GANJA & HESS (1973) – Duane Jones, immortalized as “the black guy who got screwed over at the end of Night of the Living Dead“, also starred in this offbeat, artsy vampire film which was also released as Blood Couple and many other titles.
Back in 2011, when I reviewed Nine Blaxploitation Horror Movies from the 1970s I mentioned leaving out Ganja & Hess because it was a serious film, not a quickie exploitation flick like Blacula, Blackenstein, Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde and many others. I said I’d review it in the future. Well, 14 years later, here we go!
Duane Jones portrayed Dr. Hess Green, an anthropologist who has discovered the ancient ruins of Myrthia, an African settlement populated by vampires. Green’s assistant George Meda, played by Bill Gunn (this film’s writer and director), becomes possessed by the evil spirit of Myrthia’s ancient queen (Mabel King of What’s Happening!!).
Driven by that spirit, George stabs Dr. Green with a Myrthian ceremonial dagger, then kills himself. The ancient microbes on the dagger infect Green with the same dark force that made the ancient Myrthians vampires.
When Hess Green comes to, he has an irresistible thirst for blood and drains George’s corpse to slake it. From there, our main character takes to stealing blood from hospitals but since neither draining a corpse nor drinking medical containers of blood truly satisfies him, Hess realizes he needs to prey on the living.
Eventually, Ganja Meda (Marlene Clark), George’s widow, comes to Dr. Green’s mansion with questions about her husband’s whereabouts. That ol’ vampire allure enables Hess to seduce Ganja into forgiving him for what he did to her late spouse. Ultimately, she joins Dr. Green as a vampire herself.
Vampirism isn’t for her, however, and she becomes increasingly disgusted with what she and Hess must do to stay alive. She is mollified when Ganja lets her start seducing and killing male victims for herself.
Ganja and Hess start getting sloppy about how they dispose of the drained bodies of their victims and the authorities are on their trail. Hess eventually grows weary of such an existence and longs to return to the Christian faith.
Hess Green commits suicide by exposing himself to a crucifix and refusing to flee as it kills him. Ganja is devastated by Hess abandoning her like this but now seems willing to accept the burdens of vampirism and sharing that curse with others.
*** If you can help it, avoid the 70-some minute edit of Ganja & Hess. The unedited movie runs close to two full hours and is worth sitting through at least once, especially around Halloween. This movie offers a partially new approach to a vampire story but retains the sensuality and the tortured mentality that feature in the best stories about the undead.
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A quick summation of the Yom Kippur dedication of the Divine Soul Name אלהים to the Shemene Ezeret dedication of the Divine Soul Name איש האלהים.
מלכים ב ו:טז-יז. Elisha when surrounded by Syrian soldiers, his servant expressed great fear. Elisha reassured him by saying that more stood with them than with the Syrians. He then davvened for his servant’s eyes acknowledge the new creation consequence of the prophet’s tohor time-oriented commandment, great numbers of heavenly army of angels surrounding them, causing the Syrian soldiers to flee in panic.
This is educational.
Intriguing… I’d actually never considered the inclusion (or exclusion) of Black vampirism. Now I come to think of it, I can’t think of any other such movies, which is a shame. Thanks for sharing this one with us!
I’m happy to do it! Thank you for the kind words!
Great posts as always. I have never heard of this film before but as always found your post to be extremely engaging to read. It brought to mind great vampire movies that I have seen and love.
Thank you very much!