leadership subtlety and problematically sent a message that said, “Let’s not forget the history that was made at the 74th Awards ceremony, twenty-one years ago, when Black Excellence was celebrated.  Unfortunately, in 2023, we should no longer have to look at achievement in such divisive terms.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see talent applauded without the woeful appearance of one demographic being singled out over another.

    Recently, thanks to Don Solomon, Director of Communications at the National Humanities Center, I watched Netflix’s The Invitation (2022).  What a wonderful addition to an interesting tradition of African-descended women in the roles of vampires.  Going back to Ganga, played by Marlene Clark in Ganga and Hess (1973);  Katrina, performed by Gail Jones in Vamp (1986);  Rita, portrayed by Angela Bassett from Vampire in Brooklyn (1995);  and Queen Akasha, depicted by popular R&B singer, Aaliyah, in the adaptation of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned (2002), La Femme Blacula--my term--has had a fraught appeal on her audience.  This love-hate attraction is further explored through literature:  Octavia Butler’s Fledgling (2005), Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories (1991), L.A. Bank’s The Bitten (2005), Pearl Cleage’s Just Wanna Testify (2011).  Certainly, if this is an area of interest, you might want to peruse  Kendra Parker’s Black Female Vampires in African American Women’s Novels:  1977-2011:  She Bites Back (2018).  Another useful read could be The Paradox of Blackness in African American Vampire Fiction (2019) by Jerry Rafiki Jenkins.  In addition, there is Nicole Givens Kurtz’s Slay:  Stories of the Vampire Noire (2020) and Uriah Derick D’Arcy’s The Black Vampyre:  A Legend of St. Domingo (2020).  Moreover, I have a chapter on girl vampires in Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls:  Watch It! (2023), whereby I focus on the televised series, The Passage (2019)--books by Justin Cronin--and the film, The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)--adapted from a story and novel by Mike Carey/M.R. Carey.


    So what is up with this fascination with the Black female vampire, who first appeared in Blacula (1972), starring William Marshall in the titular role, directed by William Crain, with her reappearance in Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973) starring Pam Grier?  Why is she enduring in literature and on the screen?  I think The Invitation, directed by Jessica M. Thompson, offers some insights.  For even when infected by the monstrosity--the tainting of her blood with vampire venom—some of her humanity remains--at least in the ones we love who were human at first and not, ostensibly, the monster genetically from the onset (ex., Jone’s Katrina in Vamp).  There are some exceptions to this thought (Ganga from Ganga and Hess , for instance), but let’s focus on Evie and her backstory.


    Evie Jackson (aka Evelyn Alexander) is the only female descendent in the Alexander family-line.  Unbeknownst to her, her ancestors are part of a vampire quadrumvirate.  Walter “Walt” DeVille (aka Dracula) is the “Master” of the group and to ensure his--and their--immortality, he is wed to a woman from three human families:  The Alexanders from London, The Billingtons of Whitby, and The Klopstocks in Budapest;  “[they] have served the DeVilles for years."  The Klopstocks monitor his money, and he has been joined to Viktoria for 500 years.  His second bride is Lucy Billington, to whom he has been wed for 100 years;  the Billingtons offer Dracula/Walt his legal representation.  The Alexanders manage his real estate.  Evie’s grandmother, Emmaline, was the last Alexander bride.  However, having fallen in love with a Black footman with whom she had a child--she yearns for normalcy and has no desire to fulfill the family’s contract.  Committing suicide, she hopes to end Walt’s coven, literally saying, “It all ends here...with me.”  However, even in extricating her descendants from an eternal bond to Walt DeVille, they are not safe.  


    One hundred years have passed, and now orphaned, Evie longs for connection and a sense of purpose.  As a result, when she works as a server at an “Unlocking Your Past”/“Find Yourself” DNA event, she leaves with a grab-bag--commandeered by her best friend Grace--and decides to check her genealogy and ascertain if she has any surviving relatives.  A cousin from England, Oliver Alexander surprises her with an email, wanting to meet.  Over lunch, he invites her to the UK, coaxing her to attend “the wedding of the century”--between Martin Alexander and Cecile “Cece” DeVille.  He also tells her that “[she] is part of the family scandal,” yet despite her great-grandmother’s affair, “everyone is utterly overjoyed” to meet her.  Of course, Oliver lies to her, as Martin and Cece do not exist.  The purpose of her travel is to complete the quadrumvirate pact, whereby Evie fulfills her family’s polygamous union with Walt DeVille.  Thus, on the first night of her reunion with the Alexanders, Great Uncle Alfred, “the patriarch” acknowledges her with a toast, welcoming “Eve”lyn into the family:  “What a gift” and a “bless[ing]….So many boys;  we thought we were done for” (The Invitation).   
        
