Ganja and Hess

Ganja and Hess is a 1973 Vampires film starring Duane Jones.  Jones is best known for his role of Ben in George Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead.  Jones plays Dr Hess Green a archaeologist studying the ancient African kingdom of Myrthia.  His assistant played by Bill Gunn, who also directs, is unstable and subject to bouts of violence.  In one of his "freak outs" he stabs Green with an ancient Mythrian dagger and becomes infected with vampirism.   After the assistant commits suicide his wife shows up searching for him and almost immediately falls in love with Hess and the two get married.  While Ganja seems more than complacent in her new vampiric lifestyle, Hess seeks release from the curse.  Playing vampirism for the most part more realistically than most films, they can walk in the sunlight and do not have fangs, they do crave blood and are essentially immortal.  Hess does eventually find his release.

Ganja and Hess is a slow moving film but thanks in large part to the acting of Jones and Marlene Clark as Ganja, the film is never boring.  It is visually very colorful and trippy fitting in with the time period it was filmed.  Not excessively gory there are some scenes of fairly explicit violence. 

At its most basic Ganja and Hess is a very unconventional vampire film.  Below the surface it is also a film about addiction, comparing the addiction of drugs to slavery.  The characters names are a not subtle hint at what this film is about, Hess being slang for hash and Ganja a common slang for marijuana.  The only cure for vampirism in Ganja and Hess is surrendering to religion.  This echos the role of religion in breaking drug addiction in real life.  While many may argue that religion is just a placebo, it is a fact that many religious organizations are active in fighting addiction.  Likewise religion was a vital part in freedom from slavery and a integral part of African American culture.

In the modern age of vampire redaction and pre-teen pablum such as Twilight, it is interesting to see a truly original take on vampirism.  Ganja and Hess is not a kiddie film as it contains nudity, sex, violence and drug use among other nasties.  Ganja and Hess belong to an era where story was more important than flash, and leading men needed talent not just emo hair and smooth skin.   If you are a true horror fan, fan of Duane Jones or just a real movie fan, do yourself a favor and check out Ganja and Hess

10 Vampire TV shows you should chek out

TV Shows with Bite


Vampires are a hot commodity today. Fans line up to see each new Twilight film and Twi-like TV shows such asThe Vampire Diaries  have started to appear. The fanged fiends are no stranger to the small screen however.

They may be more well known for their big screen shenanigans, but they have had their share of the small screen lime light. Here we attempt to list some of those TV series featuring the nosferatu.

1.True Blood- Described by many, both fans and non fans, as an adult version of Twilight. True Blood is based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlene Harris and features Ana Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse a waitress who doubles as a telepath. In True Blood vampires have come "out of the coffin" and announced themselves to the world. The series uses the conflict between vampires and humans as a metaphor of racial and sexual orientation tensions in the south, and across America.



2. Dark Shadows- The forerunner of the vampire Television series, Dark Shadows started out as a gothic soap opera before Jonathon Frid joined the cast as Barnabbas Collins. Looked at fondly by horror fans, Dark Shadows suffered from a low budget and shaky acting (and shaky sets) at times. Still it brought something to daytime TV that viewers had never seen before. The show spawned a remake in the 80s with better production values but handsome Ben Cross could not replace Frid in the minds of fans. A Dark Shadows movie is currently in the works from Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.



3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer- Based on the movie with Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry and Pee Wee Herman, the series took a more serious turn. Hailed by critics for its realistic portrayal of teens. The show starred Sarah Michelle Gellar replacing Swanson as Buffy. It brought stardom not only to its cast but to director Joss Whedon. Featuring a vampire-human love affair between Buffy and Angel, and later Buffy and Spike, that predates Twilight's angst fest. Angel went on to his own spin off series.

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10 Lesser Known Vampire Films

The whole world seems to be a buzz in vampire fever right now. Most of this current admiration of anything undead is due to the Twilight phenomenon. While hard core horror and vampire movie fans for the most part shun the Twilight series, its impact cannot be denied. It has awoken a bloodlust for vampires. Store shelves are filled will re releases of classic (and not so classic) vampire movies setting side by side with Twilight. To find classics like Martin and Jess Franco's Dracula on Wal-Mart shelves is pure heaven to a horror fan. The first twilight sequel, New Moon, will likely have a similar effect on werewolf films as it hits the video shelves. True most of these vampire films have little in common with Twilight and most fans of Edward Cullen would cringe at some of them, and run screaming from others. Still this availability is one of the few good things to come out of Twilight for the true horror fan. hopefully some of the twilight fans will have a look at them and develop a fondness for films a little less mainstream. With all this in mind, here is a list of some of the best lesser known ( at least to the general public) vampire films.




Love at First Bite- A 1979 comedy horror that starred the tanned George Hamilton asCount Dracula. Finally tiring of the pitchfork and torch crowd, and being evicted by the communist leaders of Romania, Dracula moves to New York in the height of disco fever. Here he falls in love with model Susan St James, who just happens to be dating a descendant of Dr. Van Helsing. What a coincidence! With Richard Benjamin as Van Helsing's grandson and a hilarious Arte Johnson as Renfield, this is a movie definitely worth checking out. Look for a cameo by George and Weezie Jefferson.
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Thirst! movie review

