AFI Silver After Dark: DEF BY TEMPTATION

AFI Silver After Dark: DEF BY TEMPTATION

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“Contributes to a Black filmmaking tradition that does not wish to replicate the sensibilities or aesthetic leanings...of Hollywood.” – Robin R. Means Coleman, author of “Horror Noire.”

Beautifully photographed by Ernest Dickerson (DO THE RIGHT THING) and starring Kadeem Hardison (I’M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA) and Samuel L. Jackson (PULP FICTION), this sole directorial effort from child actor James Bond III is a macabre, neon-tinged portrait of late 1980s Brooklyn. Blending supernatural horror, vampire tropes and religious mysticism, and punctuated by an electrifying hip-hop and R&B soundtrack, DEF BY TEMPTATION has recently been cited as among the spiritual predecessors of Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS. Joel (director/writer/producer James Bond III) grew up in the church but has recently started questioning his beliefs. After sensing the supernatural presence of his deceased father, Joel becomes compelled to visit his cousin in New York. But shortly after arriving, they become embroiled in a series of mysterious homicides of local men, all of whom were last seen in the company of a mysterious and beautiful woman (Cynthia Bond). Initially planning to release the film in February 1990 to mark Black History Month and coincide with the release of the film’s soundtrack album and theme song single, producer Troma (whose president Lloyd Kaufman declared this film the best of the famous horror studio’s canon) ended up securing a festival premiere at the American Film Institute’s Los Angeles International Film Festival in April of that year before its theatrical debut in Washington, DC, a few months later. (Note adapted from the American Genre Film Archive.)

RATED R

DCP restoration courtesy of Troma Entertainment and the American Genre Film Archive.

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