Too Scary; Didn't Watch - GANJA & HESS

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Flesh is meat and blood is drink and this week we're recapping Bill Gunn's 1973 misunderstood masterpiece, GANJA & HESS!!! Join us as we three white ladies try to do this movie justice.Movie Intro @ 17:33Trivia @ 20:01Recap starts @ 31:07TrailerFollow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content!Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy.Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmCheck out SKIMS best intimates including the Fits Everybody Collection and more at https://www.skims.com/tooscary #skimspartnerSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi everyone. Welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch, the horror movie recap podcast for those too scared to watch for themselves. I'm Emily and I am too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Henley and I'm also too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Sammy and I love watching scary movies. And so I watch them so that you don't have to. And it is almost Valentine's Day. Oh my gosh.

The most romantic time of the year, deep dark February. So romantic. And you know what goes hand in hand? Romance and horror. Oh, it really does. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror romance. Horror romance. And Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror.

Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror.

Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror.

Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Horror. Something actually scary happened to me, which I texted you guys, but I'm now gonna just bring it to the floor again anyway. Bring it to the floor.

Yeah, this was scary. Let's bring it forward to discuss. Let's bring it to discuss. So I, by the skin of my goddamn teeth, got norovirus right after you guys left. Truly minutes after you left, I was throwing up. And got it, it's like Silas got it and then a few hours later I got it

and it was the worst stomach flu maybe I've ever had. Just in terms of its like length and the absolute violent nature with which it moved through my body. It was like so extreme. Anyway, I've been on the men though, feeling better, had like a day of feeling kind of better and then another day of feeling kind of better.

But then I was so tired that after I put Silas to bed, I like just also immediately fell asleep and I hadn't really had enough to eat for dinner. So then I woke up. Slash for days. Yeah, slash for days, exactly. So this issue is compounded with days and days of not getting enough nutrients

or being properly hydrated, et cetera. So I get up in the middle of the night, it's dark, Tim's sleeping, everyone's asleep, all the lights are off in my house. I go downstairs to to eat some crackers. I start feeling dizzy downstairs. And then I take a bite of a pretzel and it makes me feel, I just break out in a cold sweat

and feel so nauseous. And I don't know exactly what happened, but I fell, I mean, I blacked out. I fully, I was so dizzy. I fully blacked out. I fully fell, I think basically into the sink and then on the ground. And I woke up on the ground in my dark kitchen

with the water running in the sink. My ears were ringing. It was as though I'd been in an explosion. It was like that scene out of Mission Possible where like the sound has gone out and all you can hear is the ringing. And I- Mission Possible Four Ghost Protocol

after he blows up the Kremlin. Exactly. I mean, he doesn't blow up the Kremlin, but the Kremlin blows up. We all know, we all know, we all know. I woke up on the floor in my kitchen being like, where am I, why am I on the floor? Why does my whole arm hurt so badly?

And then I was like, whoa, I passed out. And I've never done that before. I've never really passed out, passed out in that way. It's only happened to me once. And it's really scary. It's really scary. Really scary. I don't know why I was in denial that that's what was happening.

I was kind of like, I was like, that won't happen to me while I was feeling really dizzy in my kitchen. And then it did. And oh, it fucking sucks. I have like a huge scrape on my arm and a huge bruise on my arm. And it honestly just- It's good you didn't hit your head. I know, I know, or like hurt myself more.

It really scared me. I then went back upstairs and like told Tim, I was like, something weird just happened. He was like, what? Anyway, so I think it's just because I was like hungry and hadn't had enough to eat and I passed out. It was crazy. I mean, take care of yourself out there, you guys.

Take care of yourselves. And I'll just remind everybody, we talked about this in Smile too, but the one time that I fainted was from drinking too much water. So take care of yourselves. So it's a really delicate balance. But don't take care of yourselves too intensely because you can go too far in the other direction. I was luckily-

Drink and eat enough and not too much. I was sitting in a office chair when I fainted, so it was luckily I didn't move really at all. Yeah, it's ideal to be already in a place you can sit down. You want to be down already. You want to be able to be down already. But I did call out to one of my coworkers at the time. I was like, Max, I'm fainting.

And then I fainted. Oh, that's so sweet. That's like so pure. It's so pure and vulnerable. Max, I'm fainting. I'm fainting. I'm fainting. That's fainting, I'm fainting. That's like right before Silas would throw up,

he would go, mommy, and then barf everywhere. And I was like, and I was like, ma. Anyway, so what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. So I'm feeling the strongest I've ever been right now, you guys. Exactly, what a fucking bullshit, you guys. Exactly. What a fucking bullshit sentiment that is. Sorry. I know.

It's really just so not true. I know. Some things make you a lot weaker. There's a lot of things like, everything happens for a reason, always pisses me off. It's like, no, it fucking doesn't. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. It's like sometimes and oftentimes challenges

make you more resilient. What doesn't kill you tends to make you more resilient. Now there's a phrase. That really rolls off the tongue. Let's put that on a t-shirt. Emily, any scary things happened to you this week? I mean, I did not get stomach flu, which was really, really miraculous.

I did, you may be able to hear that I did get a cold. I do have a cold. They couldn't escape my grasp without getting some kind of illness. Yeah, we had to get something, some memory to take with us at the time. Really, really lucky. On the plane, I think I was a little bit like,

are we gonna start vomiting on the plane? Yeah, which way? It could have been really bad. I was reeling you guys. I mean, you know that we were texting and I didn't say a word to you about how sick. I didn't say a word because I was like, if I tell them they're gonna be convinced,

they're gonna get sick and then the anxiety of that is gonna make them sick. Well, be convinced they're going to get sick and then the anxiety of that is going to make them sick. Well, and it's really easy to convince yourself that you're feeling really nauseous. I feel like it doesn't take much to be like, Oh, I'm about to throw up. And then I never did. Yeah, never did. It's a little cold, which is fine. But you know what happened to me this week is on the plane for the first time in my life, I watched Dirty Dancing. Can you believe it?

I watched it for the first time in my life. Emily, Tim and I just watched it recently too for the very first time. I'd never seen it either. And I got home the next night and I made Joel watch Dirty Dancing with me because he had also never seen it and I was like, okay, we have to watch Dirty Dancing immediately again. I'm obsessed with Dirty Dancing. I can't get over it. I think it's the best movie ever made.

I can't stop thinking about it. It's absolutely perfect. And we've talked about this as a collective before. I also went through a little Gene Kelly phase a couple of months ago, watched American in Paris, and I watched Singin' in the Rain. And I think that the collapse of society and masculinity in particular in Western culture can be linked to us not having hot masculine dancers at the forefront of our culture. Yes, where are they? Where are our hot masculine dancers? the forefront of our culture.

Yes, where are they? Where are our hot masculine dancers? We really need them. Bruno Mars doesn't count. Bruno Mars doesn't count, unfortunately. Channing Tatum is something that closest we've got, but it's not the same. It's not a one-to-one.

