By M. Faust

Looking for a way to show that special someone how much you care this Valentine’s Day?

After a suitably overpriced dinner, why not take them to Love Bites: A Vampire Double Feature at Hallwalls?

I can hear you groaning, oh god, is anything more played out than the vampire genre? Point taken, but the folk at the Buffalo International Film Festival who programed this evening have picked a pair of films that will surprise and delight even the diehards. 

First up at 7 p.m. is THE ADDICTION (1995), by cinema provocateur Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant). Lili Taylor stars as a New York graduate student who is bitten by a vampire and forced to deal with what Ferrara depicts (in lustrous back and white) as an addiction to be managed. The cast also includes Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli. 

At 8:45 is GANJA & HESS (1973), recently selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Although it was released at the peak of the “Blaxploitation” wave, it has little in common with the likes of Blacula.

Writer/director Bill Gunn was a respected playwright and actor who had already made a film for Warner Brothers, Stop! (which was never released for complicated reasons). Hired by a small production company to make a “black vampire film,” he was given free rein but a small budget.

As with David Lynch’s Eraserhead, it benefits from financial limitations that pushed Gunn into unconventional techniques to achieve a dreamlike experience.

Celebrated at the Cannes Film Festival (the only American film selected for the festival’s Critics Week), Ganja & Hess received only dismissive notices from American reviewers. Worse, it was recut and re-released in different versions over Gunn’s objections. For years the film could only be seen in its intended version at the Museum of Modern Art, which owned the only intact print.

It was fully restored in 2018 and has since been getting the critical attention it deserves. 

The evening is a benefit for the Buffalo International Film Festival. Ticket price includes wine (red, of course), beer, non-alcoholic drinks, and candy. Tickets are $20 in advance (you can buy them here), $25 at the door. 

M. Faust is a veteran film critic, contributor to The Buffalo Hive and also a member of the BIFF Board of Directors.