The film opens with an unnamed dancer (Charles "Lil Buck" Riley) dancing in various locations around Brooklyn during the credit sequence.

That night, Lafayette Hightower (Elvis Nolasco), an emotionally unstable colleague from the museum which acquired the dagger, visits Green's impressive, African-art covered Martha's Vineyard mansion.

The two cordially discuss history and philosophy, but once Green has retired for the evening, Hightower becomes drunk and climbs a tree with a noose, claiming he wants to commit suicide.

He discovers that he is invulnerable to physical harm, can no longer tolerate normal food and drink, and has an insatiable need for more blood.

He departs "on business" and kills Sahara Paysinger, a young woman with a baby (Jeni Perillo) whom he meets in a public park in Brooklyn.

Green tells Ganja he is tired of this life and eventually visits a Red Hook church where he is moved by an energetic musical performance and approaches the altar to have the pastor lay hands on him.

Meanwhile, back at home, Ganja murders Green's loyal domestic servant Seneschal Higginbottom (Rami Malek).

This unusual measure was partly inspired by Vimeo's comparatively low cut of the profits from online rentals and sales (10%, as opposed to other web services which can take up to 45%) and partially a strategy to generate interest in the film.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Da Sweet Blood of Jesus has no shortage of style, but it isn't enough to make this horror-tinged Spike Lee joint one of his best — or worth recommending.

[12] Critic Matt Zoller Seitz gave the film three-out-of-four stars, and commented: "Lee's most persistent problem, an inability to unify his messages and make them cohere, doesn't really hurt him in Da Sweet Blood of Jesus because the film is a hypnotically nightmarish mood piece more than anything else...

This will prove either maddening or refreshing, depending on whether your willingness to go where Lee takes you overwhelms your desire for something more conventionally neat and clearheaded.

"[13] Scott Foundas of Variety was more reserved in his praise, calling the film a "gory yet oddly bloodless affair that's been made with a lot of craft and energy but ultimately little sense of purpose.

Scott also offered faint praise, writing: "This is, all in all, one of Mr. Lee's cooler joints, meaning both that it is suavely stylish and feels detached from its own emotions and motivations.