J.D.'s Revenge

Plot synopsis:
The story centers around Isaac Hendrix (portrayed by Turman), a young college student studying law and a taxi-cab driver in New Orleans. While out on a night of fun with his friends and wife Christella, during a hypnosis act, he becomes an unwilling host for the restless spirit of J.D Walker, a hustler killed during the 1940s. Over the course of the film, "Ike" finds himself gradually being taken over by the sociopathic Walker, even eventually going so far as to adopt his hair and fashion style, mannerisms, and psychotic tendencies (including an attempted rape on his wife after she mocked his J.D. haircut). With the spirit of J.D. in complete control, he turns his attention toward wreaking vengeance against the man responsible for killing his sister, Theotis Bliss. Ike commits havoc all over town before making his way to the church where Theotis' brother works as a preacher, where he finally reveals himself and instructs Elijah to tell Theotis to meet him "on the killin' floor". Ike's wife has, meanwhile, gone to her ex-husband, a cop who is out for Ike's blood, believing him to be a simple psycho hiding behind a false persona--until he mentions to the Chief that Ike claimed his name was J.D. Walker, a man who was not only real, but also had died over 30 years ago. J.D. was a hustler who ran numbers during World War II, as well as a black-market meat plant where he was murdered by Theotis Bliss after witnessing the murder of his own sister, Betty Jo, at his hands because of her derisive chiding of him and threatening to expose the secret she held about her baby daughter. After being discovered over Betty Jo's lifeless body with her blood on his hand, Elijah Bliss (Gossett Jr.), Betty Jo's husband and the believed father of her child (and younger, submissive brother of Theotis), accused J.D of being the killer and J.D was gunned down on the spot by Theotis to cover up the event. Following Theotis to the old factory, Elijah finally learns the truth before getting into a struggle with Theotis for his gun, during which the weapon discharges and kills Theotis while Ike watches, and laughs maniacally as the event plays out. His business complete, J.D. appears to leave Ike's body and due to Elijah's testimony, he is allowed to go free to rejoin his wife and friends waiting for him outside.

Tags: revenge, murder, blaxploitation, melodrama

Review:
Some of the best scenes in this movie take place after Ike (Glynn Turman) has been totally taken over by the late hustler, J.D. Walker.
Turman does a remarkable job switching back and forth between struggling law student Ike, and J.D., the razor-toting dead hustler out to revenge the death of his younger sister.
We learn from flashbacks that Elijah Bliss (Lou Gossett, Jr.) was a hustler, and are given hints in the present story that his current job as a preacher may be a scam.
Found half-hidden in the back of my local video store, the cheesy packaging made it look like a tongue in cheek blaxploitation horror movie good for a few laughs.
Nice guy cabbie/law student Ike (Glynn Turman - 'Cooley High') becomes possessed by nasty Forties pimp J.D. Walker (David McKnight).
Not a great movie, but a good one, and worth watching for Turman's excellent double turn if nothing else.
A solid standout from most Black flicks of the middle 70's, JD's Revenge provided an early platform for Glynn Turman (Cooley High) to prove his acting prowess.
By playing essentially two characters at once, Turman's passion for the roles combines with the spookiness of the New Orleans setting for memorable results.
Accomplished, but unspectacular blaxploitation horror with a tremendously ripe lead performance by Glynn Turman in presenting two very different (from placid to extreme) personalities.
He plays a genuinely high flying and collected law student Isaac that during a hypnosis session experiences shocking visions and begins to undergo a personality change of a brutally hot-headed and jive-talking 1940's street hustler J.D. Walker.
In 1942 New Orleans gangster J.D. Walker (David McKnight) is shot to death by Elija Bliss (Lou Gossett).
Mild mannered young law student Ike (Glynn Turman) is possessed by the spirit of J.D. He immediately becomes cruel and vicious and treating his beautiful girl friend Christella (Joan Pringle) like dirt.
I was 14 then and a newspaper ad showed a drawing of a gravestone and a pretty young woman lying dead in front of it with a look of horror on her face (needless to say nothing like that appears in the film).
There's only one bloody attack scene and a shot of a dead animal being cut open (which was repeated at least 8 times).This concentrates more on Ike being possessed and trying to fight back.
A Law Student (Glynn Turman) participates in a hypnotist show, only to have the soul of a deceased gangster enter his body!J.D.'s Revenge happens to be one of my personal favorites because you can enjoy it on a campy level as well as a partial horror flick.
