Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Last night I watched Ganja & Hess. I knew little about it but I've seen the name pop up more than once before and was surprised this month to hear it is a horror film (and a classic at that). So I watched it as blind as I could. It is... interesting. It has horror tropes but my suggestion is go in expecting an experimental art film. The film is about a wealthy black anthropologist who invites an assistant over for dinner. As the evening wears on, the assistant reveals that he's paranoid and suicidal and the professor, Hess, talks him out of it and the guy stays for the night. Later in the evening, Hess is awoken to the assistant apparently stabbing him to death with a bone knife from his collection. The assistant kills himself and Hess wakes up alive and unharmed, finds the body and begins drinking its blood.
So Hess becomes a quasi-vampire, at first stealing blood from the hospital but soon finding only fresh blood will do. Later, the assistant's wife Ganja pays him a visit to enquire about her missing husband and the two fall in love. Later, the wife finds the body of her husband but after an angry outburst, she returns and clearly tells Hess that due to her upbringing, she is willing to keep seeing a murderer if she can live a life where she is supported. She doesn't believe Hess is supernatural, just a killer. But Hess invites her into immortality and she accepts and then things get complicated for both parties.
Its a weird movie and because it is an art film from the 70s, there are LONG periods that slowly unfold that are more about tone and an experience than plot. Which is tough for me on a Friday night after a long work week. And in many ways it is an extremely unpolished film. It reminds me of George A. Romero's early work (helped by the fact that the lead of Night of the Living Dead is Hess in this movie) and Carnival of Souls: ambitious and intelligent but technically very rough around the edges. Conversations are not always easy to hear. But the saturating use of sound reminds me of Scorsese, particularly in the final half of the movie.
But the big thing is I thought about this movie the rest of the night. A lot of it is not an easy watch for a casual viewing. This isn't a fun thrill ride, it is a meditative movie about the black experience and I'm still grappling with what it is saying about Christianity. Its never presented in a negative light but I feel like with references to an older culture, writer/director Bill Gunn might be trying to work through his feelings about being Christian but also Christianity being the religion of the white people who enslaved black people. Similarly, I feel like while Hess isn't "evil" for being wealthy, his wealth and class puts him in a system where he is losing touch and empathy for people.
Marlene Clark, who would become more well-known as a recurring character in Sandford and Son apparently, is the best part of the movie (though Duane Jones does good work). Her speech where she explains why she is willing to be party to murder or more specifically, look out for herself at any cost, is some powerful stuff.
So Hess becomes a quasi-vampire, at first stealing blood from the hospital but soon finding only fresh blood will do. Later, the assistant's wife Ganja pays him a visit to enquire about her missing husband and the two fall in love. Later, the wife finds the body of her husband but after an angry outburst, she returns and clearly tells Hess that due to her upbringing, she is willing to keep seeing a murderer if she can live a life where she is supported. She doesn't believe Hess is supernatural, just a killer. But Hess invites her into immortality and she accepts and then things get complicated for both parties.
Its a weird movie and because it is an art film from the 70s, there are LONG periods that slowly unfold that are more about tone and an experience than plot. Which is tough for me on a Friday night after a long work week. And in many ways it is an extremely unpolished film. It reminds me of George A. Romero's early work (helped by the fact that the lead of Night of the Living Dead is Hess in this movie) and Carnival of Souls: ambitious and intelligent but technically very rough around the edges. Conversations are not always easy to hear. But the saturating use of sound reminds me of Scorsese, particularly in the final half of the movie.
But the big thing is I thought about this movie the rest of the night. A lot of it is not an easy watch for a casual viewing. This isn't a fun thrill ride, it is a meditative movie about the black experience and I'm still grappling with what it is saying about Christianity. Its never presented in a negative light but I feel like with references to an older culture, writer/director Bill Gunn might be trying to work through his feelings about being Christian but also Christianity being the religion of the white people who enslaved black people. Similarly, I feel like while Hess isn't "evil" for being wealthy, his wealth and class puts him in a system where he is losing touch and empathy for people.
Marlene Clark, who would become more well-known as a recurring character in Sandford and Son apparently, is the best part of the movie (though Duane Jones does good work). Her speech where she explains why she is willing to be party to murder or more specifically, look out for herself at any cost, is some powerful stuff.