I'll tell you who we've got. Ryan Gosling kinda tried. Tom Holland. Well, okay, okay. And so here's what I'm saying. Tom Holland's here to save us all. Well, okay, I thought about this. I thought of tried. Tom Holland. Well, okay, okay. And so here's what I'm saying. Tom Holland's here to save us all. Well, okay, I thought about this. I thought about this.

I thought about this. Because he's engaged to Zendaya and we know he has said many times, he's gonna disappear. They're gonna have kids. He's gonna raise Zendaya's kids and he's gonna stop working. And I make this call right now to you, Hollywood, universe, God who I've pled call right now to you, Hollywood, universe,

God who I've pledged my support to in a recent baptism. Please, before he goes away, please give us a big dancing movie starring Tom Holland. Please let him show us, and I mean like ballet type dancing. Like I wanna see this man doing fucking pirouettes in a major motion picture before he goes away. Please, God make it happen. I love this.

Yeah, I fully support this. We need it. A classically trained dancer, like a hot dancer. We need it, we need it. Headley, this is how God works, right? We need it, we need it. Headley, this is how God works, right? We need it, we need it. This is called a prayer. This is called a prayer.

God works mysterious ways. And so this would be a really interesting way for God to show up for us all, but I would take it. Yeah, absolutely, me too. At the very least, God, if you can't, we're negotiating now. If you can't give us a full movie, big budget movie, at least give Tom a very successful dance studio

that viral videos are coming out of at all times where he is just leading other men to their true potential as dancers and we are just getting weekly viral dance vids of Tom Holland. Like you guys. With his little cutie babies dancing in the background. Patrick Swayze, may he rest in peace.

My, my God. The man can move. The man can move. He was a classically trained dancer. We just, I'm just telling you, we need it. We really, really need it. I know. This is what we need to think of as masculinity.

There's nothing else. There's nothing else we need. Look, I'm not saying it would solve everything, but I do think it would solve some things. Yeah. I really do think, I really do think this is the model of masculinity that we need. And I think it would, I at least think it would help some things. Yeah. I really do think this is the model of masculinity that we need. And I think it would, at least think it would help.

Okay? I think it would help. I agree. I totally agree. Like in order to be president of the United States, you have to pass a dance test. You have to pass a dance test. And if you can't pass the dance test,

you cannot lead the nation. Yes, we should be ridiculing, and I'm gonna stand by this. Don't, nobody take this away from me. We should be ridiculing men who can't dance. Absolutely tearing them down. It'd be the biggest taboo. The biggest gaffe would be a man who cannot. That's what it is.

Who can't dance. I'll take away, we don't have to ridicule him. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine. But it should be like, oh, we can't dance. I don't know. Red flag. I don't have to ridicule him, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine, but it should be like, oh, we can't dance, I don't know. Red flag. I don't know. Or orange flag at least.

Orange flag, can he point his toe? Can he do a turn? Okay, orange flag, orange flag. We'll see if he can make up for it by like being really good at baking or something. Yep. You know? Mm-hmm.

This is just what I believe. Wow. And it has been, the seed of the thought was planted by Gene Kelly, God damn Gene Kelly, and then it blossomed into a full grown, gorgeous, gorgeous rose bush thanks to Patrick Swayze. Wow. And here we are.

Wow. And here we are. Yeah, yeah. I think you're onto something here. We are here. Sammy, what about you? I too got sick post Connecticut and really just settled into the sick life in a big way. I tend to luxuriate in sickness.

I live alone, I don't have kids. I have my cats who love to sleep all day. I freelance work and so it's pretty easy for me to take a couple days off. So I just perched up on the couch with Bunk who has been meowing away in the background. I don't know if you guys have heard him. But something scary that came of that was a dirty habit

I had kicked a long time ago that came back with a vengeance, which was, I think I played probably two to 300 games of Spider Solitaire in the past four days. Yeah, yeah. A really sickening amount where you just hate yourself after each game and it's like, surely this will be the last. And then the second you finish, you start a new one

and you're like, well, no, this one is gonna be the last one. And well, no one more. Do you see it when you close your eyes? Do you see cards? I haven't yet, but I did used to have that. I know you and I- That's when I had to stop.

Yeah. I know you and I both had that where it would be the last thing I thought about as I was falling asleep would be like those little images of the cards, like shuffling away and being like a king and queen of hearts. And like, those are my like delirious bedtime thoughts. It hasn't gotten to that level yet.

And hopefully it won't. Hopefully now that I'm feeling a little better, I can kick it before it really gets to that level. But yeah, it just really brought me back to a time of... I don't think I've ever played Spider Solitaire and now I want to. Don't start. Don't start. It's like, don't pick up that first cigarette, you know?

I know. I know. Oh, but yeah, being sick stinks. I feel like everybody's fucking sick right now and bird flu is apparently making a comeback. Oh, don't tell me about that. The last thing we need, of course, that's what would happen, is like the second Trump everybody's fucking sick right now and bird flu's apparently making a comeback. Don't tell me about that. The last thing we need, of course that's what would happen, is like the second Trump's in office, another pandemic starts.

I know, I know. So it just, yeah, I was really spiraling and I'm- God. God, are you listening? God. It's me, Margaret. Number two on the to-do list after the Tom Holland thing. And look, shuffle those priorities as you see fit.

Who am I to decide? No, Tom Holland is first. You're right, bird flu second. Yeah, not really, really spiraled in terms of public health and safety, as I'm sure many other people are. And just, you know, remember, everybody take care of yourselves, drink water,

but not too much water. We're all in this together. And call your representatives. Sorry, that's the other thing I'll say. And wear masks if you're sick or if you're not sick. Yeah, wait, I just do, I actually really quickly wanna tell a story and then I'll be done.

But I did call my congressman about all various things. And he's a Democrat. There's a real lack of urgency coming out of his office. I've spoken to this guy, Brandon, a couple of times. Democrats are just chilling right now. He's just, he's- They're gonna just kick their feet up. I was like, so when's the next town hall gonna be?

And he was like, in the summer. And I was like, what? Sir, it is February. What do we possibly have to talk about right now? I was like, why not sooner? And he was like, they go on a schedule. And I was like, okay. Dictated by whom?

The Lord? God? God? Let Brandon have a town hall sooner, okay? Let him. God. All that is to say is like, I have been assuming that the people who are my leaders

in Congress are feeling a sense of urgency. Let's not make that assumption. You got to call, even if it's you just kind of yelling at a guy named Brandon, the cumulative effects have to mean something. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that's all.

Yep. Great. Well, speaking of God and certain addictions, whether it be to spider, solitaire or blood. Oh. Addicted to blood. Might as well face it. Addicted to blood.

This week we are going to be recapping Ganja and Hess came out in 1973 written and directed by Bill Gunn starring Dwayne Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn, and Sam L. Wayman. It's available on VOD to rent or purchase. I first heard about this movie from Horror Noir. We, I believe all watched that documentary about that was great history of black representation in horror film. And it had been on my list since then. And all I knew about it was it was kind of a vampire, a non-traditional vampire film. Cool.

