On the twelfth night of Halloween … I watched Ganja and Hess (1973), written and directed by Bill Gunn.
This wonderful gem of a film has many facets: it is an independently-made, experimental, gothic, erotic-romantic, African American, art-horror vampire film. The plot is pretty straight-forward, though: Dr. Hess (played by the excellent Duane Jones, who starred in the original Night of the Living Dead) is a wealthy anthropologist who has recently returned from Africa with a ceremonial dagger made by a mysterious vampire cult. When an unstable houseguest (played by Gunn himself) stabs Hess with the dagger in his sleep, Hess rises from the dead and begins thirsting for blood. After a series brief adventures that allow Hess to learn to control his powers and become comfortable in the role of a Dracula-like vampire lord, he meets the houseguest's wife, Ganja (played by the equally excellent Marlene Clark of Black Mamba, Switchblade Sisters, and Enter the Dragon fame), and falls in love with her. They soon marry. Out of fear of losing Ganja, Hess decides to turn her into a vampire too. I suppose Hess' sadness upon seeing his wife's horror at what she has become drives him to commit suicide by standing under the shadow of a cross (the only way to kill a vampire, according to this film's lore). Ganja, however, decides to go on as the new vampire lady of the estate and take a new lover.
This summary doesn't begin to do justice to the film's creativity, though. By turns, it uses impressionistic, psychedelic, and improvisational techniques to address many different themes and symbols-- including both timely and timeless questions of love, class, history, and African American identity. I can't pretend to understand everything this film has to say, particularly in the context of early 70's Black politics and culture, but it's definitely worthy of broader appreciation and study. I'd also say that it is a foundational forerunner to the current indie art-horror renaissance.
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