sick in a filthy toilet. Similar se- quences became a hallmark of grittier, “realistic” vampire movies that riff on addiction—a subtext in vampire cinema foregrounded practically for the first time in GANJA & HESS that pulses throughout Paul Morrissey’s BLOOD FOR DRACULA, George A. Romero’s MARTIN, Guillermo del Toro’s CRONOS, Abel Ferrara’s THE ADDICTION, Larry Fessen- den’s HABIT and Claire Denis’ TROUBLE EVERY DAY. Gunn even acknowledges that class somet imes t rumps race in America—Hess’ other victims in- clude an impoverished white woman with a squalling baby, whereas the glamorously unstable Ganja uncomfortably humiliates the doctor’s stiff, dignified but- ler Archie (BASKET CASE 2’s Leonard Jackson). If GANJA & HESS over- reaches, it does so magnifi- cently. The presence of the huge, stately ancient Myrthian Queen (SCROOGED’s Mabel King) suggests a monolithic Afri- can power that might view Euro- pean or American civilization as recent, passing fads. We see the Queen in hallucination, but she’s also out-of-focus in the back- ground when Hess marries Ganja as a preparation for ini- tiating his new lover into vam- pire immortality. The opposition between Myrthian religion (a pri- mal form of voodoo) and Afri- can-American christianity, represented by sexy succubus and upright male minister, recurs in James Bond III’s DEF BY TEMPTATION. Gunn’s version isn’t as clear-cut. The church where Hess gives up his immor- tality through a poetic device (let- ting the shadow of the cross, “an instrument of torture,” fall on his heart) is very much a black American institution, but there’s a realization throughout that Christianity is also an African
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sequitur ramblings, this is a movie that takes time for monologue-like speeches—Meda’s Dutch anec- dote might, at a pinch, be a pre- cedent for Quentin Tarantino’s “Royale with Cheese” diversions, while Ganja’s account of her char- acter-forming mistreatment at the hands of a cold mother (brilliantly played by Clark) is as telling as the frozen frames which highlight her unrepentant triumph as the vampire who will live on while Hess is carted away.
religion. Hess’ fate is ambigu- ous—it can be read as a defeat for the defiant sensuality repre- sented by Ganja and her well-en- dowed naked lover (Richard Harrow), but it’s also a literal sal- vation for a good man who doesn’t want to live (or even love) if it means killing innocent people. Often-criticized for its non
to-camera talks from interest- ed parties (“The Blood of the Thing,” 29m 41s) are ported over from the DVD. Other extras are the initial VW article and Gunn’s original script, available only as BD-ROM—which is understand- able, though frustrating in that computers which read BD are far scarcer than computers enabled for DVD-ROM. Another Blu-ray edition, minus the article (now available in the digital edition of VW #3), is forthcoming from Eureka in the UK.
MANIAC COP
1988, Synapse, 84m 56s, $24.95 DVD-1, $24.95 BD-0
MANIAC COP 2 1990, Blue Underground, 87m 21s, $29.98, BD-0+DVD-0
Kino’s Blu-ray does wonders with a film shot on 16mm, re- leased on 35mm, cobbled together from a few surviving prints and probably never finished to Gunn’s satisfaction: it shows grain and some fading (while the varieties of thin orangey substance used for blood are almost surreally un- convincing—true of MARTIN also) but also heightens appreciation for the subtleties of James E. Hinton’s cinematography. In the commen- tary track, Hinton mentions that he had to deal with technicians not used to lighting to show off shades of black skin—and this is the first version that showcases quite how extraordinary Clark’s looks and performance are, plus details like the sparkling coating of blood on her lover’s naked body and the marble white of the statu- ary around the Green estate. (Was Gunn influenced by Mamoulian’s use of cutaways to statues in DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE?) The lively commentary (with Clark, Hinton, musician/actor Sam Waymon and producer Chiz Schiltz) and a mud- dily-shot but useful assemblage of
MANIAC COP 3: BADGE OF SILENCE 1993, Blue Underground, 84m 37s, $29.98, BD-0+DVD-0 By John Charles
Notable for blending action and horror in the days before such a hybrid was commonplace, the
Maniac Cop trilogy has aged rather well for the most part. A
stark title and brilliant tagline (“You Have the Right to Remain Silent... Forever”) guaranteed that the first film would garner atten- tion, but director William Lustig and writer Larry Cohen delivered a fine, small-scale genre picture, then managed to top themselves with its 1990 follow-up. The third entry, however, suffered from a problem-plagued production that brought about the end of what had been a promising franchise. In the original film, the citizens of New York City find themselves in the midst of a murder spree seemingly perpetrated by a po- liceman. Evidence points to pa- trolman Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell), whose wife is among
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