And just based on the title, I assumed it was a love story of sorts. Sure. Ganjan Hess. And... Is that the case? Is it a love story of sorts. Sure. Ganjan Hess. Is that the case? Is it a love story? It is a love story of sorts. It's a very art house film. Okay.

And I'll get more into the like trivia of how this movie came to be and in what context, what was going on in cinema at the time. And yeah, I texted you guys, I feel like this is a very, you could probably write a whole essay novel about what this film is saying. I am not the most qualified person to be doing that. It's a lot about the African-American experience and in relationship to addiction

and in relationship to Christianity. And so there's a lot of like dense topics in this movie that I am by no means an expert on, but I thought it was a very beautifully made film. And I'm really glad that I saw it. I feel like I immediately wanted to see it again. It seems like the kind of movie that you can get more from each time you see it. So yeah, I'm going to do my best. We're going to go through it and talk about it. I remember this movie from Hortenoir and I remember being really curious about this one.

So I'm really excited. Yeah, it was like very unprecedented at the time. Yeah. Okay, great. That's exciting. So Ganja and Hess has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.2 on IMDB. IMDB's holding true. The budget was 350,000.

It made 21,000 and I will tell you why. And that is because it played in one theater for one week. Oh God. Wow. This movie was not a mainstream success, which honestly makes sense. It's like in watching it, it's very impressionistic. I would not see it having wide appeal even today,

but it was greenlit after the success of Blackula and kind of alongside blaxploitation films and movie producers at the time were feeling like they could spend not that much money to make films that were a hit at the time. And so they reached out to Bill Gunn, who at the time was best known as a playwright. And they said, you know, we want a movie, like a vampire movie like Blackula. And Bill Gunn, as far as I could tell, was kind of like, Oh, yeah, sure. I'll do that. Did he trick them? He tricked them a little bit. But also it seems like the studio system wasn't a little bit of a

disarray at the time. And there were a lot of like changing studio heads. So Bill Gunn ended up with a lot more creative control than maybe was initially planned. So he wrote and directed this film and it was selected to premiere at Cannes, which was the only American film selected in 1973 to play at Cannes, which was like a huge honor.

And it was received really positively there. And standing ovation, the whole thing, then premiered in the US and people just absolutely did not get it at all and made zero money, critically panned. People just, yeah, did not understand it. And most of the critics, I'm sure, were white. And that's still true.

And so the studio heads or like producers were in a panic and sold it to another distribution company who re-edited it, cut out like 30 minutes and re-released it under the title Blood Couple. And then Bill Gunn saw that version and in 10 minutes like walked out of it, demanded his name be taken off of it. And then it got re-released again under the name Double Possession and

just really lost its original intention and did not get the respect it deserved until many years later when it was restored by Keno Lorber through the Museum of Modern Art. And they basically restored a 35 millimeter print and re-released it. I'm not sure what year this was, but it's I think pretty recently that it has got like some of the respect that it deserves and become more of a cult classic.

And cause in its time it was just kind of written off that it deserves and become more of a cult classic. And because in its time, it was just kind of written off and probably difficult to see in its original form since it was released under all these different... Yeah, just sort of like broken apart in pieces. Yeah. Could you see Ganja and Hess, like could you rent it from the movie?

Do you know what I mean? Was it even available to see the first film? Probably not. Even when I just searched for it on my TV, it still came up as Blood Couple. I typed in Ganja and Hess and it came up as Blood Couple. But then when I went to Amazon, it said Ganja and Hess again. But clear that the confusion about all that still follows it around. blood couple, but then when I went to Amazon, it said Ganja and Hess again, but like clear that the confusion about all that still follows it around. But I'm fairly certain that I watched

the original version as it was restored because it had the Keno Lorber logo in the opening logos. So that is what is available on Amazon. This movie was also remade by Spike Lee as The Sweet Blood of Jesus, which is apparently not very good. But I haven't seen it, so I will withhold judgment. And one last little bit of trivia is that Dwayne Jones, who plays Hess in this, has previously been in a movie that we've recapped, Night of the Living Dead. He was the main actor in that, which came out in 1968. And I think we talked about that at the time of how uncommon it was for a black actor to be the lead in a movie. And he is the lead in this as well. He's like the only one who knows what to do in that movie too. Right.

Isn't that true? Everyone else is like being. Yeah, you see? Well, yeah, he's like the protagonist that's like leading, calming everyone else down and like making all the important decisions. And yeah, it was. Very unusual for the time to have that be a black actor, which is very cool. And he was very, I guess, picky about what roles he would take on. And he was like a professor, he had like a full other career and he would only act in Things that he really was interested in and so I think he only did nine movies in his career Wow

So that's also just very interesting. But yeah, Dwayne Jones So that's all the trivia I have shall we take a look at this trailer? Yes. Oh yes. The only perversions that can be comfortably condemned are the perversions of others. I will persist and survive without gods or society sanction. I will not be tortured. I will not be tortured. I will not be punished.

I will not be guilty. Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul for everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for thee, and be thankful. He's not a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim.

He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim.

He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim.

He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. He's a criminal, he's a victim. Holy shit. Holy shit. I feel like the Gonja and Hess title font is like one of the coolest font designs I've ever seen with the like cross incorporated into it. It's really cool. I really like the music in the background of that. That was very cool. That was very cool.

I felt like I was in a museum. Yeah, that's like a big part of it. The sound design, the music, there's this chanting recurring that happens in it. And throughout the whole thing, you hear the like grain of the 35 millimeter. And so that adds this texture to it. And I feel like it's sometimes intentionally mixed so that it feels like the wrong sounds are louder. Like the film grain is like louder than the dialogue.

And so it adds to this kind of dreamy, almost nightmarey feeling. And yeah, it's just funny to think about a like film producer being like, yeah, we want like something like Blackula. And then he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. producer being like, yeah, we want something like Blackula. And then he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. Totally. I got you. I got you. I got it. I got it.

So like this. I feel like it's giving like, that's like Terrence Malick vibes of like just images that make me feel. It feels like a poem. There's like parts of it that I feel too much. Stop making me feel things. Stop it. Yeah, it's like not it's not necessarily following a conventional narrative. There are times when you're really confused as a viewer of like, wait, what? But it's just, yeah, evoking certain feelings and very clear that. Bill Gunn had something he wanted to say as like an auteur and that might not have been what the studio was expecting and might not have been what audiences were clamoring for,

but it's, yeah, it's really beautiful and I'm very glad that it exists. Okay, well, I'm excited to hear about it. Yeah. Yeah, and I can excited to hear about it. Yeah. Yeah, and I can see how it could be a challenge to accurately recap. Sure, yeah. Me as a white lady, I probably don't have the depth

of insight into what Bill Gunn, a black director in the 70s was trying to say about his relationship with society and with faith and with addiction. So I'm gonna do my best, but yeah, I'm not the perfect person to be diving into all of those subjects, but let's do it anyways. Let's do it anyways.

Good thing you have two white women here. Ready to support. Ready to. If we only did movies created from and for the white female perspective, A, bad podcast, B, few options. Had to. Yep.

So we'll try our darndest. We'll try our darndest. That's all we can do. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. You guys know how I feel about Skims. You know how I love their t-shirts. You know how I love their pajamas.

