 Thank you for checking out this no spoilers movie review. This is for the 1973 film ganja and hess Which when I'm recording this is currently streaming on the shutter horror streaming service Off the bat. I do need to say something about this video I apologize if the camera starts moving or anything my cat is on the prowl and She is on the table, which is a folding table that this is on So it might move if she starts moving around or she might get in the shot because she seems to really want some attention Which means she wants something food Okay, so let's talk about ganja and hess like I said from 1973 so the writer and director his name is bill gun initially he was He was approached to do this film and they had said This is kind of a little spoilery, but you would read it in the synopsis of you know, like the little teaser Logline, it's just to make a black vampire film now He was approached to do this and he was just like I don't want to make a black vampire film But then he thought about it and since he was able to write it and direct it He had the ability to Shape what it was going to be so he was like I'm going to make it something more make it something Metaphorical and he did so a lot of it is metaphor according to him of Addiction and dealing with addiction and you really see it throughout the film with especially with the fact that they break it up into three sections I believe it's three sections unless I miss the fourth one I start honestly started to lose some attention toward the end because it's like a two-hour film basically which has no business being a Two-hour film to be honest, but anyway, I'll talk a little bit more about that later but yeah, so they break it up into three portions and it it Has like title screens for it and it works on the level of vampirism, but it also works on the level of addiction So I think the writing is really good for this film the metaphor works really well I think there's a lot of cool things that are said in the film and Just like through metaphor, but also like through actual dialogue. There's some cool things out. There goes the cat And she's leaving so that's all good. So Yeah, so I thought Bill Gunn did quite a good job Especially for the fact it was like a budget of like three hundred and fifty thousand dollars which in 1973 You know that was worth a lot more because if you do it with inflation It's gonna be a lot more nowadays, but it's still not a ton for a film and the film looks like it's lower budget the actual visual Preservation of the film doesn't look super great. It looks kind of very cheap almost like home video Ask, but it's still a good film and it's still worth watching in my opinion So this film was actually remade in 2014 as just does A Sweet Blood of Jesus by Spike Lee now That's a film that I've actually had on my list to watch. So I'm very very glad that I ended up watching ganja and hess first Knowing now that that's the source material. That's the original script for this sweet blood of Jesus Which I will now go watch well not right now go watch But at some point in the near future go watch and have in my mind ganja and hess. So I really like that This stars Dwayne Dwayne Jones, which people will know him from the original night of the living dead This is the only other Starring role that he ever had so ganja and hess and the night of living dead. That was it Which is really interesting because He's he does a good job like I don't understand I assume I was reading up on his life and I was assuming I'm assuming that it was his choice He went on to do some teaching and acting So yeah, and he only lived until like 1988 which is pretty sad because maybe he would have gotten back into doing way more acting He did some directing too though. That's important to know, but I think it's cool that if you like Night of the living dead and you liked Dwayne Jones performance. It's good to see him in Ganja and hess especially because I think his performance is even better in ganja and hess to a degree He was a very good actor for that time You have to keep in mind for that time because you can't compare Like 60s and 70s acting to like 2019. It just doesn't compute because it's come a long way. So, you know Cats being crazy, sorry The film is discussed in the documentary horror noir, which is on shutter currently. So horror noir is a documentary about Black horror And it's it's kind of like the history of black horror and the significance of black horror And I will say that you should definitely watch it. I watched that Maybe about a year ago or so now. It's a really good documentary. It's extremely well done And for me, I like watching documentaries to learn new things Now I had known about a bunch of black horror films and seen a bunch of black horror films But seeing it in the context of people who It's meant for people who it means a lot more to Is really cool to kind of see a perspective One of the main things that kind of came up was for the longest time people people who Black people hadn't seen Themselves on the screen and so horror was kind of one of the the major areas That a lot of progression was made towards seeing more black actors on screen and black directors And black screen writers So horror was kind of at the forefront and it's just a really cool documentary to kind of see everyone's perspective on it Because you know me just being a white male. I have my white male perspective mainly So to hear other perspectives is very eye-opening to be honest and it's just it's very very interesting So I would definitely recommend horror noir, especially if you're a fan of ganja and hess because they have a significant Well, not significant. They have a a chunk of time that they talk about ganja and hess and the significance of that film And they also talk about dwayne jones and his impact on everything. So it's cool But I highly recommend that documentary. It's very very nice This has more of a real life look to it because of its lower budget It like I was saying it looks a little bit home video-esque when it looks the most home video like is when they're in a church They have an extended portion towards the end that's in a church and that actually is way too long They should have cut that down and it makes it seem even more like this is someone's home video And they just didn't cut anything out. They just filmed everything But that type of stuff makes it seem more real Which actually works for the overall tone of the film in my opinion Um and also the dialogue kind of does that too the dialogue wraps into like how it's written It seems more real life. It's a little bit mumblecore-esque I know mumblecore is not really something that people talked about until recent years with um well recent ish years With like ty west and his whole crew doing mumblecore films But watching ganja and hess i'm like this was like mumblecore well before mumblecore in my sense Or in a sense because it's You know, it's it's very conversational It's very relaxed some of the times you can't necessarily hear everything that's said And that's kind of the heart of what mumblecore was or is So, um, I really like that that also wraps into making it feel very realistic The other thing is the dialogue the way it's written is extremely conversational And I think that works really well. It makes it more interesting It makes everything more relaxed and it kind of pulls you in in a conversational way It's something I don't see a lot in film and for that reason I really enjoyed it in this film. So big shout out to bill gun for the for his writing on the script It's a very well done script. I think the storytelling in it is good The dialogue writing in it is even better the dialogue is very good And that's kind of a lot of what kept my