Def by Temptation

After a decade devoid of black horror, twenty-one-year-old writer-director-star James Bond III’s Def by Temptation resuscitated the genre.

The plot concerns a succubus, played by Cynthia Bond, preying on black men in New York City.

Bond III plays Joel, a young man raised by his grandmother after his minister father and mother were killed in a car accident. Joel sits poised to follow his father’s footsteps into the ministry, but a crisis of faith sends him to New York City where he reunites with his childhood friend K, played by Kadeem Hardison, who earlier abandoned evangelical school for an acting career in the big city.

The succubus soon sets her sights on Joel, leaving K and bar-rat Dougy to battle her unholy powers for Joel’s soul.

As a plot, it’s not bad, but the trouble lies in the execution. Too often, characters talk to the audience instead of each other. Consider an early exchange between Joel and his grandmother where she says, “And now, after this summer, you will complete your evangelistic training and go on to become the world-renowned minister we both foresee you doing.”

That’s not dialogue, it’s voice-over narration.

Other scenes, particularly the ones between Hardison and Bond III, shine with a more naturalistic rhythm, leading one to wonder if they weren’t improvised. Indeed, Hardison shines throughout, flashing a breakout charisma that leaves you wondering why he didn’t enjoy a bigger career in movies.

Bond III also handles the horror sequences with aplomb, showcasing his contemporary influences. He lifts the creature design and green-and-red gel lights from Vamp.

A dream sequence, featuring the bar full of the succubus’s mangled victims, could fit within an Italian horror.

And in a standout sequence, Bond III one-ups an iconic scene from Videodrome, having a television devour a character, then, in a bit lifted from A Nightmare on Elm Street, has the television burp out a mess of blood and entrails, and we see the victim’s head pressing against the screen from the inside, stretching the now-pliable glass, in a vain attempt at escape. Great stuff.

But Bond III seems out of his depth with the film’s themes. The focus on black sexuality invites unfair comparisons to Bill Gunn’s Ganja and Hess. But Bond III’s script feels shallow compared to Gunn’s open-ended exploration of existential angst and guilt. It doesn’t help that Bond III muddles matters by having the succubus prey exclusively on womanizers before pivoting to Joel.

Consider the sequence where the succubus notices a man remove his wedding ring before entering the bar. She lures him back to her place. The next morning, he notices the large bruises and scars she’s left on him.

“Bitch, what the hell’s wrong with you?” he says. “I mean, how am I supposed to explain this to my…”

“Wife?” the succubus asks. “Norman,” she continues, “Yeah, I know who you are. Those marks are nothing compared to what you’re gonna get later. Honey I’ve given you somethin’ there’s no cure for. It’s gonna grow and grow until it consumes you.”

She laughs as he realizes she’s infected him with HIV.

He tries to explain, “I never did this before, I mean, this is my first time. I mean, I just thought I could just walk away. I mean, just walk away. I mean, men are supposed to… like that.”

It’s a scathing indictment of black male sexual entitlement in a post-AIDS world. But rather than explore this theme, the Joel subplot posits a reductive abstinence-until-marriage message that rings hollow, especially given the film’s surprising inclusion of gay and bisexual characters who, in 1990, lacked marriage options.

Granted, exploring the space between these positions and the cultural factors behind them might have been beyond the young creator. Fair enough.

Warts-and-all, the film entertains and fans of late 80s horror should check it out. Just don’t expect Ganja and Hess. Indeed, for those who found Gunn’s work too obtuse, Def by Temptation may offer a more straightforward alternative.

Perhaps the biggest shame is that Bond III didn’t direct a follow-up, as he shows a good grasp of the genre and rapport with his performers. Fortunately, others were there to keep the genre afloat, including Def by Temptation’s cinematographer, Ernest Dickerson, who would later direct 1995’s Demon Knight.