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God the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Ghost, stabbed with a dagger, diseased from that ancient culture, whereupon he became addicted and could not die, nor could he be killed. Hi. Oh, man. So already we're learning a lot. Yeah, that's a lot of context that I need to. What he was studying an ancient civilization?

Ancient black civilization of Murcia. Yeah. So he's an anthropologist and it's already we're thrown a little bit off kilter because we cut to not Dr. Hess Green. Okay. And we're cutting to before the stabbing occurs. And so it's a little confusing in terms of chronology. But yeah, so we cut to a church.

We're all familiar. We've all been in churches. We're extremely familiar with churches. And this is a church choir singing about, we're hearing familiar phrases, Jesus died on the cross for me. Lot of that referencing that old. Hey!

You know that story. All that stuff. We all get it. You know that story, all that stuff. We all get it. And we hear a VO voiceover of a man saying, I've been a minister here for a long time, we're seeing the minister preaching to his congregation. This is Luther, again, not Dr. Hess Green.

And Luther is played by Sam Wayman, which just trivia about him is he is Nina Simone's brother. Wow. Talented family. And he also did all the music for this movie, which is really good. Wow. What talent.

Yeah, so his voiceover is letting us know that he like loves being a minister at this church, but he's also a part-time chauffeur. We cut to him driving Dr. Hess Green, and they're driving in a nice Rolls Royce, and Luther is saying, Dr. Hess Green is an addict. He's not a criminal. He's a victim and he's addicted to blood. And we're seeing images of Hess in the backseat of this Rolls Royce as they're driving down country roads to his big, beautiful house. Yeah. Where is this set? It's in upstate New York, I believe. Oh. Or at least it was filmed there.

Yeah, I think that's, yeah. And then some text comes up that says part one victim. We see Luther dropping off Hess. Oh, he's actually not at his home yet. It looks like they're at an art museum of some sort. There's a lot of art in this movie, a mixture of European art and African art kind of representing the two things that he's immersed in,

the two worlds that he's immersed in. And he goes into this art museum and meets his new assistant. He's introduced to his new assistant, George Maeda. And George says, I'm like really honored to be working with you. And we're hearing some final VO from Luther reciting scripture saying, Jesus said,

my flesh is meat and my blood is drink. Normal stuff. You know, we say it all the time. My blood is drink. My flesh is meat. My flesh is meat. My blood is drink. Blewed, how it's technically pronounced.

Blewed. Blewed. And then we get the opening titles Blood is drink, blued, how it's technically pronounced. Blued. Blued. And then we get the opening titles where there is a song, kind of a blues sounding song where the lyrics are, of the Christians it is written that in the Black Myrthian age, there existed an addiction to blood among its people, thousands of slaves were bled to death, but murdered in such a way the slaves could not die. There was visited upon them a curse that they should live forever unless the shadow of the cross, an implement of torture, touched their darkened hearts. But oh, since Christ had not come and the cross did not exist. Don't you know they were called to walk the earth till the Christians came? Damn. Yeah. Pretty scathing critique of the lack of true Christianity visible on this

planet. Yep. Yeah. So now we're back at Hess's house, which is gorgeous, a big, beautiful house that he lives in by himself. George Maeda, his assistant, is sitting with him at the fireplace. They're having some drinks and getting to know each other, getting a little loose. Maeda is telling a long story about some film set he was on where the director was yelling cunt instead of cut and has seems not amused by this story. And there's a lot of moments like this that are just like really long conversations that you're not sure what the point of it is, where it feels like, is this just a story

that happened to Bill Gunn that he just threw in here? Or is this, yeah, just one of those movies where you can like pick apart details and it's like, maybe there's some reason behind this, maybe there's not. But it also adds to the feeling of like playing catch up. Like I'm trying to keep up with what's happening here and I'm not sure if.

Your brain is like, what's the story, what's the story, what's the story. I'm sure that I don't have enough information on either filmmaker or films to say this, but it's like reminding me of conversations we were having when we watched Mulholland Drive. Of just like moments where it's like, yeah, maybe David Lynch just like dreamed about this

and he threw it in there and we aren't meant, and it's sort of like, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. He just put that in there for him and that he knows why and okay. Yeah, it very much feels like this movie was Bill Gunn making the movie that he wanted to make for him. And pretty fucking cool.

Pretty fucking cool. We see Hess goes to his room and he's touching a dagger that looks like it's carved from bone. And as he's touching, he's looking like a little drunk and a little out of it. He's like about to pass out and he's hearing this singing of this Myrthian hymn, this like chanting. hearing this singing of this Myrthian hymn, this like chanting, it's very hypnotizing and he's seeing images of the Myrthian leader like reaching out to him.

And that's cross fading back and forth to this white guy that's like the head of the art museum reaching out to him. So again, these like two worlds that he's caught between and Then he like wakes up and it's he's in like a dream state and He sees that madea is gone and he goes looking for him. He's calling out to him made a madea Finds him outside in a tree with a noose hanging in it. You only see Maeda's feet. He's like climbed up into the branches

and he's clearly very drunk and Hess is trying to talk him down. He's like, what's going on out here? And he's basically saying, you know, I thought about drowning myself in your lake, but I am like really scared of drowning. And Hess is doing a good job, like being totally chill and like being like, come on, man, like let's get down from there. And he says like, this is my house. That's, cause Mayda says like, this has nothing to do with you.

Which is very funny on like presumably your first day of work for your new boss to have it be this. This is just a coincidence. Yeah. This has nothing to do with you. And Hess says, you know, it's my- No one's gonna think it does. And Hess says, you know, it's my house. It's my tree. That's my

rope. I'm the only black guy on this block. If, if a black guy turns up dead, who do you think they're going to like, be questioning? Like, I don't want all this trouble. And he's eventually able to talk made a to climb down from the tree. And we see Maeda now back inside sitting by the fireplace talking about how he has had suicidal ideation in the past, and he's attempted suicide before. And it's unclear if Hess is in the room. He's not in the frame.

And there are a few moments where it does seem like there's almost these like soliloquies happening. But so I'm not sure if Hess is hearing this or if this is just made a talking to himself. But it's clear that this is a pretty troubled man. And he's got talking about previous suicide attempts that he's made and maybe he talks about how he feels like a murderer and a victim and he mentions schizophrenia.

So there's two sides of him. And again, we're not sure if Hess is there and we cut to we see Hess sleeping. And then made a comes in in the middle of the night grabs that dagger, the Murphy and dagger and stabs him with it three times. So this is what the title credits were. Title text was telling us about stabs has with it stabs has with it. Yeah. Okay. And then Hesse appears dead, Maeda gets in the bath and is washing himself really aggressively and frantically. It's like a very unpleasant bath scene.

This is not a relaxing bath. It's a creep. It's a creep bath scene. Yes, it did. I was like, add this to the list of unsettling bath scenes. Bad baths. bad baths. He is like washing blood off of himself, but then also brushing his teeth in this water and washing his face in this water.