This is a startling movie starring Glynn Turman and Louis Gossett Jr. Here Glynn Turman is the innocent laid-back Ike who is a law student.
A docile law student (Glynn Turman) is possessed by a 1940s mobster (David McKnight) in mid-1970s New Orleans.
The mobster seeks revenge upon the people who killed him and his sister.There probably are not a lot of blaxploitation-horror-crime films out there.
First-time writer Jaison Starkes started at a second-rate film school and became friends with George Folsey, who sort of operated a mini-school out of his house.
Along with Starkes, Eric Roth was a member of Folsey's circle, and after writing B-movie scripts for twenty years, finally broke into the big time with "Forrest Gump" (1994).Starkes connected with AIP through Sidney Poitier of all people, and pitched them "Revenge", originally called "The Killing Floor" (a better title).
According to the people who made that documentary entitled "The 50 Worst Films Ever Made", this mixture between horror and blaxploitation is irredeemably awful and hopeless.
Thirty years later in present New Orleans, the young law student and part-time taxi driver Ike volunteers to be hypnotized in a sleazy nightclub and becomes possessed with the vengeful spirit of J.D. Ike first suffers from a series of visions, showing in episodes what overcome to the real J.D, and from there onwards he becomes an instrument for extracting vengeance.
With a sharp razor ready to cut anyone who crosses his path, Ike goes after Elijah Bliss – the brother who knocked up J.D's sister but nowadays pretends to be a devoted preacher.
Not exactly, no In spite of a satisfying first half and overall very enthusiast acting performances from the ensemble cast, "J.D.'s Revenge" inexplicably turns into a boring and cowardly lame film.
In 1942 young hoodlum J D Walker is shot by Elija Bliss (Lou Gossett) who thinks Walker killed his woman, Betty Joe who is also JD's sister.
Ike (Glynn Turman) is a taxi driver and law student who during an hypnotism act gets possessed by the spirit of J.D. When he gets taken over he gets cruel and violent towards his girlfriend.
He injures a passenger in his cab.Ike starts to stalk Elija Bliss who is now a preacher and comes close to exposing the truth as he uncovers the person who really did kill his sister.It is nicely acted by Turman who gets to play a Jekyll and Hyde type character.
Gossett has a scene stealing turn as a preacher who is rather modelled on Muhammad Ali as he shadow boxes during his sermons.The film treads the path of other blaxploitation films of that era with violence.
Glynn Turman plays Isaac "Ike" Hendricks, an amiable law student in New Orleans.
However, this enables a restless spirit named J.D. Walker (David McKnight) to possess Ikes' body, all in the name of revenge.
Now the possessed Ike starts to sound and act like J.D., and indulge in various unsavoury pursuits while going about this mission of vengeance.A very engaging cast helps to make this watchable.
The movie goes a fair distance on the performances by young Turman ("Cooley High", "Gremlins", "John Dies at the End").
Naturally, he does look to be having a fine time when called upon to imitate McKnight in his portrayal of the slick and creepy J.D.Louis Gossett Jr. is very lively as the reformed criminal turned flamboyant preacher who also figures into the plot.
Unlike a number of other 1970s blaxploiation movies, the story of "J.D.'s Revenge" is a more universal one at its core; with virtually no rewriting, the characters could have been played by actors of any color.
The predominantly black cast does a very professional job, especially Lou Gossett and Glynn Turman.
The "possession by a vengeful ghost" storyline had probably gotten to be old and hokey already by 1976, yet a good movie that can make you feel the emotional drive of revenge could still have made such a story seem new and fresh.
Since I like to occasionally laugh at a bad film, I decided to get a copy of "J.D.'s Revenge".
However, the movie wasn't nearly bad enough to be in the documentary (and this could be said of many of the selected films).
Sure, it was bad (far worse than many of the IMDb reviews would indicate) but the basic concept of the film isn't really bad at all--it's just that the horrible acting by Glynn Turman as "J.D." and the writing combined for a very bad paranormal blaxploitation film.Turman plays a nice guy who is going to law school and driving a cab.
All the nudity wasn't the problem (though there was a lot), but when he rapes his wife and treats women like garbage I cringed and felt it was perhaps pandering to some that might actually enjoy seeing this sort of violence.
A man wrongly killed who returns from the dead years later to set things right is an exciting idea and how all this was worked out in the end was far more clever than I would have expected given the overall tone of the movie.
