We dont think this is a horror film, Spike Lee and lead Zaraah Abrahams greet me. Im not so sure, but Spike Lees new film Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, a remake of Bill Gunns cult favorite Ganja and Hess, is a fascinating, violent, dreamy work nevertheless. It evokes both Gunns eccentric tone and themes of addiction, as well as European cinema, from lush ambiance to the sensuality and passion and stylized atmosphere of Jean Rollin. And so it wasnt a stretch for Shock to sit down with the incomparable filmmaker and his Sweet Blood star (taking over for Marlene Clark as Ganja) and discuss the darker places their not-vampire film goes.
In Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Dr. Hess Greene comes into the possession of an Ashanti blade. Stabbed with the artifact by his increasingly mad research partner Lafayette, Hess develops an addiction to blood, one he ultimately passes on in a vivid affair with Lafayettes widow, Ganja.
Note: This interview includes revealing details about Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
Spike Lee: We dont think this is a horror film. Is this a horror film?
Zaraah Abrahams: Not to me.
Lee: I think it has whats the word?
Abrahams: Elements.
Lee: Elements! [Laughs]
Shock Till You Drop: Doesnt mean we cant talk about it.
Lee: Oh, were gonna talk about it.
Shock: Why werent you interested in defining the characters as vampires?
Lee: Vampires are played out, tired.
Abrahams: I think that vampires are portrayed as fantastical characters and this film, there doesnt seem to be anything fantastical about his hardship, about his journey, about how hes getting through this. He doesnt want to be this way, he wasnt born this way, its not his intention to be this way. Its something that he cant help, and so the characters around him are so honest, that I think it makes it more about his addiction than a vampire movie.
Lee: Also, the original film Ganja and Hess, they werent vampires either. Theyre addicts.
Shock: Thats true, they never define them as vampires. Do you think a horror film cant take things like addiction seriously?
Lee: I try to stay out of labels, especially genre.
Abrahams: I know horror has been generalized, but what people find horrific is different. For me, I didnt find anything really, in terms of the genre of horror, in this movie to tick the genre box.
Shock: Though you have a pretty intense, violent strangulation sequence yourself.
Abrahams: It is intense!
Lee: Whoa, so only scenes of intensity can be horror?
Shock: Not at all!
Abrahams: It was intense to shoot, and I guess for some, death is in the genre of horror.
Lee: [To Abrahams] What kind of preparation did you do for that scene?
Abrahams: It was very hard.
Lee: I know, closed set.
Abrahams: I just had to close myself off.
Lee: Im not even talking about the sex part, Im talking when you had to choke her. You were choking the shit out of her.
Abrahams: Its awful to realize your own strength when youre faced with its them or me.
Lee: I had to call cut or the actress wouldve been dead.
Shock: How do you as a filmmaker nurture that and help them come back from that place?
Lee: Number one, they have to feel safe. So, it was a closed set. Myself, [cinematographer] Daniel Patterson, we hung the mics. Actors, with stuff like that, if they dont feel safe then theyre not going to give you what you want.
Abrahams: I think that Spike created an environment where we very close with the rest of the crew. Once cut was called, we connected with each other from when we had dinner together, or when we had drinks together, or rehearsal time. You felt like you were back with the people.
Lee: We were in Marthas Vineyard shooting the film, for the majority of it.
Shock: So, secluded to begin with.
Lee: Yeah, the house is by itself.
Shock: Going back to intensity and ticking a genre box, your Marthas Vineyard location recalls cult cinema, not only Ganja and Hess.
Lee: You had seen it though, right?
Shock: Absolutely. And theres a dreaminess to Ganja and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus that also reminded me of Jean Rollin and Eurohorror and cult cinema. Especially the beautiful shot of them being intimate, with the doors of the house reflecting the beach.
Lee: Yeah, theres a lot of European touches in the film.
Abrahams: I agree with that as well, and through the costume. I thought it was very chic, which is European.
Shock: Your walk through the field feels that way, as well.
Lee: With the billowing black cape [Laughs].
Abrahams: That last scene where he dies in my arms is my favorite scene.
Lee: That was intense. It was one take. She comes up the steps until we pull back and hes dead in your arms and you see the cross swinging, thats all one take, theres no cut.
Shock: Hess talks about addiction in many respects in the film. Does their addiction to blood encompass all of that?
Lee: Yeah, its a metaphor for all the things he listed. Power, money, sex, drugs, alcohol, nicotine, crystal meth, crack
Abrahams: Each other, love.
Lee: Loves an addiction?
Abrahams: Yeah, because you stick with it sometimes and its not good for you.
Shock: Do you think thats what this film is about, as well?
Abrahams: For her, yeah. For me, yes. First of all, shes attracted to something thats not love, and then something about him ignites that in her. Although she knows at this point shes been through so much, she should walk away, she cant.
Shock: In the final moments, I could only think of Ganjas gotta take care of Ganja. She couldnt find the same relief. Even though youre not interested in defining this film as such, are you an admirer of horror?
Lee: Yeah, one of the films I watched two weeks ago, a favorite of mine thats a sleeper: Richard Attenboroughs Magic. Anthony Hopkins, Ann Margaret, Burgess Meredith. Thats a great film, scary too. They should bring that film out again. You should have an article on that film. That was overlooked when it came out, it still stands up.
Abrahams: Me, no. I dont like scary films, I dont like things that jump, I dont like scary music, I dont like scary adverts. Filming in Marthas Vineyard, when the lights go out its dark. It did make me a bit paranoid, it did trickle into my paranoid state. I dont like venturing into that.
Shock: What does it feel like to go to that place then in your performance?
Abrahams: Very difficult. I felt very vulnerable. I felt as though I really had to be open to Spikes vision. Me, as Zaraah, I had to close that sense off. I really had to be open to what Spike saw and be naked, almost. Allow myself to be that frightened and that intense.
Shock: You fully Kickstarted the film. It seems the audience is there and the desire is there for Black filmmakers to make horror films.
Lee: Did you ever see a film I executive produced, Tales From the Hood?
Shock: Absolutely, one of my favorite anthologies. Were not seeing that happen now.
Lee: Heres the thing, if more Black films are made, you would see different types of Black films.
Shock: Is there a reticence to finance Black genre films?
Lee: I dont know what it is. Its hard to get funding no matter who you are, but if youre African American, it makes it more difficult. Thing is, we as a people have enough money to finance the films ourselves. Thats what its gonna come down to, if we want to get it made.
Shock: Have you noticed a growing cult for Tales From the Hood?
Lee: People been mentioning it to me. A lot of people probably werent even alive when it came out and are discovering it. I havent seen that film in years.
Shock: Why Marthas Vineyard?
Lee: Ive had a house there for 28 years and its the most beautiful place on earth.
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Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is in theaters and on demand February 13th. It is currently available to stream on Vimeo.