And I'm just like, no, this water is too dirty. Don't do any of that. Absolutely not. But then he gets out of the bath and we see that he has a gun and he stands next to the bath and shoots himself in the heart. Oh God. Do we think that Maeda was addicted to blood beforehand?

Do you think that was like part of what this was? I have no idea. Because then he passed it on to Hess? We don't see him ever drink any blood. Okay. So I don't think so, but who knows? Possibly. I don't think so, but who knows, possibly.

And at this moment, Hess wakes up, reanimates, come he is unable to be killed, and he is drawn to the blood from Maeda's gunshot wound, and so runs into the bathroom, and it is not like rushing to help him. He's rushing to drink all of his blood. Slurp up all that blood. Slurp up all that blood. So do we think that he wasn't able to be killed because the dagger made him immortal, right? Not because he like previously? Yeah, that's what I took from it. Okay. Okay. And so after he drinks all this blood, he walks out into the field outside of his house and starts praying.

We're hearing through the gates of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection. And I'll note that there's no traditional like vampire rules in this other than he just drinks blood. This is daylight, he's outside. Yeah, and can't die. He seems to be able to eat other food and he drinks a lot of red wine in it. So yeah, basically he just has to have blood and he can't die. Now we get, Chiron comes up, says part two, survival. We cut to Hess in a doctor's office, I think donating blood, it's like a blood bank, which is pretty clever.

And as the nurse leaves, he drops a little like firecracker in the trash can, and so it causes a like loud but small explosion. So everyone runs in to see what's happened and he like sneaks out of the room and goes into the storage where all the blood is and just starts really smart, grabbing it all, putting it in his bag. Pretty funny.

We see him return to his house, which again, it's gorgeous. Let's move there. Tried to find a photo of it, but I couldn't find one. But yeah, it's like, he's clearly like a very wealthy, respected, I mean, he's got a chauffeur, he's got a butler, he's driving a Rolls Royce and we see he's having this garden party with all these fancy looking people. Oh, that sounds nice. It does sound nice. And I'm going to dress up and go to a garden party. Also, like,

imagine having a chauffeur. Imagine you went places often enough that a chauffeur was truly required to shuttle you around. Because that's like, you got to keep that person busy. You know, I mean, what are they doing when they're not driving you around? It's true, just for one person, you know? You're just doing your crossword puzzle. I mean, I'll be a chauffeur

if I can just drive one rich person one place and then I can just like hang out in the car all day. Yeah. You should look into that. Look into it. I bet there's opportunities in Greenwich. I bet there is. I just want a job where I can nap somehow.

Napping makes me money. Yeah. Okay, sorry. So we see his son arrives at the garden party who is presumably like away at boarding school because we haven't seen him before. And so this is he's brought in by this like a white lady in a fur coat and they're having a conversation and he comes up to Hess and it's very like, Oh, hello, son. Hello, father.

Like, how is your French going? And then they have a full conversation in French. I have no idea what they say, but. Cool. Again, just to show like, he's off at boarding school learning French. And so I wrote here that sound design is really good. And he gets his son like,

oh, what can we get you to drink? A ginger ale? And the son says, yeah, that sounds good. They walk over to the little drinks table and then Hess excuses himself to go inside and fix himself a cup of blood. Can I interest you in a cup of blood? Oh, lovely. So then the party's over.

I guess his son gets sent back to boarding school. We don't see the son ever again. How old is the son? Like a teenager? Like teenage, yeah. Okay. And then I think we see that Hess has like run out of his supply of blood. Oh no. And he's getting hungry. So he goes into the city and like a seedier part of town, we see sex workers and he sticks out like a sore thumb. He like looks like rich person.

And so immediately becomes a target of this like sex worker and her pimp are like having a conversation about like, oh, look at this guy. So she goes in thinking like perfect target. And yeah, unfortunately the tables get turned here a bit that she might be the target. He takes her up to a room and the pimp comes in. Do people say, can I say pimp? I don't know.

Her boss. Her boss. Her manager. Her supervisor. I'm just going to say it. People, whatever. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. So the pimp comes up to the room with a gun like they're gonna take his money, but he can't be killed. Oh, sure. And so he fights back and they shoot him. He doesn't die. She starts screaming. She pulls a gun out of her purse, starts shooting him.

He's not dying. And eventually he's able to kill both of them and drink all their blood. Gobble up their blood. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And he doesn't look like happy about any of this, by the way. He's...

Sure. He's just, he's put in an impossible situation. Yeah, he's doing what he has to do, but he's not, he's not thrilled about it. Yeah. And kind of worth pointing out, it doesn't seem like he really has any strong emotional connections to anyone in this world. Like even with his son, it's like very formal. And there's no wife in the picture, it seems,

or friends that we've seen. And so it feels like this very lonely guy that's now even more ostracized and different and harder to get close with anyone. And so we see another Chiron come up that says, letting go. He is back at his house and the phone rings and it's a woman that's asking for George.

She says, my husband George, I heard like got assigned to be your assistant. I haven't heard from him. Hess says, oh yeah, he can't come to the phone right now. Sorry, bye. She's like, oh no. How long do you think it's been? Just like a day or two?

Well, the whole perception of time in this is really weird and it's gonna get weirder, but yes, a week maybe. And he doesn't seem like, I guess we didn't see that much of him before he was changed into a vampire, but his personality isn't really different. He's like not a different person. He's just addicted to blood now. Yeah. Okay.

She immediately calls back and is like really persistent and is like, listen, my husband, George, I haven't heard from him. And I'll be frank with you that I just flew in from Amsterdam and ran out of money. And I know George has a room with you. And can I just come and stay there until I get my things figured out? He's probably on another one of his benders or something. Because yeah, he says like, I haven't seen him either, actually. And she's like, typical George, like disappearing. Like, is it okay if I just come and stay like, I haven't seen him either actually. And she's like, typical George, like disappearing. Like, is it okay if I just come and stay there because I don't have money for a place to stay?

And Hess tells her that he'll have his driver come and pick her up. Oh, man. Oh, God. He says, are you one of those people who's filled with blood? Just have one question for you. Is your flesh meat and is your blood drink? If so, come on down. I have plenty of room here.

Come on down. So, driver goes and picks her up. This is Gonja. She steps out of the car dressed in furs and pearls He steps out of the car dressed in furs and pearls and just so elegant and beautiful. He's dressed much more casually. He's just in like a t-shirt and jeans. And she looks him up and down and says, tell your boss I'm here. And he's like, I'm Dr. Green.

And they have this very sweet moment where they both start laughing, like realizing that they're used to being in obviously very white spaces where everyone in this affluent position is usually white. And so they just presumed that the other people, the either one of them was going to be white. So they just have like a funny little laugh of like,

oh, yep, didn't expect that. Wait, so are they falling in love? Are they in love with each other now? This is the love part, right? They're flirting right off the bat, but she is there looking for her husband. Sure. Yeah, but it's Valentine's Day, so. Yeah, exactly.

