Referring to one critic’s reception of Ganja & Hess, the director, Bill Gunn wrote: “[A] critic wondered where was the race problem. If he looks closely, he will find it in his own review.” That isn’t to say that Ganja & Hess doesn’t explicitly address the fact that the characters are black and how that blackness affects how they negotiate the world, but every film that has black characters or black people in the production team is not obligated to explicitly address race. There is nothing wrong with explicitly addressing racism, but by doing so, the filmmaker is saying something about the audience or explicitly trying to communicate something to or educate his or her audience instead of telling a story first which incidentally and secondarily informs the audience of socio-econonmic issues. If anything, Ganja & Hess more explicitly addresses gender, sexuality and respectability in a fearless way because it does not explicitly scream MESSAGE.
Perhaps that is why Spike Lee is the last person in the universe that should have attempted to remake Ganja & Hess when he made Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. Where Gunn is cryptic, Lee is explicit. Lee misses Gunn’s referential and subtextual use of art and music and instead uses it as a proud opportunity to showcase rich examples of African and African American art with little to no connection to the actual plot. Every joke that Gunn considered making, but dismissed as too broad, Lee seized and used. Whereas Gunn embraces madness, Lee’s version is anemic and stilted. It is obvious that Lee did not really get what made Ganja & Hess great, especially Ganja by reimagining her monologue’s point about life generally being unfair as opposed to a condemnation of guilt that society puts on women in general, and in his effort to pay homage to Gunn, inadvertently ended up paying homage to the critics that didn’t get Gunn’s genius.
Let’s say that you have no interest in seeing Ganja & Hess, are like me and have enjoyed Lee’s work for decades and like vampire movies. You probably would still not like Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. They are the world’s dumbest vampires. There is an elaborate speech in both Ganja & Hess and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus about the wisdom of dumping certain bodies in certain locations because even if the black property owner was not socially connected to the body, everyone would suspect him. Lee took that moment, ignores it and later has the characters dump the body in just the particular manner that was derided as foolish earlier. Lee only has one chilling and horrific murder consequence moment that furthers the addiction metaphor that Gunn originally conceived, but otherwise Lee plays his violence for laughs or titillation-not for the characters’ titillation as Gunn did, but Lee’s. What is unforgivable: there is barely a scene without music, but when two characters are inexplicably dance, there is no music. Really!?! Lee needlessly addresses whether or not vampires have to worry about HIV as a brief PSA to the audience to always practice safe sex.
I am surprised that no one has seemed to notice that Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is an unofficial sequel to Red Hook Summer. On one hand, we find out that the church, Little Piece of Heaven Baptist Church, decided to change preachers, but Lee does not condemn the congregation’s decision as he implicitly did when it is foreboded in Red Hook Summer. Instead Lee seems to have pulled a 180. The new pastor is no longer a complaining drunk as he was in Red Hook Summer, becomes gainfully employed and is a path for redemption for Hess. So Lee’s church is on earth as it is heaven and not damaged by its condemnation and implicit banishment of its former pastor. Unfortunately the original scene feels more powerful and less staged than Lee’s version.
If you ignore my admonishment to skip Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, then read the following for things that I hated in Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, i.e. things that Lee unwisely changed.

SPOILERS

First, Gunn was really wise to use a fictional African tribe whereas Lee decided to use the Ashanti. I know very little about the historical Ashanti, but even a cursory glance at Wikipedia makes it seem like the Ashanti were the exact opposite of a tribe obsessed with blood, but considered murder and suicide completely abhorrent though they were notable in warfare. Cultural appropriation is particularly dangerous because as Americans, we are taught so little about African history, but by Lee using a real group for a fictional story, it inadvertently furthers a racist stereotype about Africans being cannibals.
Second, after Chiraq, I was appalled that Lee could not envision a terrifying female gang member. Imagine how disgusted I was to see Felicia Pearson, who played THE most terrifying female gang member in The Wire, in Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, cast in Lee’s world as a prostitute killed for laughs. Lee reimagined a scene where Hess awkwardly interacts with a prostitute to get blood then must defend himself from her pimp who tries to rob and kill him as a mutual seduction for money without the danger or veneer of justification, self-defense. I’m sure that Lee was delighted that he had an opportunity to trot out penis synonyms.
Third, that decision leads to Lee’s biggest mistake. In Ganja & Hess, Hess becomes a vampire after being stabbed with an infected knife. He kills other people and withdraws the blood using sharp implements. He consciously infects Ganja with the same knife, but Ganja unwittingly infects and turns a victim into a vampire by biting him. Lee decides that Hess will bite his two victims and infect them. This decision takes away the impact of the scene when Ganja realizes that her victim isn’t dead. Lee never addresses the consequences of this action: the vampire virus will exponentially increase, and there will be a vampire apocalypse. Lee sloppily misses an opportunity to show Hess as an invulnerable vampire with a physical advantage over less cultured, more brutish and physically experienced opponents.
Fourth, Lee made a real mistake by changing the gender of and having Hess choose someone who was really close to him as Ganja’s first victim. Isn’t Hess supposed to be smart? Pardon my French, but you don’t shit where you eat. In Ganja & Hess, Hess chooses a random hot guy who works at a community center. It is unclear from the movie whether Hess has a close connection to the community center, but he wouldn’t be the first suspect. In Lee’s version, Hess sends an email to a close childhood friend. Are you kidding me?!? Also nothing up to that point indicates that Ganja is bisexual, but either Lee wanted a lesbian scene or could not bear the idea that Gunn presented-Ganja the vampire would find other men to be suitable sexual objects and victims. The change in Ganja’s victim makes the characters seem stupid, and Lee seems narrow-minded in a frat boy way: consensual open marriage with a guy-ew, gross, but consensual open marriage with a girl-hot! Eye roll.
Fifth, did we need two different bathroom scenes with vampires licking blood from the floor? The answer is no, we didn’t. Lee made a redundant and boring choice, especially in comparison to the lush and imaginative version in Gunn’s Ganja & Hess.
Sixth, when Hess decides to die by standing in the shadow of the cross, Gunn wisely chose to have Ganja standing fearfully far away, outside of the shadow’s reach, as she helplessly watched her husband die. Lee chooses to see Ganja as a lovelorn idiot passing willy nilly and repeatedly underneath the shadow of the cross. Lee, why aren’t you paying attention to your own script? It is Ganja first! Passing under the shadow of the cross would kill her. Stop making your characters into idiots!
Seventh, in Ganja & Hess, Ganja’s power struggle with the butler is elegant and subtle though tense and treacherous. The butler must adhere to strict social conventions of obedience while subtly expressing his displeasure with Ganja’s inappropriate and demanding requests. Lee’s version is again played for laughs with the butler visibly losing his temper. Lee seems to imply that the butler is gay and plays his demise for laughs too. Remember, lesbians are hot, but gay men are not.
Finally, I have a couple of nitpicky, aesthetic critiques. The knife in Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is huge. It looks like it can lob off a limb, not really a stabby kind of knife. Lee’s image of wealth in Da Sweet Blood of Jesus seems less opulent and timeless than Ganja & Hess. Hess’ homes are elegant, but there doesn’t seem to be enough room to have servants who live with you. Where did the butler stay? In one scene, he goes home, and in another, he clearly resides at his place of employment. It felt like Lee was commenting on his experience with wealth and discomfort with socializing in the upper class whereas the original Dr. Green belonged.