By the way, Turman playing a jive-talking 40s punk reminds me of Robert Townsend's film "Hollywood Shuffle" as the film laments that the only roles for Black men in films are pimps, drug dealers and the like (which was very true until recently)..
J.D.'s Revenge (1976) ** 1/2 (out of 4)This blaxploitation film starts off in the 1940s as a man is shot dead by some mobsters.
Fast-forward to the current times and law student Isaac (Glynn Turman) is out with his girlfriend and friends when he is hypnotized.
It doesn't take long for something to snap in Isaac and before he knows it he's got the spirit of the dead man in him and he goes seeking revenge.J.D.'s REVENGE is a pretty good blaxploitation movie that not only pay homage to the various gangster classics but it also has a touch of the Jekyll and Hyde storyline.
I'm a little surprised that this film isn't better known among fans of the genre because the picture is quite sleazy at times and features all the terrific dialogue and situations that you'd expect.I think some of the best moments happen towards the end and especially when the Isaac character begins to change and become more and more like a gangster rather than his "good" self.
You also get some nice supporting performances including Louis Gossett, Jr. as a Reverend with a few secrets of his own.The horror elements of the picture are good for what they are but I think a lot of people will be shocked to see how sleazy the movie is.
J.D.'S REVENGE might not be the most original movie out there but there are a lot of good elements that make it worth watching..
J.D's RevengeThe best way to tell if you've been possessed by an African American is if the police start arresting you for no reason.Unfortunately for the victim in this horror movie, he's already black himself.Sweet-talked into being the dupe for a hypnotist by his wife (Joan Pringle), law student Ike (Glynn Turman) instead becomes the unwitting vessel for the vengeful spirit of J.D. Walker (David McKnight), a New Orleans street hustler murdered in the 1950s.Adapting J.D's mannerisms and flamboyant attire, Ike unknowingly begins exacting revenge on Theotis Bliss (Fred Pinkard), the man who killed J.D's sister.
The only person standing in Ike/J.D's way is Theotis' brother, Reverend Elijah (Louis Gossett Jr.).An intriguing fusion of Blaxploitation stereotypes and horror movie sensibilities, this cult classic can be as gruesome and violent as it can be campy and thrilling.Incidentally, in the 1950s black ghosts weren't allowed to haunt white families.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca.
In their excellent book "The Golden Turkey Awards" the Medved brothers note that the good news was that Hollywood discovered the market for movies made for black audiences, the bad news was that most were crude, artless-and vulgar, like this one.
It starts OK with an interesting premise and some interesting shots, such as the young law student seeing the late J.D.'s face in the mirror of his cab, but it soon degenerates into another cheap sex and sadism Garde Z exploitation movie.
"J.D.'s Revenge" is a simply there possession film without a whole lot going for it either way.**SPOILERS**In the middle of New Orleans, Ike, (Glynn Turman) and his girlfriend Christella, (Joan Pringle) try not to let his celebrity status affect their fun.
Concerned nothing is wrong, he continues on with his life until he runs into Reverend Elija Bliss, (Lou Gossett) and he learns that the trouble has been caused by being possessed by a gangster who had a run-in with him years ago, and is now seeking revenge for being wrongly executed back then.
Switching between personalities as he carries on his mission, they try to stop him before he is able to complete his blood-lust through the possession.The Good News: There wasn't a whole lot to this one that really worked.
That also gives the later half of the film, with the real revenge getting carried through in real gang-land traditions is a lot of fun.
These here are the film's good points.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot to this one at all.
Cut to New Orleans in 1976: Sweet, likable, struggling law student Ike (frequent second banana co-star actor Glynn Turman, giving a fine, engaging performance in a rare substantial lead part) is possessed by J.D.'s malevolent, vindictive spirit, which transforms Ike from a harmless, mild-mannered college kid into a vile, lethal, womanizing, straight razor-toting cad who exacts a terrible revenge upon all those individuals responsible for J.D.'s untimely demise.One of the best, most frightening and effective entries in the short-lived 70's blaxploitation horror craze (prime examples of this nifty sub-genre include both "Blacula" movies, "Abby," and "Sugar Hill"), "J.D.'s Revenge" emphasizes mood over violence, with seasoned B-picture veteran Arthur ("Bonnie's Kids," "Bucktown") Marks' typically sturdy, stylish, self-assured direction and Jaison Starkes' craftily plotted script deftly milking the creepy, mysterious, unsettling Southern Gothic-style ambiance for all its worth.