No rules on Valentine's Day. Whoever you see is who you love. She asks where she can change. He gets her set up in a room. She changes into a lovely loungy, caftan. That just is. Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

God damn. Fur, pearls, caftans, garden parties. Just flew in from Amsterdam. I'm ignoring everything else of all the other details. They then meet in the living room, which is again covered in beautiful art and it's just like gorgeous tall ceilings, fireplace, like vases, plants, just so rush.

Vases. It felt like I had to pronounce it vase and not vase in this setting. If they're fancy, they're vases. They're vases. And they are drinking wine now, smoking a little weed, having a fun conversation, getting to know each other, not asking a lot of questions about where George might be.

George, I already forgot about George. George who? George who? And yeah, pretty quickly they start kissing. Wow, that is quick. This is where I'm like, how much time has passed? This seems like truly 20 minutes tops. Okay.

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seemingly overwhelming him. He's holding his head. He's overcome by this buzzing and we're learning that it's because he's hungry, he needs blood. And he's keeping the blood up in this attic. So he runs up there and he starts, he pours himself a glass of blood and then like collapses. There's a mattress up in the attic and he kind of collapses on top of it. Like he got that blood just in the nick of time and he's now like feeling a bit better.

Ganja is following him and climbs up and finds him there. And these are the kind of moments where it's, like I'm not sure if she sees the blood. I don't know if she puts two and two together, what she thinks is happening. But she just strokes him very lovingly and is being really tender with him and goes into it. They have sex and it's a really beautiful sexy sex scene.

This one I was like, do you remember in Don't Look Now, where there's that really long sex scene in that. I feel like this sex scene has also got to go into the sex scene hall of fame. Where there's no music underneath it and you just see their bodies intertwined and then there's like a ding of a bell and it cuts to like a different angle on them as they're moving. And it looks like art. And there is also like, we've seen shots of sculptures of the human body and this feels like that

where it's just like the human body, the form of it, where it just looks like so stunning. Wow, that's cool. Then we see them having breakfast the next day. Ganja's being a little sassy to the butler. Butler's name is Archie and she's kind of like fucking with him in a way that's very funny. She's like asking for grape jelly and grits and an extension cord for her record player.

And Archie is clearly like thrown by her vibe. She's like, are you not understanding? Do you know what an extension cord is? Grape jelly and an extension cord. These are standard breakfast requests. Am I stuttering? And Hess is commenting on her impoliteness, impolite questions, and she's like,

impolite questions are the most interesting. That's how I learned the most about people. He's like, but what does anybody learn about you? She's like, nothing. And that's how I like it. And he's like, they learn that you're impolite. So they're having like fun little banter. Yes. They're comfortable with each other. Now they can, they can razz each other. They can razz each other. And I just got to say, Marlene Clark, who plays Gonja is like absolutely magnetic.

And so even though it sounds like she's being a bitch in this scene, she's like, has that energy of like, you just want to, you just love her and like want to be around her. Hang out with her. Hess has to leave for work that day and she asks him what he wants for dinner. Hess has to leave for work that day and she asks him what he wants for dinner. He says, you know, I don't care, Wink, whatever you want. And she's calling out to him from

the balcony as he's getting in his car to drive away. And she's like, Hess, did I hear you say that you don't believe in marriage? And he looks up at her with a little smirk and he's like, no, I never said such a thing. So I'm like, again- Are you getting a divorce today? She's not getting a divorce today. Yeah, how much time has passed. Is this 24 hours since you've been there

or what is happening? Hey, when you know, you know, baby. When you know, you know. What is time? So he, we see again, goes into the city and he is on the hunt and he sees another sex worker with a baby, sorry, Henley. Okay.

And goes inside with them. We see Ganja coming back from the grocery store with Archie, with all their dinner supplies. And she looks like she is just like delighted by being waited on by Archie. But she's like, again, being a bitch. She's like making him carry all the groceries and open all the doors for her

while she's like letting them all close behind her. So he's struggling to balance everything and she's just looking so tickled by it all. And then they're in the kitchen and she's saying, why didn't you get wine? I need wine for this recipe. And he says, oh, Hess has so much wine in the wine cellar, so we don't need to buy wine.

And she's like, well, I need it for the recipe. And he's like, well, we should wait till he gets back because we go down there together. I never go down there alone. And she says, well, I need it now. So tell me where it is. And he caves and he does show her where it is. And she goes down into this wine cellar.

It's a blue cellar. It's a blueod cellar, it's a blood cellar. Honestly, it looks like a lot of pickled vegetables. Okay. Well, you gotta have something to accompany your blood. I think it is blood and like sauerkraut. What? Yeah, and then she sees, we're not seeing any wine, and then she sees like freezer door and opens that

and inside is her husband's corpse. Ooh. We see her screaming and we cut to Hess back at the house with the sex worker that had a baby. And she is dead in the bed covered in blood. Clearly he has drained her of all of her blood and the baby is just crying in the crib. Oh, I hate that.

That's, I really hate that. And again, he is very stoic through all of this where he just looks really unhappy at the edge of the bed. The camera is doing this like tilting thing and it feels very disorienting. But yeah, I mean, he did it. He did it. He's not happy about it, but he did do it.

Well, you better find someone to take care of that baby now. You motherfucker. Obviously. Oh, he just leaves. Priority one. That motherfucker. He leaves, he comes back to the house, dinner is made. Ganja is sitting across from him,

framed by these candlesticks in a very beautiful shot. She is staring daggers at him. You got anything to tell me? Yeah. Exactly. He's like, oh, you made a really good dinner. And she's like, Archie made it. I couldn't bring myself. I couldn't get it together. I couldn't do it. So Archie did it. Ask me why. Ask me why. And he's like not getting the hint. And so eventually, yeah,

she was like, yeah, because I went down to the freezer and you have George's body in there. It is like so silly and very just like unrealistic or like heightened in a very weird way. And he is completely not worried about this at all. He doesn't really react. And he's like, Archie, could you take the soup? I don't think we're that hungry. Could you take the soup?

Yeah, because this is exactly how you'd frame the conversation if you were to accuse someone of murdering your husband and keeping them in the cellar. It would be- Over soup. It would be over soup. I see it clearly. Every conversation should be over soup in my opinion. It makes things easier.

Mmm, soup. I love soup. So he, yeah, just looks at her, not denying anything and she gets up in a huff and storms off and she's still in his eye line. So the camera doesn't move and we're still seeing him sitting at the dinner table as she's like huffing

and puffing and stomping and like throwing a little fit but doesn't actually leave. Like it's, I think a pretty funny scene. And eventually she comes back into the room and like sits down next to him again. And seems like, okay, that was, she got it out of her system. I feel better now.

I feel better now. I just need you to know that I didn't like it. I didn't like what you did. I didn't like what you did. But I still want to get married and kind of makes it easier for us to get married now, actually, if you have any. Actually, some of our problems are solved.

