Ganja & Hess

Archeologist Jones develops an addiction to blood after his disturbed assistant Gunn stabs him with an ancient, germ infested dagger. Told in an episodic format, Gunn’s film is alternatively frustrating and fascinating. The distributor cut nearly a quarter of its running time and renamed it Blood Couple in an attempt to peddle it to a mass audience as a Blaxploitation picture, and when that failed the film was largely forgotten. Now that the original cut has resurfaced, it’s clear that while Gunn’s film has some disturbing imagery, he had little interest in the exploitation genre. Instead, he delivers a meditation on the nature of addiction and the state of black culture. Or does he? That’s the frustrating part. Gunn’s message is unfocused to the point of obfuscation. What he’s trying to say is an exercise left to the viewer, and while that opens the film to interpretation, it also leaves it without a clear focus, robbing it of much of its potential impact. Recommended with reservations.