DVD Release: Ganja & Hess

Another rare old film released in time for Halloween. Reported over at newsday.com. They report the synopsis as:

"The late Duane Jones - whose immortality in horror movie history is sealed for playing the sane, stalwart hero of the 1968 classic "Night of the Living Dead" - stars as Dr. Hess Green, a wealthy African-American archaeologist who takes on an assistant (Nunn) who's apparently suicidal and homicidal.

One night, the assistant stabs Hess in the chest with one of the latter's recent finds: an ancient dagger, which, it turns out, is contaminated with a virus that gives its victims immortality and blood lust. The good doctor finds immediate gratification when the assistant butchers himself in Hess' bathroom. This, of course, is nowhere near enough to sate his thirst. At first, he burglarizes local blood banks. Then he goes after live victims, most of them poor minorities living far from Hess' lavish upstate New York digs.

Soon, Ganja (Marlene Clark), the haughty, arresting wife of Hess' dead assistant, arrives unannounced on the doctor's doorstep looking for her "crazy" husband. Hess insists the assistant is long gone, but she camps out at the manse, abusing the help and seducing the master. Hess, in love and in need of someone with whom to share the hunger, infects Ganja. Reader, they marry - and then look for more victims. Ganja, it turns out, doesn't have the heart for the chase, which seems a little surprising, since she showed no prior evidence of having any heart whatsoever."

The film had, back in the day, been recut as a blaxploitation. However, the original is meant to be a film of savage imagery and from 10th October we can all find out. A region 1 release.