I will begrudgingly admit you've done me a service in a way. And then we cut to her giving a very haunting monologue. And again, unsure where this is in time, unsure if this is to Hess, because he is not in the frame, but it's about her childhood and her relationship with her mother and how her mother treated her like a disease. And so she said, I learned if she was going to treat me like a disease and I was going to be a disease and I was going to give her a case of it, a case of me. And talks about how her, the only thing her mother ever complimented her on

was her beauty. And so she like learned to hate her beauty. And yeah, basically learned not to rely on her mother and ends this monologue about like, Ganja takes care of Ganja, like I'm taking care of me. And that's how I've lived my life. Cut to them frolicking in the fields, we're in love. Okay.

And now we're getting married. Oh, okay. Beautiful. A poolside ceremony with some, not many guests, six or so guests. Her wedding bouquet is birds of paradise, really cool. It's also like 70s style, looks great. I love this woman's aesthetics, I really do.

Same. Yeah, her wardrobe is really, really stunning. This wedding ceremony is intercut with shots of them getting rid of bodies, like dumping corpses in the- The two of them? No, must just be him. Cause she's not a vampire. Cause she doesn't know yet, but again,

there's some sense of- A little unclear. Yeah, it's not super clear and it might be jumping around in time. We see them after getting married in bed together. Hess asks Ganja, do you still think I'm psychotic? Yeah. Well, I mean, what reason has he given for murdering her husband?

If not, I'm a vampire. Yeah, we're not. We're not thinking too hard about that. We're not worrying about that. Which also he didn't, to be clear, he obviously didn't kill him. He killed himself. Did he explain that part? No, not on camera.

Okay. But the vibe is, yeah, she's not mad. It's not clear if she's under like a vampire spell. But yeah, again, it's not like a conventional narrative. It's more dreamy. She says, you know, everybody's some kind of freak. True. Who cares?

True. True. And then she says a line that really surprised me. She says, let's follow nature and celebrate divine art in all 69 positions. Whoa. Okay. Bring me along.

It is Valentine's day. It's Valentine's day. It is Valentine's Day. Let's follow nature. And celebrate divine art in all 69 positions. Nice. Nice. Hell yeah, nice. And then they high fived.

They high fived. They start making love. This is all in like very brightly lit daytime, very angelic looking set design. And as they're kissing, he says, I want you to live forever. And she doesn't know what he's implying. She's like, sure, that sounds fun.

We all want to live forever, right? Cut to her covered in blood, dead in the bed. Okay, that was fast. And hit him like naked, crouching over her. This is again, very impressionistic. We're cutting back and forth now between her in a nightgown, running through the garden and falling. Her looking in a mirror,

brushing her hair looking confused. We're hearing the chanting and singing and the buzzing. And then we hear her voice saying, I had a strange dream. I dreamed you murdered me. And now they're walking together through the garden. Like in my background photo, he's got his arm around her,

they're wrapped in a blanket, he like gives her flowers, and I believe he does the dagger thing here, he's done the dagger thing somewhere in here. So it has happened, he has turned her into a vampire, So, it has happened. He has turned her into a vampire. It's now very like peaceful piano music. And... Great Elune, the favorite song of all vampires. Of course. And we hear Hess' voiceover say, the only perversions that can be comfortably

condemned are the perversions of others. I will persist and survive without God's or society's sanction. I will not be tortured. I will not be punished. I will not be guilty. Blood of our Lord Jesus, which was shed for thee, preserve the body and soul for everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for thee and be thankful." We're seeing Ganja going through the transformation. She's feverish. She's in bed thrashing and he brings her blood and she drinks it. She's confused about what's happening to her, obviously. He says, we're going to have a guest for dinner. I think you could use the distraction.

dinner. I think you could use the distraction. Clear that this is going to be the main course, the guest will be the- Guest for dinner. For dinner. It's a man that she is clearly very attracted to or she's seducing. We're not hearing much of the conversation that's happening, but they're having this animated conversation. The three of them, she's like unblinking, staring at him with this hunger, stroking her glass. And eventually somehow the two of them are having sex.

We don't really see the transition of how that happens, but it's clear like Hess obviously knows about this and approves of what's happening. So we get another like very slow, sexy sex scene. And the sweat on their bodies is like sparkling, like glistening, it's like really beautifully shot. And then we're hearing the chanting that we've heard in previous scenes that seems to kind of be synonymous

with when the hunger is rising up and she scratches his back, causing him to bleed and she's licking that blood. And it's fading between an image of her holding red roses and screaming. And then it fades back to them in this room intertwined, but now this man is covered in blood and again, still like glistening and it's very beautiful, but now she's sobbing and feels very guilty about what has happened. Hess comes in, takes her in his embrace

and is like, I'll take care of this, don't worry. They together wrap up the body and maybe this is what we saw a shot of earlier. And they're dragging this body out into the field. They wrap his body in like a plastic tarp, clear plastic tarp. They just kind of leave him in the field. There's no burying that happens,

which I think is pretty funny. They're just like, you know, whatever. No one's gonna look here. It's gonna look out here. But as they're about to leave him, Ganja sees him breathing. He's still alive. And she starts screaming.

He's still alive. He's still alive. Hess pulls her away. He's like, we can't do anything for him. I feel like we could kill him. It seems like you should kill him. Let's just end it. Let's end it.

Hess pulls her away. They're not looking as smitten with each other anymore. Sure, that would put a damper on things a little bit. They're sitting by the fireplace. She asks him, why am I always cold? And he tells her, you know, you'll get used to it. You'll learn to live with it. Oh, that would suck.

Yeah, it would be bad. That part would suck. As I sit with a heating pad on my lap and a space heater at my feet. I love to be warm. He is reading, I don't know if it's the Bible or something that he's like reading scripture to her. They both have kind of like, well, to be fair, Hess has always had kind of an empty

look in his eyes, a kind of coldness to him, a loneliness. And Ganja came in so vibrant, so full of life. And she's now seeming dampened in that way. And he took that from her. He took that from her. I don't like that. We see him going to church. His chauffeur slash minister is doing a service. Well, that's convenient.

They both had to go to the same place. Yeah, exactly. And- Henley, maybe you could be the church chauffeur. That's a great idea. That's a really good idea. Yeah, cause then when you're done with work, you're where you need to be.

You know, you have to be at church anyway. Take everybody there, everybody, and then take everybody home afterwards. Everyone, just the biggest bus, the biggest church bus, a huge church bus. And then there's a church bus driver. Oh, wow. I love that.

Me too. Me too. So we see this whole church service pretty much like, it feels real time, It's probably five minutes long and I guess they did film during an actual church service. So it's like half the public and half actors. And there's moment where the minister puts his hand on Hess and Hess is on his knees and like feeling it and like closing his eyes and raising his hands to the heavens. And he's like trying to like, I don't know, I have no idea if and confess his sins, feel less guilty about all the murder

and cut to him running through the fields near his house in a gorgeous shot where it's just like slow motion. He has his suit jacket open. He's just running through the fields. And then we cut to him in a dark room now that I'm not sure, it must be at his house, but it has a big cross hung up in the corner of the room, like kind of glowing white. And Ganja's in the corner of the room,

kind of huddled away from the cross, and he's in a chair right in front of the cross, looking like he's going in and out of consciousness or something's happening to him. And he looks at Ganja and asks her to come with him. And we've heard in the song earlier about how the cross is the only thing that can kill them. And so he seems to be writhing in pain, but choosing it, choosing to do this. And she's watching with kind of a blank face, a little bit, maybe a little scared. She's not coming with him. Seems like she's not making the same decision that he is. There's this wailing sound design of screams

that my cats absolutely freaked out. They both ran into the room with their heads, you know, perked up high, like they were looking for, it's like as if the fire alarm was going off, like they knew something was up, and I was like, no, no, it's okay. And then Hess dies. Oh.