     Here-in begins the poignant iteration of an African-descended, woman vampire.  Evie/Evelyn/“Eve”lyn is the family’s Eve, and we will discover that she is a metaphoric Eve to Walt’s entire coven.  Even though she will not sire any children, literally, she is the , figurative, key to “pro”creation, fortifying Walt’s, Viktoria’s and Lucy’s immortality while ensuring the continued dominance and wealth of the three families—particularly the Alexanders.  She is also the key to death for neighboring humans, as her completion of the circle ensures the demise of more generations of servants who clean the DeVille home, attend to his guests, and are murdered for their nourishing blood.  Once these issues are revealed in the film, the sight of Evie, standing in the midst of a majority, white male audience, literally being called “Eve”lyn, it makes sense to link her to the Christian matriarch, Eve, the “womb-man” charged with birthing the origins and downfall of all humanity (Genesis 3:1-4:26).  For that matter, just as Eve was vital to her partnership with Adam (the biological father of humanity) and mother to Cain and Abel (who unleash a spirit of murder and jealously upon the earth), so too is Evie destined to walk a similar path, keeping vampires alive and damning humanity with an immortal threat.  Moreover, akin to the original Eve, Evie is tempted by the serpent in the garden or, in this case, the snake on the estate.  Over the next few days, Walt courts her with a romantic fervor, and anyone attracted to men will swoon at his dizzying gaze and alluring smile.  
         
    Is he really a monster at all?  On the night when Viktoria sneaks into Evie’s room to frighten her--she is not “playing nicely,” as Walt demanded of her earlier in the day--Walt comes to Evie’s aid.  Comforting her, he drops his guard, asking of her deepest hopes and fears and sharing his own.  She vents that she has been “treading water,” “barely scraping by” and “wan[ts] to live life fully...throw[ing] caution to the wind.  He reveals that “[He’s] tired of the facade....[He wants] someone to see [him] for who [he] truly [is].  Doesn’t try to change [him] into an idea or into a concept or an itch that they need to scratch.  Someone that accepts [him].”  After disclosing, he looks to Evie for affirmation and understanding, but she has fallen asleep.  Is he being honest or telling her what she wants to hear?  On the one hand, it would seem as if Viktoria and Lucy are giving him the love and support that he needs;  certainly during Evie and Walt’s courtship and during the wedding ceremony, Viktoria seems to have genuine concern for his well-being.  However, particularly after what Walt reveals above, we have to recognize that Viktoria and Lucy are fulfilling their families’ pacts--not actually, certainly not initially, marrying him for “love”--but Evie knows nothing about this ancestral arrangement, so her attraction to and interest in him was sincere.  Hence, his statement at the dinner that “[his] old heart [wa]s beating again” (The Invitation).  
         
    This intimate scene is a curious one.  First, it conveys that Walt finds in Evie, something that he has not found in his other wives.  The “‘je ne sais quoi’ quality” that Oliver describes when talking about Evie to Viktoria (The Invitation).  In essence, this black woman captures a civility that has been missing on the DeVille grounds, such humanity that is on display when she first arrives.  She is only on the grounds for minutes when she bumps into a servant who is carrying a crate with glasses.  Instead of reprimanding her--as the butler Renfield does--or pretentiously stepping over the women and the mess, as they try to clean up, Evie bows down and helps retrieve the broken glass.  Such a gesture of concern for the “help” is unfamiliar in this environment, and this genuineness is what Evie shows Walt, who is obviously used to people being afraid of him and only responding to his “beck and call” without question or hesitation.  This lack of humanity and true civility is on display during the wedding feast when, in stark contrast to Evie, Walt stands as the “Master” of New Carfax Abbey.


    At the feast, when Evie inquires about the bride and groom, Martin and Cecilia “Cece,” Walter ends the ruse.  He explains that “someone has been missing” from the table and that there has been a “strain” and “imbalance” on the four families for some time:  “The once broken-bond [is being] renewed,” whereby his “lovely mortals [the Alexanders, Billingtons, and Klopstocks]” have fulfilled a pledge to him, “a pact” that was made “many many moons ago.”  Next, he announces his impending nuptials to Evie and the male servers, cut the throat of a woman-servant, filling a crystal punchbowl from which they dip a ladle to fill three cups:  Walt’s, Viktoria’s, and Lucy’s (The Invitation).   In spite of her shock, Evie remains composed and walks to the entryway in an effort to leave.  To his credit--truly, I use this term fleetingly--Walt goes to her, reminding her that they had agree to be their “true selves” and have “no secrets,” and so even though she is “embarrassing [him],” he kisses her gently, saying “It’s me” (The Invitation).           
          
