A vampire scholar’s work wouldn’t be complete without a viewing of this Black horror flick, directed by Bill Gunn and starring the incredible Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead). To be clear, I mean someone who considers themselves an expert of vamp media, not a member of the fanged intelligentsia – although, that’s who this very film follows. Dr. Hess Green (Jones) is an anthropologist who, following an attack via cursed dagger by his assistant (played by director Gunn), finds himself marooned in bloody immortality until he falls for Ganja (Marlene Clark). She soon shares his vampiric fate, but their endings might not be so entwined. Trippy visuals, a slow pace, and thickly thematic blood running through its veins makes this an important entry in the carmine cinematic canon. – James Scott