Unclear how Ganja does not die, even though she's in the room, but I guess because he's sitting right in front of the crucifix, I don't know. He's kind of chosen this death and she chose to live. And now she is in this house alone and she looks out the window as the ambulance takes off with Hess's body.

And she's alone in the house when she looks out to the pool, just kind of bubbling. And then from the pool comes out the guy that they killed earlier or attempted to kill earlier, fully naked and runs toward her, is staring at her. And we're getting this this full frontal of him just running again in slow motion, again, like a really beautiful shot.

And we see as the camera follows him running that he runs over Archie's dead body, and he's locking eyes with her, and she just looks very blank faced, and it's looking like he's running to her and then it freeze frames on him and cuts back to her as she's looking kind of bored down at him and then she looks at the camera and smiles and then end credits play over footage of children singing in the church choir.

Whoa. Whoa. What is this movie? Yeah, I mean, I truly think you could say a lot of different things. Write a whole novel about it. And I think you could ask 10 different people and they'd say 10 different things.

So it's very much, yeah, like, it's a tricky one. Yeah, like it's a tricky one. I know, I know. As a white person who's stupid, it's hard to. You're not stupid. It's hard to comment. Well, I'm a white person who's stupid. But I will say one, I think one interesting thing that I'm gleaning from it is like,

he went to all this efforting from it is like, he went to all this effort to make Hess this like, at first impenetrable person, like he's a black man in society who has like, become distinguished and is a doctor and lives in a beautiful mansion and like, has a chauffeur and his son is goes to boarding school and you would feel like a black man who has accomplished all of that must be impervious, or must be like, you can't touch him, but the whole point of the movie is like,

nope, he was still vulnerable to whatever this was. And that is scary in and of itself. I'd also be curious for someone who is not stupid like me to unpack, and not white like me, the experience of a black woman in this movie too, that like also she had no say in this. I mean, neither did he, it got done to him, but he willingly did it to her without giving her a choice.

And then also he like made her immortal, but then also chose to die. So he put this on her and then left her alone in it. And what that says about her experience in the world at this same time. And I don't know, it's just very fascinating. Yeah. Oh man, and her monologue about her mom

really makes me sad because it's so true that parents, you can like create your child in a certain way. If you tell them certain things about themselves, they will believe it. They'll believe it or they will. And it's really a shame that there are so many bad parents out there. Yeah, it's interesting in terms of religion as well.

And I feel like he's a religious man, but then kind of torn between, I don't know, just like where his place is in spirituality or like finding his own spirituality. And yeah, just the relationship of like Christianity to the African-American experience. And yeah, it's all, it's all. And that is victims were sex workers too, that like they were the easiest target. What that says about the vulnerability of that position in society.

What was the race of those sex workers? One was black, one was white. Okay, yeah. Oh, I just, you know, well, I simply don't know. But there's- This is ahead of its time. There's a lot going on there. Even for right now, it's ahead of its time.

That's what I was gonna say. I feel like even if it came out right now, people, mainstream audiences would be like, what the fuck is this? Well, also because mainstream audiences have the attention span of a goldfish. So as long as we need, we need to be force fed plot nonstop. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, it's the kind of movie that makes you want to like read a bunch of articles about it. It's like, I just immediately went to start reading smarter people's interpretations of things because yeah, I was like, pretty thrown by the ending because I felt like I was surprised

by that too. I was surprised by the ending because it feels like it's when it says the title letting go comes up, it feels like it's like letting go of societal expectations of you and living the life that you want to live type of thing. So I thought it was going to be more of like embracing this new life of his, but then it ends with him deciding to end his life. And so, and I'm not exactly sure why, and I'm not sure if Bill Gunn exactly knows why. And if it's just the feeling of like, yeah, I don't like know what the answer is to like,

where I fit in in this society. And if we're talking about addiction to like, what is the, when you are plagued with addiction, like what is your, how do you get out of it? Like that could sometimes feel like the only way is to like cease to exist because it has a control over you that you don't, you can't escape from. Yeah, and this is an isolated guy who can't lean on community or can't lean on anyone

to help him. Right. I'm also interested that he's addicted to blood. Jesus Christ, it's blood. Communion is really wild. I did my first communion. We did it. We did it.

I think that I haven't really, there's so much about Christianity that I like actually really wild. I did my first communion. We did it, we did it. I think that I haven't really, either so much about Christianity that I like actually just don't understand. Like I just don't, I can't get my head wrapped around so much of it. But one thing that I do find increasingly interesting that I want to explore more,

which I know we've discussed in various ways, but what the point of communion is, is to remind you of the body. Like, just to remind you of the fact that God technically took, you know, decided to dabble in being a human for a little bit and see what that was like. But then also just to remind us that we have a body and that in and of itself is like a spiritual thing. And there is a lot of focus on the body in this. Like we see a lot of, like I said, like the human form, there's a lot of nudity and a lot of,

it's sexual nudity some of the time, but it's not like raunchy at all. It's all like very artistically shot and just like feels very spiritual in a way. Like, right. And I think that our puritanical culture around sex is like removed us from that. And just and also just our weird culture of screens, where we're just kind of like removed from the body more and more.

Yeah. And I don't like that. And I love my body. And I don't like being removed from it. No. So everybody drink some water. Some, not too much. Not too much is the perfect amount. And yeah, happy freaking Valentine's Day everybody.

Oh my gosh, happy Valentine's Day. Give somebody a hug, feel somebody else's body. Get some love, eat some chocolate. And just because we said it doesn't make it true, just because you see someone doesn't mean they're your Valentine today, so just. No, love, be cautious. Only consensual expressions of love this Valentine's Day.

And all days. And all days. Eat some of those weird hearts. Love exists in many forms. Ooh, I wanna get some seas candy. I want candy too. When I'm feeling better, I'm gonna, you better believe I'm gonna eat

some Valentine's Day candy. Oh, I sent gonna, you better believe I'm gonna eat some Valentine's Day candy. Oh, hi, Emily, a photo. I already, they've already started stocking Easter candy at CVS. I got a caramel egg to treat myself when I was feeling sick. Everybody knows a caramel egg heals all. Okay. Oh God, so yeah, everybody get yourself a little treat.

We love you guys so much. You're all of our valentines. We love you. We love you. It's so true. Talk to you later. We'll be back next week from all of us here at Too Scary Didn't Watch. Goodbye.

Goodbye. We did it. We made it. Thank you all for listening to another episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch. If you enjoy the show, please remember to subscribe and rate us on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Five stars only or we will haunt you. And if you simply can't get enough of us, we have good news for you.

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