Ganja and Hess
1973 Directed by Bill Gunn
Horror Marathon 2024 Day 2 Film 6
Released during the first years of the blaxploitation boom, this film is a cultural response. The film utilizes vampire mythos as a way to explore themes like addiction and spiritualism as a part of black identity.
The film opens with the creation of a new mythos- of Myrthians whose blood rites would satiate immortality. Hess is played by Duane Jones (star of Night of the Living Dead) as a cultural anthropologist whose mansion has a looming presence. One of his friends (played by the director Bill Gunn) comes for the night, speaking in rabid ferocity about the idea of Christ and the sacrificial nature of power. That to drink of the blood both gives and creates a link from those who would yield the strength of those they feed upon. Hess prevents his friend from suicide at first (framed by a looming hanging noose), but Hess is later killed with a Myrthian ceremonial dagger while his friend goes through with his plans.
The frenzied poetry of the suicidal man also connects to the core themes of how black culture assimilates itself and feeds on the religion of Christ. How does it nourish the soul, how do we congregate in that God's name? Eventually the wife of the man who committed suicide comes to the mansion to search for him. Her name is Ganja (played by Marlene Clark), and she has a snappy wit and forceful nature. Hess is quickly enamored with her, even after she learns that her husband has died and kept in the mansion. She isn't a victim to Hess's advances, but willingly participating in her own destiny.
They embrace in the warmth of their addiction- of beautiful blood spattered romance that illuminates their lives. The cinematography and sound is sometimes muddy, but these sequences are especially enchanting. The slow pacing of the film floats like being high - distorting some of the plot, and then begins to have its own momentum. This feels like the dreamlike erotic quality of a Jean Rollin or Jess Franco movie. By the end of the film Hess and Ganja have to find their own ways, to embrace their freedom in blood or self annihilation and denial (or another addiction in Christ).