Ganja & Hess

R

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1h 50m

Horror

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93%

Tomatometer

14 Reviews

52%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

Germs from the stab of an ancient dagger turn two lovers (Duane Jones, Marlene Clark) into immortal vampires.

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Cody Corrall

Chicago Reader

A seminal take on Blaxploitation and horror.

Oct 8, 2021

Full Review

Trace Thurman

Horror Queers Podcast

A surreal, dense and unique vampire tale that demands multiple viewing to fully absorb.

Rated: 3.5/5

Apr 24, 2023

Full Review

Joe Lipsett

Horror Queers Podcast

A beautiful, evocative and highly unorthodox vampire film. Considering Ganja & Hess was written and directed by a Black queer man in the 70s, its religious themes and surreal imagery are all the more fascinating. A true classic.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 19, 2023

Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

It's the real deal; it sticks with you, and its elliptical storytelling has the force and seduction of a dream that keeps shading into nightmare but never quite gets there.

Rated: A

Nov 29, 2022

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Bill Gunn took the structure of a Dracula story and made an open-wounded statement that was brazenly uncommercial and intensely personal.

Rated: 4/4

Feb 12, 2022

Full Review

Eve Tushnet

Patheos

Surreal, collage-like '70s vampire film, wrapped in the embrace of black Christianity and fighting it. You'll know if this film is for you very quickly...

Jan 23, 2021

Full Review

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Google

I would give this piece a 5 star but it received 4.5 because I did not feel like it was a horror film.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/27/22

Full Review

William D

On the one hand, it's an interesting and influential work. On the other hand, it's boring and pretentious. Gunn's creativity while handling a very low budget can be appreciated, but the experimental style it puts forward wasn't for me.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

07/04/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is sooo boring bro! I had to watch this for a class, and throughout it all I could about was how I could be watching any other black vampire movie. I watched this movie for free, yet I feel like I should ask for a refund. I barley made it half-way through before tapping out.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's only a minor moment, totally insignificant to the story, ostensibly a trivial Easter egg, but I think also a key to interpreting Bill Gunn's arthouse vampire film. Briefly, practically invisibly, no less than the novelist William Gaddis has a silent cameo in the background of a party scene. Though that may seem utterly inconsequential—and no doubt, in the larger sense it is—the spectral appearance of the famed postmodernist gives insight into how to read the often obscure and challenging movie, which, like Gaddis' writing, is something of "a chaos of disconnections, a blizzard of noise." Gaddis and Gunn alike eschew conventional storytelling techniques, not so as to frustrate the audience but (in true vampire fashion) to suck them in, inviting them to participate in and collaborate with the artist, whether writer or director, by filling in some of the gaps and ambiguities that have been left open to interpretation. Of course, Gunn's film eventually met with the same fate as Gaddis' earlier novels (his own success as a novelist wouldn't come until a few years after the release of the movie), with initial negative critical reaction driving a stake through the heart of the work (and Gunn's burgeoning career), calling it "a confusingly vague mélange." Gunn's searing response, however, remains as true today as ever: "There are times when the white critic must sit down and listen. If he cannot listen and learn, then he must not concern himself with black creativity." That all said, even the most dense critics can agree that by far the most horrifying scene in this dense experiment is when Gunn uses his dirty bath water to brush his fangs, which he would later sink into the neck of his detractors.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Probably the most intellectually and artistically abstract vampire film of all time.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I honestly cannot say whether or not I actually understood everything Bill Gunn was trying to say with this film, but it is a stylish piece of art. Yes, it is a bit pretentious and "deliberately paced", but if you are in the mood for art-house horror that leans very heavily to the "art-house" side of that label, then it is well worth checking out. (This review is in reference to the restored director's original cut of the film)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

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William Gunn

Director

Duane Jones

Dr. Hess Green

Marlene Clark

Ganja

William Gunn

George

Sam Waymon

Rev. Luther Williams

Leonard Jackson

Archie

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Synopsis

Germs from the stab of an ancient dagger turn two lovers (Duane Jones, Marlene Clark) into immortal vampires.

Director: William Gunn
Producer: Jack Jordan, Quentin Kelly
Screenwriter: William Gunn
Distributor: All-Day Entertainment
Production Co: Kelly/Jordan
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 20, 1973, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): May 30, 2018
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 16, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $18.9K
Runtime: 1h 50m

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