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Ganja & Hess

Play trailer Poster for Ganja & Hess R 1973 1h 50m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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93% Tomatometer 14 Reviews 53% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Germs from the stab of an ancient dagger turn two lovers (Duane Jones, Marlene Clark) into immortal vampires.

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Ganja & Hess

Critics Reviews

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Cody Corrall Chicago Reader 10/08/2021
A seminal take on Blaxploitation and horror. Go to Full Review
Trace Thurman Horror Queers Podcast 04/24/2023
3.5/5
A surreal, dense and unique vampire tale that demands multiple viewing to fully absorb. Go to Full Review
Joe Lipsett Horror Queers Podcast 04/19/2023
4/5
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. Go to Full Review
Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault 11/29/2022
A
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. Go to Full Review
Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review 02/12/2022
4/4
Bill Gunn took the structure of a Dracula story and made an open-wounded statement that was brazenly uncommercial and intensely personal. Go to Full Review
Eve Tushnet Patheos 01/23/2021
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... Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Google 10/27/2022 I would give this piece a 5 star but it received 4.5 because I did not feel like it was a horror film. See more Cam H 05/25/2024 Super freaky in many respects See more William D 07/04/2023 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. See more 10/15/2021 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. See more 10/30/2020 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. See more 02/20/2019 Probably the most intellectually and artistically abstract vampire film of all time. See more Read all reviews
Ganja & Hess

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Movie Info

Synopsis Germs from the stab of an ancient dagger turn two lovers (Duane Jones, Marlene Clark) into immortal vampires.
Director
William Gunn
Producer
Chiz Schultz, Allan 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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