Review: J.D.’s Revenge
Law student (and cab driver!) Glynn Turman attends a hypnotist show with his lady (Joan Pringle) and friends, and somehow ends up possessed by the spirit of nasty gangster J.D. Walker (David McKnight) who was murdered in the early 1940s. All of a sudden Turman turns into a violent thug, whilst tracking down the man who betrayed him. That leads him to the Reverend Elija Bliss (Lou Gossett Jr.), a former gangster turned shonky religious show-pony. One of the more underrated blaxploitation films, this 1976 supernatural revenge story from director-producer Arthur Marks ( “Friday Foster” , “Bucktown” , “The Monkey Hustle” ) is a strange but compelling mix of silly and scary. Scripted by Jaison Starkes (who wrote this, an episode of “MacGyver” and basically nothing else), I think the explanation for the supernatural events is lacking and Lou Gossett seems a good 10-15 years too young for his role, but otherwise this is weird as hell and I liked it. It’s even a l...