Either the makers of that actually quite high quality list compared to today's IMDb bottom 150 fare failed to recognise the Jekyll and Hyde parallels or got too much caught up in the game and thought being repulsed by intentionally repulsive scenes was a sure sign of bad film making.
Sure it has pacing problems, but what Blaxploitation film doesn't?
Miekels atmosphere at times, especially with the ending.The most striking element of this film and why it hooks you in so is the contrast between law student Issac and the fire breathing JD.
Glynn Turman (what a voice) gives an astounding performance as two polar opposite walks of the black experience.
In conclusion, JD's Revenge is defo a case of one of these is not like the others as it's a tough, mean and surprisingly moral affair that has so many striking elements, it's almost as tough as the film itself not to give it at least one watch.
Hitting theaters near the wane of African-American themed genre films, it was released by American International Pictures, which had become perhaps the most prolific American studio to produce 'blaxploitation' movies.Glynn Turman stars as Ike Hendrix, taxi driver and law student in New Orleans, who has a live-in girlfriend, Chrisette (Joan Pringle).
During the show, Ike somehow is possessed by the spirit of J.D. Walker (john smith), a local hoodlum active during the 1940s who met a violent end at a meatpacking plant.
As played by Gossett, Reverend Bliss likes to use boxing metaphors in his sermons; his brother Cleotis apparently handles the business affairs for the church, but based on his dialogue he is not remotely the believer that Elija seemingly is.
Slightly less humorous is Ike's pal coming up with a rather reaching justification for Ike's slapping around Chrisette while possessed.Cons The climax of the film sets up a revelation that clever viewers may likely have figured out beforehand.
There are also several subplots that the movie seems to ignore: Shortly after the possession takes place, Ike visits a pimp to place a numbers bet (hinting at a possible criminal past for Ike) but this is soon forgotten; Reverend Bliss' past suggests that he was not only a former boxer but that he was involved in some sort of racketeerism, and his current career as a pastor may not be completely on the up-and-up.
A possessed Ike sexually assaults Chrisette in an overlong sequence; juxtaposed with the rather pat resolution at the end, it makes her look gleefully forgiving when she should not be—on that note, most of the women in the film are murder victims, harshly abused or sexually loose..
****SPOILERS**** Gunned down at a New Orleans meat market in 1942 by Theotis Bliss, Fred Pinkard, after he had murdered his sister Betty Jo, Alice Jubert, who was carrying his child J.D Walker, David McKnight, waited in the world beyond to come back and get his revenge not just against Theotis but his born again brother Elija, Louis Gossett.
Now some thirty years later J.D got his chance by, through an hypnosis session , occupying the body & soul of collage law student Issas "Ike" Hendrix, Glynn Truman, to avenge his sister's murder that Theotis framed him for.This turned out to be a life changing event for Isaac who turned from a sweet harmless and kindly collage boy into an cold blooded and unfeeling psychopath when ever J.D took over his body.
J.D in the end did get his long sought revenge and as for the man he used to do it Isaac Hendrix he was later exonerated of all of J.D's crimes since it was proved that he wasn't in his right mind when he committed them..
I've been a fan of Blaxploitation films for some time now.
Those films made mostly in the 70s that featured an urban setting, starred black actors in lead roles and usually ran to either heavy duty action flicks or twists on horror films.
HYDE were regular features shown in theaters that catered to fans.J.D.'S REVENGE is one among the many films of this genre that was much better than one would expect.
Isaac (Glynn Turman) is a law student who drives a cab part time.
And when he is he is prone to violent acts of rage.The story begins to flesh out when Isaac ends up in a church where ex-boxer turned preacher Rev. Elija Bliss (Louis Gossett Jr.) is preaching.
As the possessed Isaac watches he begins to plan his revenge.
Just who really killed his sister is yet unknown but will be revealed by the last portion of the film.There is plenty of story involved in this movie, enough that it needn't have been a Blaxploitation film at all.
He deserved better.The film doesn't rely on gore to tell the story and uses the abilities of Turman in the shifting role of Isaac/J.D. instead.
It is Turman's performance that makes the film work.
The end result is a movie that while part of the whole Blaxploitation genre is among the best that was offered.Arrow Video is releasing this in their usual manner, which means the best edition you will find.
The movie itself is a 2k restoration from original film elements produced exclusively for this Arrow release.