    This is yet, another, difficult moment.  On the one hand, Walt seems troubled by the turn of events.  He had thought he found his soul-mate.  Someone who would truly see and accept him for who he is without pursuing the relationship for what s/he could get out of it or for what the union will do for her family. (Note1)  In other words, in an ideal world, if Evie had been allowed time to fully fall for Walt--and vice versa--the DeVilles might stop murdering servants identifying another blood-source?  Of course, such a turn of events is not in the plot of The Invitation, but such an outcome is feasible, considering the humanity shown by La Femme Blacula in other texts, such as Shuri's deference for humans in Fledgling and Amy's defense of them in The Passage.  (See Chapter Five in Jeffrey-Legette’s Watch It!.) Let’s, however, return to our analysis of The Invitation, as shown.
         
    Once, the rehearsal dinner is finished, everyone is clear about what is transpiring on the DeVille estate.  Evie is passed on to the bridesmaids, Viktoria and Lucy, who are tasked with giving her a “bachelorette party.”  They explain the transition from human to vampire and what Evie must expect going forward.  During this exchange, Viktoria retorts that Emmaline was “not as difficult” as Evie is being, and Lucy, who is truly trying to console our femme-fatale, reveals that she, Viktoria, and Emmaline “were such great friends.…”  What matters, and why Evie must join the trio, is the rare blood types that the four families share:  “[T]he combination…makes [Walt, Viktoria, Lucy, and Evie] all-powerful[, and i]mmune to the effects of time."   Lucy goes on to describe the wedding ritual, which binds the women to each other and “to the Master.”  First, the bride must drink Walt’s blood, gaining his power and sealing the union.  Then, after he drinks her blood, the four acquire “eternal life,” and they can only die when he does  (The Invitation). 
        
    The next day, during the wedding rite, Evie says “Yes” for “I do.”  All expect her to fulfill her great-grandmother’s task, but she has other thoughts, aspiring to complete her ancestor’s wish to “end” it all.  Evie drinks Walt’s blood, emaciating him.  Only Viktoria, his longest bride, seems concerned, knowing how much energy Evie is drawing from him.  Here-in, we see the Black woman become the most powerful entity in the room, stronger than Walt who she impales and who, first, appears to die in the arms of his wives.  However, Viktoria, the first wife, will avenge him or allow him time to heal, for she knows that if Evie had given him a death wound, she and Lucy would not still be vampires.  Lucy rescues Evie, impaling herself and Viktoria, so that the horror can end.  Now, Walt has one bride, Evie, and he must begin anew, for without the three women, he lacks immortality.  For that matter, having not ingested Evie’s blood, he is definitely vulnerable.  When she fights him, Evie decries, “I would rather die than be a part of this.”  She calls him a monster and after cutting off a hand, and kicking him into the fire that is blazing throughout the mansion, the oldest, most horrifying fiend is destroyed. Evie quickly regains her humanity, losing the fangs and claws, and when the film ends, she has become a vigilante-hero, endeavoring to exterminate the family members who enabled Walt/Dracula.  She stands with her sister-friend, Grace, another mortal, Black woman, across the street from Oliver’s law practice.  They are going to “beat the F out of him” (The Invitation).  Evie has regained her humanity, literally, although, figuratively, it never left her.  She embraces and founds her strength on--perhaps--one of the most endearing qualities of La Femme Blacula, her humanity, which has destined her to become the woman warrior we see at the film's conclusion.


Notes
1. I would love to have this optimistic view.  However, he is a vampire, the father of deception, so I think about Edward Cullen’s statement to Belle in the first Twilight film—based on the books by Stephanie Meyers--how “everything about him draws you in”;  he is the superior predator who attracts his prey.  Yet, particularly because of the Twilight films, I wonder if Evie might have “loved” Walt, and if allowed to join the family willingly--not in the coerced way shown in the film--might she have humanized the vampires, as Carlisle does with his coven (Twilight).
​

Blacula's wife Tina/Luva

Pam Grier/Lisa Fortier in Scream, Blacula, Scream

Katrina in Vamp.

Rita from Vampire in Brooklyn

Amy in ​The Passage

Evie in the closing minutes of ​The Invitation