Da Time Is Out of (a Spike Lee) Joint: Haunting Genre as Late Style in Da Sweet Blood of Jesus and Da 5 Bloods

Abstract: In their later years, some artists create intentionally ambiguous, unresolved, or complicated texts. This paper uses Spike Lee’s recent films as a case study to examine these ideas of “lateness” and their expression through historically situated film genres. Reading Da Sweet Blood of Jesus and Da 5 Bloods shows the past haunts the films. As mediated representations shape collective cultural memory through hauntology, genre plays a significant role. Close analysis reveals films influenced by 1970s and 1980s genre cycles. Lee’s adaptation of Ganja and Hess invokes the Blaxploitation genre, whereas Da 5 Bloods , rather than depicting ghosts of Vietnam, evokes spectral images of Vietnam War films and contemporaneous documentary journalism. Both films demonstrate how the genre serves as a medium for expressing the auteur’s late style.