Da Sweet Blood of Jesus

Dr. Hess Green becomes cursed by a mysterious ancient African artifact and is overwhelmed with a new-found thirst for blood.

Spike Lee has made a very strange film here. Maybe because it was based on another film that happens to be rather strange ("Ganja and Hess") or maybe because it was filmed with a low budget and short on time, with relatively unknown actors... but there is something decidedly off about the picture.

Like the original, there is an ongoing metaphor about addiction. The main character is not a vampire in the traditional sense, despite an unquenchable thirst for blood. He expresses that many (perhaps most) people have addictions... drugs, money, alcohol, women... his is just different.

The Jesus parallel is played up from the original. There is indeed something strange about a man (Jesus) who asks his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Christians, of course, do not find it strange. And that makes the parallel interesting... why do we recoil at one man's thirst for blood and yet look forward to drinking blood each Sunday without thinking anything of it?

Spike Lee is one of the premiere directors of my generation. With that said, I am still trying to figure out the focus and purpose of this movie. The actors, many of whom, we've seen in other Lee films, are so subdued and non significant. The movie seems to lack...well, life. His career has created valuable works that have symbolically and literally offered calls for self-awareness and offered insights into the social-political realities of African-Americans and America in general. I can't figure out what significance this movie has. There are some disturbing scenes that do not seem to add any insights or purpose to the movies story. The few things I gathered from this are: rich/poor exploitation, addiction, socio-sexual dynamic, and Sankofa. The story telling doesn't offer anything new or dynamic. So, with a heavy heart, I give this a thumbs down and not let this be representative of Spikes true genius!

Spike Lee's brilliant horror deconstruction. The director skillfully mixes horror cinematography with some of his antitheses, as in the use of an extremely realistic photography, and constantly lit up scenes.

The drama of Dr. Green's life teaches us that violence is inherent to man, necessary for his survival, but ultimately harmful and capable of killing ourselves. The themes dear to the director, such as the criticism of American society and of racism towards African Americans that is overturned in an wealthy African American character, who is both victim and executioner of his own destiny, remain topical.

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus it is certainly not a masterpiece, but a decidedly enjoyable film and that together with "Only Lovers Left Alive" by Jim Jarmusch offers a new, modern and contemporary vision of the cinematographically harassed figure of "vampire".

Many people have said that an actor has played a character in at least one bad movie and this proves it. Jesus, I can't believe Rami Malek is in this horrible movie. Oh gosh, I wish I could go back in time and tell him please no. What is he doing here? Plots, Dr. Hess Green becomes cursed by a mysterious ancient African artifact and is overwhelmed with a newfound thirst for blood. Soon after his transformation he enters into a dangerous romance with Ganja Hightower that questions the very nature of love, addiction, sex, and status. For the supernatural side, okay in my opinion. But on the romance side, its very unreal. How come after her husband died then she find her husband's body in the basement and she are still attracted to the protagonist?

Spike Lee is one of my biggest favorite directors so I was interested in watching this regardless of the low rating

And I wanted to like it I really did, the opening shot is amazing it has some superb break-dancers break dancing outside to a smooth Bruce Hornsby piano score, looks beautiful

But that montage really has nothing to do with the movie itself, the movie is about an upper class arts collector who by some circumstances get a thirst for blood

Mind you, if you're expecting a typical vampire horror you will probably be let down it's not really that type of movie

What type of movie it is though I can't really describe, it's just a peculiar movie that I had a hard time figuring out what it was trying to be and what it was trying to say

The dialogue is not bad but more-part of it doesn't sound realistic to what a person would say, often sounding more like theatre monologues basically

Acting overall is pretty wooden (but that could be an intentional thing being that the people in it are very posh) and pace very slow

It has some above average scenes separately but together it just doesn't get it's right flow and your often sitting wondering why or wondering what the point of it all is, and by the end of the movie (at least I) still have no idea

For the record I have not seen the movie GANJA & HESS of which this movie is a remake on, perhaps I would understand this movie better if I'd do that but if one has to watch something else to understand the movie you were watching than that would mean that this movie failed IMO

Honestly it felt like Spike Lee didn't put his whole heart into this project which is a shame, since it was funded by his biggest fans via a Kickstarter campaign