October, 2024 Movie of the Month: J.D.'s Revenge (1976)
The ghost of gangster J.D. Walker possesses a young law student in this unique blend of Blaxploitation, possession horror, and mystery.
“Why would a kid like Hendricks even know about J.D. Walker?”
I chose J.D.’s Revenge for October’s Movie of the Month because I recently finished reading the entertaining and informative Blaxploitation film history book, Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras, by Odie Henderson. I felt inspired to pick a new-to-me title from the dozens that Henderson’s book inspired me to add to my watchlist. But I also wanted to lean into the horror genre for Halloween and - since I’ve already covered Abby for the very first Movie of the Month, and everyone and their mother is (hopefully) already familiar with Ganja & Hess - I thought I would finally watch my Arrow Video Blu-ray of J.D.’s Revenge, directed by Arthur Marks and written by Jaison Starkes.
In the year 1942, in a slaughterhouse in New Orleans, a man slashes the throat of the young Betty Jo Walker (Alice Jubert). Discovering the crime scene and acting as judge, jury, and executioner, another man shoots the gangster J.D. Walker (David McKnight), calling him the “murderer” of Betty Jo. Fast forward to “New Orleans today,” where a young Black couple - Isaac “Ike” Hendricks (Glynn Turman) and Christella (Joan Pringle) - joke around and study together for Ike’s upcoming law exam. Their relationship appears healthy and loving, but that’s before Ike starts to change.
One night, the couple double dates with their friends, Phyllis and Tony, for a night out on Bourbon Street. The friends start the evening at a strip club - providing the audience with the expected nudity of an American International Picture - and end up at Sara Divine’s cheesy hypnotist act. Ike goes under hypnosis and, while in this vulnerable state, sees visions of cattle slaughtered and a beautiful woman murdered. These visions haunt him throughout the evening - the next “episode” is triggered by the flashing lights of a disco ball!
The next day, Ike has a headache. In a wordless sequence, while driving his cab after school, he spots a cream fedora in a shop window, seemingly awaiting him. He pulls over, dusts it off, and buys it. When Ike tries on the hat at home, a ghostly apparition of J.D. Walker watches in the mirror. The two men trace the scar on J.D.’s face - is Ike seeing things? When Chris asks him about the impulse buy, he is short with her, literally brushing her off.
Despite Ike’s doctor’s advice that he just needs to relax more - “Maybe meditate, smoke some weed,” - J.D.’s presence encroaches on every aspect of Ike’s life, from his work as a cab driver to his relationship with Christella. The visions grow to include more details about Betty Jo and J.D.’s murders, as well as intimate details of J.D.’s sex life among the violent images.
Ike later sees J.D.’s face in the rear view mirror of his cab and starts driving beyond recklessly with a passenger onboard, causing her face to smash against the window. He pulls over and throws her out of the cab, alongside her belongings. “Please don’t kill me,” she begs. “Kill you? Bitch, what the fuck is wrong with you, is you crazy?” Ike/J.D. laughs at her. (He doesn’t get in trouble at work; the passenger only remembers the tormenting cabbie as “a Black guy.”)
Ike’s transformation seems nearly complete, his face twisted into a deep frown and his voice sounding more like a growl, but the possession comes and goes. He can’t remember a thing when possessed by this dangerous man, which comes to a head when J.D. verbally abuses and beats Christella, who leaves him. (Disturbingly, Ike’s friend defends his violent actions, claiming that women like knowing “where the lines are.” Yikes!) While Chris could come off as a helpless victim, Joan Pringle’s calm and confident performance injects strength and thoughtfulness into the character, saving herself from “damsel in distress” territory. The film seems to drag during this dark chunk of the second act, with Chris deciding to give Ike a second chance and soon regretting it.
Just when things start getting a little too dreary, J.D. Walker takes full control of Ike (and the movie), strutting around in a peach suit and the aforementioned fedora, with his hair in an old school conk, cutting people up with a razor blade and on the hunt for the man (or men) responsible for his death and that of Betty Jo. His main targets? Brothers Elija (a riveting performance from future Academy Award-winner Lou Gossett Jr.) and Theotis Bliss (Fred Pinkard).
More of a mystery than a thriller, J.D.’s Revenge seems to borrow a little bit from both its cinematic predecessors and peers. With some censorship of the bawdier and racial terms in the screenplay, I could totally see J.D. produced as a Pre-Code gangster-horror fusion picture in the early 1930s. Like a marriage of the Fredric March version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the original Scar Face, this movie has it all: dual personalities, committed physical performances, and risque violence. Also, the projections of J.D.’s scarred face on Ike’s mirror look like something out of an expressionist silent film: old-fashioned yet artful. In addition to these older influences, the occasional blood in the film glistens a dazzling, unrealistic red - matching the hyperstylistic gore of contemporary European horror films.
The fearless performances from a cast led by Glynn Turman (who Samuel Z. Arkoff cast based on his lead performance in Cooley High) make J.D.’s Revenge worth revisiting nearly fifty years later, despite a rather disconcerting, sitcom-ish end note. Watching a no-longer-possessed Ike laugh it all off with his friends, I can’t help but feel that his newfound peace is a temporary one. J.D.’s Revenge was channeled twenty-five years later in 2001’s Bones, so I wonder if we’re overdue for another adaptation of this genre-bending tale in the next couple years. I think the tentative awkwardness of this film’s ending points to the unease in knowing that peace through violence never lasts forever or, sometimes, not even longer than twenty-five years.
Thank you for tuning into this month’s Movie of the Month Club! Read on for a trailer, how to watch J.D.’s Revenge, supplementary materials, a double feature recommendation, and spoiler-filled discussion questions!
Trailer:
How to Watch:
Streaming on Tubi, also available on Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Video.
Supplementary Materials
To Read:
Arthur Marks obituary for The Hollywood Reporter
“Arthur Marks: Exploitation Maverick” from The Grindhouse Cinema Database
David McKnight obituary for Deadline
Film review from Black Horror Movies
“J.D.’s Revenge Blu-ray Review – Get Possessed by Arrow’s Voodoo Shocker!” by Anthony Arrigo for Dread Central
“Like a Dead Man: What J.D.’s Revenge reveals about body horror” by Nicholas Whittaker for The Point Mag
Louis Gossett Jr. obituary from the Associated Press
To Watch:
The Legend of Glynn Turman (2022), directed by Juney Smith
To Listen:
Double Feature Recommendation:
Bones (2001), directed by Ernest Dickerson
Similar to J.D.’s Revenge, Dickerson’s Bones follows the vengeful reincarnation of a murdered gangster from the ‘70s, Jimmy Bones (Snoop Dogg). Instead of a possession movie, this early-aughts take on J.D. is a ghost story. The film takes place in Bones’ abandoned home in the modern day, which has been renovated by some enterprising teenagers into a nightclub. When Bones’ spirit inhabits a black dog (okay, there is a little bit of possession going on), he mauls and eats people in order to come back to life in his human form. (Which makes about as much sense as becoming possessed during a night club hypnosis act.) Of course, he is successful in his resurrection and proceeds to enact his revenge against those who wronged him over twenty years before. But will revenge bring him eternal peace?
Available to watch on Tubi.
Discussion Questions:
Who would you choose to direct if producing a remake of J.D.’s Revenge in 2024?
Some reviewers describe J.D.’s Revenge as “misogynistic.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
Do you believe that J.D.’s spirit is really gone after enacting his revenge? Why or why not?
If you had to choose one genre in which to categorize J.D.’s Revenge, which one would you choose and why?