HORROR BUSINESS Episode 160: GANJA & HESS and VAMP

Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We’ve got one heck of an episode in store for you guys as we’re talking about 1973’s Ganja & Hess and 1986’s Vamp.

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We briefly talk what we’ve doing involving horror recently. We talk about the films Weapons, Together, and Who Can Kill A Child?, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Up first is Ganja & Hess. Justin talks about how this is his first time viewing the movie, and how it goes against a lot of horror tropes and stereotypes and defies the norms of “blaxploitation.”

We talk about Bill Gunn’s emphasis both on traditional Christian imagery and African spirituality as well as the themes of addiction present in the film.

The concept of romance being found in a cursed relationship is discussed, in that it’s a film in the tradition of “is love more important that XYZ?” Bill Gunn’s interpretation of “the black experience” through the film is discussed, as is how that element of the film may have hampered Its commercial success.

The element of traditional folk horror of something that was once lost is returning to corrupt is touched up. The career of writer/director Bill Gunn is discussed, as is Spike Lee’s maligned remake of the film.

Up next is Vamp. Justin talks about his celebrity crush on Grace Jones and how this movie messed with his head by turning her into a horrifying monster.

We talk about how unfortunately she is largely the only good thing in this film, and how it almost makes no sense that she’s in it because she’s only in it for a very short period of time and yet is treated as the main creature.

Justin talks about how the