The Big Picture

Spike Lee’s film Da Sweet Blood of Jesus marks his foray into the horror genre, while still carrying his signature directorial style and themes of Black oppression and systemic racism. The film, a remake of the cult classic Ganja and Hess, was crowdfunded and completed in just 16 days. Its soundtrack, composed of unsigned artists, is a standout aspect of the film. Despite its stylish visuals and intriguing premise, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus struggles to find a balance between experimental storytelling and a coherent narrative. It falls short of being considered one of Lee’s classics.

Spike Lee has made a career out of being uncompromising. From 3-hour biopics to painfully relevant explorations of the Black American experience, Spike Lee has done it all and more. However, one genre that he steered clear of until 2014 was horror. With Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, that changed. The film is atypical in many ways for a Spike Lee joint, yet still has enough of his directorial and thematic trademarks to make it fit snuggly in his body of work. From his signature dolly shot to the themes of Black oppression and systemic racism, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is undoubtedly a Spike Lee film. The film is also interestingly Lee’s second remake of a classic film in a row, coming one year after his much-maligned Oldboy remake.

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus An anthropologist awakes with a thirst for blood after an assistant stabs him with a cursed dagger. Release Date January 15, 2015 Director Spike Lee Cast Stephen Tyrone Williams, Zaraah Abrahams, Rami Malek, Elvis Nolasco, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Joie Lee Rating Not Rated Runtime 123 minutes Main Genre Horror

What Is ‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ About?
Adapted from the 1973 cult classic Ganja and Hess, Da Sweet of Blood of Jesus tells the story of a wealthy anthropologist, Dr. Hess Green (Stephen Tyrone Williams) who, after being stabbed by an ancient African dagger that he and his partner (Elvis Nolasco) were studying, develops an insatiable lust for blood. The film opens with an incredibly hypnotizing modern dance sequence courtesy of Charles “Lil Buck” Riley, whose specialty is jookin, or “gangsta walking,” a type of street dance developed in Memphis, Tennessee. The sequence has little to nothing to do with the film’s plot, but is nonetheless mesmerizing and does a great job at capturing the viewer’s attention. Halfway through, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus becomes something of a love story, as Hess finds his equal in Ganja (Zaraah Clover Abrahams), who similarly submits herself to the life of a vampire, marrying Hess and allowing him to bite her. The film follows their isolated but luxurious lives, complete with a snobby butler (Rami Malek) and spacious seaside residence.

At a certain point, the mechanics of the plot appear somewhat superfluous. The film is a slow burn at 2 hours, and is much more concerned with setting a chilly and detached tone that succeeds to varying degrees at telling an engaging story. The story is quite compelling, as it attempts to represent affluence through the lens of hunger and desire. The greed for blood seems to be subtextual, representing the characters’ materialism. In one scene, Ganja explains how her father explained the “double whammy” of being a Black woman, how life is as cold, hard, and unforgiving as steel. Her character’s stoicism and seeming lack of humanity is more or less explained as a defensive mechanism. She admits that since she was 7 years old, she has taken care of herself. While Hess doesn’t have as harrowing of a backstory, it’s explained that his family was the only well-off Black family in their area. As with most of Spike Lee’s films, there is the underlying threat of racially-motivated generational trauma. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is no exception, though it tackles the subject more indirectly.

Why the Music in ‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ Is So Important
Image via Gravitas Ventures

While Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is by no means a bad film or even uninteresting, it lacks the punch that so many previous Spike Lee joints have had. That being said, the story and motivation of the film’s inception and production are perhaps more interesting than the film instead. As previously mentioned, the movie is an extremely close remake of Ganja and Hess, going so far as to recreate shots from the original. The film was crowdfunded via Kickstarter, and one of the campaign’s contributors was fellow 90s indie stalwart Steven Soderbergh, whose 1989 film Sex, Lies, and Videotape ushered in the 90s “Indiewood” era and came out the same year as Spike’s own breakthrough Do the Right Thing.

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, which was filmed mostly in Martha’s Vineyard and various parts of New York City, took only 16 days to complete. The soundtrack consisted of mostly unsigned or unknown artists, and is quite frankly one of the best aspects of the film. All the artists were selected over social media from over 800 submissions. The soundtrack really sets the stage for Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, and is essential in setting the often intentionally conflicted tone of the film. The movie’s tone is often nebulous, but even when it’s hard to pin down what Lee is trying to go for visually, the music gives the audience something, even if it’s just a feeling, to hold onto. For a movie that revels in the negative space of its story, the film’s funky and ethereal music often makes it feel like an excellent 2-hour music video.

‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ Is a Visual Delight, But Ultimately Stumbles

The greatest barrier to Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ success is the constant tension between its more experimental leanings and its straightforward narrative. As a result, it sort of becomes neither. The actors give good performances for what they are directed to do, but unfortunately what they are directed to do is rarely compelling. Dr. Hess and Ganja feel less like characters and almost more like mythical figures, making them extremely difficult to relate to. It’s clear that what they represent to Spike Lee is the struggle for Black success in a world that is so hostile to Black people attaining the same levels of status and wealth as white people. They feel like stand-ins or representatives of this idea instead of real people. They act like caricatures of stuffy rich white people, which might in fact just be the point. Nevertheless, the film isn’t quite experimental enough to work as pure social commentary. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus clearly expects us to follow a traditional plot, but the characters’ desires and needs remain ambiguous. This is unfortunate, as the film is truly stunning to look at and is just dripping in style. The movie is just too impenetrable for its own good, never quite offering a satisfying narrative nor a dense enough commentary that warrants further analysis.

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is never lacking in gorgeous visuals or even some truly disgusting gore that clashes nicely with the film’s crisp and airy look. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that the film warrants being considered among Spike Lee’s classics as it never reaches a satisfying conclusion nor does it go deep enough in a surreal direction. What we’re left with as an audience and as fans of Lee’s work is a clear passion project that nonetheless leaves one wondering why he wanted to make it in the first place. Maybe with time it will find a cult audience like Ganja and Hess, or maybe one viewing of the film just simply isn’t sufficient to get what Lee was going for. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is an interesting experiment in the context of Spike Lee’s vast filmography, but as a film, doesn’t quite gel the way I’m sure Lee would like.

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is available to stream on Kanopy and BET+.

Watch on Kanopy