Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)Adam & Josh's takes (starts at 36:48)I'm truly struggling with what "Blaxploitation" is supposed to mean at this point. This marathon has genuine exploitation films, regular mainstream entertainment, an indie film and now, a fll-on arthouse film. Yes, it's also a horror film about vampires, which does sound exploitation adjacent, but the style and tone here are distinctly intellectual, ethereal and certainy not in any way commercial. Like Black Caesar, this film feels like it has ambition beyond its means, and it is a sometimes inscrutable, generally boring but occasionnally chilling and intriguing watch.
Part of what makes the film such a mess is that it seems to be using vampirism as a metaphor for a number of different things. There's drug addiction, which is perhaps the most obvious aspect and perhaps explain some of the stylistic choices (it sure feels like an acid trip at times), but if this were an allegory about the scourge of drugs, it surely wouldn't star these affluent characters. Instead, it harkens back to a mysterious African tribe of blood suckers and mixes that with/against Christianity in what is, to me, the most interesting avenue the film explores. The idea of ancient tribal customs being repurposed and/or opposed by the Church is a pretty well-documented one, and could be fodder for some thoughtful, trippy horror, and there are individual scenes here in which this film does get there, mostly those featuring Marlene Clark.
Clark has an energy that matches the film's, weird and tortured. Contrast with Duane Jones (of Night of the Living Dead fame) who's just kinda there. When the film focuses on Clark, it almost seems to start making sense and to build up to something mystical about the roots of African-American identity, with vampirism perhaps having something to do with the African slavers (sucking on the blood of their own?) selling one's ancestors to European slavers (hence all the Christianity?)... but this never really coalesces, and feels a bit more like me projecting something I'd be interested in onto the film than anything else.
Some of it does work aesthetically, like that creepy musical cue whenever a character gets an urge for blood, and the graininess of the film which feels very appropriate for a mystical horror film like this, but it's mostly incomprehensible and it's hard to stay engaged with it most of the time, so it ends up mostly seeming like a failed experiment. Not the worse thing a film can be, but still.
4/10