interest in the film Um, the the audio has a lot of problems to be honest because it seems like they didn't Do any recording of audio in post. I mean, maybe they did but it doesn't play that way There's a lot of echo to it, you know, people sound far away It seems like they just kind of had a boom mic on set and that's kind of all they used But that kind of like wraps in also with the making it feel more realistic the whole mumblecore aspect that type of stuff So it doesn't fully hinder the film and you get used to it But when you're first watching it the first You know like 20 minutes or so you're just kind of like, oh that audio is not sounding the best So it's just it's you know, it's just a thing Bill gun put himself in the film by the way He plays a early role And he did a really good job to be honest I thought he was the best actor in the film and he kind of stole the show when he was on the screen So not only is he a good writer and a good director, but he's a very good actor So the full package for bill gun who I didn't really know a ton about But this film was a very good introduction for me to bill gun. He was really good in this The most enjoyable moments of the film in my opinion are when he's on screen Dialogue's very well crafted or I talked about that the combination of the writing the acting and the look of the film makes it extremely conversational I was talking about that How it's cut into parts helps it with the whole vampirism versus addiction thing talked about that One of the biggest flaws of the film is that it has a weird flow to it because it will Overall it's pretty slow and a lot of the times that's fine because of how the filmmaking is how the dialogue is how the Relaxed environment and tone of it kind of is but then it gets kind of crazy It amps up where it really needs to story wise But then you have these long stretches of where things are just going too slow For too long and it really messes up the pacing really messes up the flow of it I think this film Should have been edited down a bunch at about two hours. There's not enough story there for the two hours to be To be uh, what's the word i'm looking for to be justified You can't justify it in my opinion It really should have been cut down and probably the last about 45 minutes of the film really felt Way way way too slow and like nothing was really going on It was terribly paced at that point But I would say about the first meh like hour of the film Maybe is really cool really engaging really fun to watch And um after that you kind of feel like you want to start checking out to be honest So it's a little imbalanced as a film um There's an effective auditory cue in this For when addiction starts kicking in basically when when the nagging of the addiction is starting to hit characters It's it's this particular sound particular kind of like song And you'll see what I mean if you if you watch the film or if you've already seen the film You'll know what i'm talking about It's very effective to kind of instead of Telling people you know having the character be like oh man. I need blood. I want blood right now Instead just hearing it as an audience member and you come to that realization on your own and it's kind of like Creeping up on the character and it like builds. It's very effective and I like that aspect of it The blood in this actually does not look good just so people know it looks like watery tomato juice to be honest It's um, you know, it's like a watered-down version of v8 really so it looks terrible The blood does not look at all realistic the viscosity of it the color of it's just But whatever, you know, it was the 70s One of the character's reactions to something major in this film is very very unrealistic and that's one of my biggest Pet peeves with with this film It's it's kind of a small thing because you get past it But it's just very unrealistic the reaction and it seems like They should have done something else to be honest. They really should have done something else There's a little bit of commentary in this on colonialism, which It's not Like it's a little subtle, but it's also not subtle at the same time If I guess you could kind of miss it if you're not really being Super attentive, but um, I didn't feel like it was super super subtle So most people should probably get that kind of few moments of you know commentary on colonialism There are some cool hallucinatory. There's some cool cool hallucinatory imagery. Sorry. I don't know why it's so tough right now That's in this and a lot of it ties into the addiction in the film the sickness that kind of creeps up on people So I think how it's tied in with that and the way it's shot the way it looks the way it sounds Very effective in my opinion. Uh, so I like those components of the film as well Um, then I wrote about the lengthy church thing at the very end That really should have been cut down Massively because it really kills the end of the film to be honest Um, I feel like they could have kind of picked the pace back up and pulled people way more in At the very end because obviously things a lot more happens at the end of the film But with that super extended church scene It just it killed a lot of pacing killed a lot of interest and that should have been cut way down And you know, my last note was why I had said that like the past maybe 45 minutes of the film is way too long and drawn out Loses a lot of attention So it's one of those films and I've seen plenty of films like this Where it's interest heavy in the first half of the movie or so And then the last portion just starts to really really peter out and that's how this feels and I think that that speaks a little bit to Not as much to the actual script but more to the actual directing and filmmaking aspect of it Where it seems like, you know, bill gun maybe was super focused in the beginning and then towards the end He's just like, you know, let's put in a little extra stuff. Let's do a little bit more Let's get a little more interesting some longer shots some more interesting looking shots Which is cinematography and it looks pretty cool And uh, the directing is good and the acting solid so Overall pretty good film My biggest problem is this just this pacing is so bad and it's way too long And for that reason what I give it, uh, I mean do my five star rating out of five stars with half stars in play I think I can give this a I'm between a three and a three and a half to be honest Uh, I'm gonna go three and a half and be a little more generous because that dialogue really is nice in this film And the whole conversational aspect of it and mobile core ish is is cool. Um, you also, you know When you watch this some people could say just like oh the quality and you know, it's you have to think it's the 70s Watch this and remember the times you were in So there you go. But anyway, um good film. I do recommend it And like I said, I also really recommend that documentary horror noir on shutter So if and if you don't have shutter at least give it a shot I think they have like a seven day free trial or something like that So at the least you could jump on do that free trial watch horror noir watch ganja and hess and then just Give it up. But I would say there's a lot more stuff on there. You should definitely watch But anyway, thank you for checking this out if you could do me a big favor hit that subscribe Very very painless for you literally takes a second can mean a lot for my channel I would appreciate that put some comments down there. Have you seen this? What are your thoughts? Do you want to see it now that you've seen this review? Let's talk and then you can do a thumbs up if you want to but thank you very much for checking this out until next time Keep it brutal