With the latest installment of the Twilight saga, New Moon, vampires are all the rage in Hollywood and across America. People who would never go to a more traditional horror movie are rushing to the theater to see New Moon, choosing Team Jacob or Team Edward or swooning over the love between Edward and Bella. Anything Twilight is a hot commodity these days and Hollywood is taking advantage of it. While horror and vampire purists may avoid Twilight, they are also reaping some rewards from it’s popularity. Vampire movies are running in heavy rotation on cable and series such as Moonlight and Nick Knight are being resurrected for TV, getting more exposure as everyone tries to cash in on the vampire craze. If Twilight has done no other good it has at least allowed these classic series to temporarily raise from the grave and seek a new audience. In the midst of this undead frenzy, a new vampire movie comes to us from South Korea.
Thirst is the newest film from South Korean directorChan-Wook Park. Park is best know for his revenge trilogy, especially his second film in the series Oldboy. Oldboy is a very violent but very beautiful film with an extremely disturbing storyline. Thirst is a welcome addition to the vampire genre with all of Park’s violence and beauty intact. Like Twilight, Thirst takes a new twist on the vampire legend. Also like Twilight there is a love affair between the vampire protagonist and a female character. However aside from this there is little in common between the two films.
Sang Kang-ho stars as a caring priest, Sang-hyun who isn’t content to just minister to the dying. He begs the Vatican to allow him to volunteer for a controversial experiment to develop a vaccine for a deadly virus known as EV. San-hyun is injected with the virus and slowly succumbs to it. Unknowingly to the priest he is given a blood transfusion from a vampire and although clinically dead, he is revived and begins to quickly recover from the virus. Due to his recovery he starts to gain fame as a healer and people flock around him begging for him to pray for them. As a healer he is reunited with a child hood friend and his wife and mother. The wife Tae-ju, is beautiful but seems very repressed. Soon after this the virus starts to reappear and he notices his vampiric tendencies come to light. He develops a thirst for and attraction to blood as well as a painful reaction to sunlight. He also finds that human blood causes the virus to go into remission and increases his strength and vigor. Still a very moral man he refuses to murder and resorts to stealing blood donations to quench his thirst.
Meanwhile he is growing ever closer to Tae-ju. He begins to lust for her as his vampire side exerts more and more control over him. The two eventually begin a very erotic love affair and Sang-hyun confess both the fact that he still carries the deadly disease and that he has become a vampire. The fact that he is a vampire intrigues Tae-ju and she begins to see a way out of her unhappy life. Though Sang-hyun is reluctant to share his vampire blood, she finally coerces him into turning her into a vampire with disastrous results.
While not as fast paced as Oldboy, Thirst is every bit as bloody. Even as Sang-hyun tries to avoid any unnecessary loss of life, the body count grows. The killings are gruesome but for the most part very believable. Necks are snapped and bodies punctured in abundance as the former priest slips farther from humanity. His new found apprentice shows little concern for human life and murders viciously. In another step away from traditional vampire lore, the undead here have no fangs, which makes their killings seem even more real and brutal. In some ways it could be argued that the vampires of Twilight are closer to a traditional vampire than those in Thirst. The only real weakness shown in Thirst is their inability to walk in sunlight. Stakes never make an appearance or are mentioned and the vampires simply shrug off any other damage and heal rapidly. Sang-hyun continues to act as a priest after he is turned, praying and administering rites, until he renounces his faith and even wears a cross and enters the church. Still traditional fans will most likely feel more kinship to the vampires in Thirst than the sparkly, angst ridden undead of the Twilight universe. Thirst is a much more grown up story that drops the fairy tale romance of Bella and Edward for a much for explicit and adult romance between Sang-hyun and Tae-ju. Even as Sang-hyun tries to cling to his humanity we see him slowly becoming less human as he indulges in all his carnal cravings. His recognition of this loss of humanity, leads to him making the heroic but tragic decision at the end of the film.
While this is firmly a horror movie it is also a very erotic and adult love story. The films sex scenes are hot and delve into fetishism in a way that serious American films are reluctant to touch. The scenes are not played for humor or shock value nor do they seem overly gratuitous. Instead they seem more a natural progression of the protagonist. As he becomes more and more distant from his life as a priest, he indulges more in the sins of the flesh that were forbidden to him due to his vows. A couple of the scenes, such as the armpit licking, could have devolved into sick humor, but Park’s film elevates it to true arousing erotica. There is quite a bit of nudity, both male and female. In another departure from American film, the male nudity is actually more graphic than the female. Like the sex the nudity never seems pushed and for the most part seems important to the film, not just tossed in for titillation.
The director also manages to inject a bit of humor into the film at places. The comedy is very subtle and never overwhelms the horror but instead acts to temper it. Thirst would be a very dark film with these touches of humor to lighten it, even though the humor is dark itself. The watcher might not laugh aloud during the film but chances are they might have to stifle a laugh or two during the film.
The acting is good all around, both by the two leads and the supporting cast. The film, like park’s other efforts is visually beautiful. Horror fans will love the amount of blood spilt and the violence onscreen. Those fans expecting a Korean version of Twilight could possibly walk away with deep emotional scars so beware Team Edward. The film does have it’s weak points one of them being the effects. While the fight scenes and murders do look good, the wire work leaves much to be desired. It is just a little too obvious in some of the flying scenes and reminded me a bit too much of Crouching Tiger. The story can also be very confusing to American audiences, especially those not used to Asian film. Asian cinema has a history of convoluted storylines and while this one is fairly simple as Asian horror goes, you can get lost if not careful. The movie seems most confusing near the beginning when the lead first becomes infected. There was never any indication of why or how he was infused with vampire blood. The only way a viewer is likely to know this is that Sang0hyun mentions it to his superior after his vampire powers start to appear.
Still even with it’s flaws it is a very good movie and a very welcome addition to the vampire genre. New Moon with its legion of fans will make much more money, but true horror and vampire fans should check out this movie. Although it doesn’t surpass the director’s opus Oldboy, it is a solid effort from Chan-wook Park Thirst is available on DVD as of Nov 17 2009 in widescreen in Korean DD5.1 and subtitles in English, French and Spanish. Extras fans may be disappointed as the initial release has little to offer in this regard.