Arrow Video, with
domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group,
will be delivering a new 2K restoration (from the original film elements) of
producer/director Arthur Mark’s 1976 Blaxploitation
horror hit, J.D.’s Revenge, as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack on
Halloween (yes, Halloween falls on a street-date Tuesday this year).
We didn’t know it at the
time, but this American International theatrical release, which hit theatres
during the final days of August in the summer of 1976, marked the beginning of
the end for the Blaxploitation wave
that burst forth in the early ‘70s with such landmark film releases as Sweet
Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Shaft and Super Fly … and then quickly
branched out with sub-genre mixes that included horror, Westerns, the aftermath
of Viet Nam, martial arts (thank you, Bruce Lee) and even animation.
As to the mixed-genre
release of J.D.’s Revenge, in a prologue we are introduced to J.D. Walker (David
McKnight — Under Siege, Hollywood Shuffle, etc.), a 1940’s
New Orleans gangster, who walks in on the murder of his sister, Betty Jo (Alice
Jubert), in seedy slaughterhouse and is mistaken for her killer by Elija Bliss
(Louis Gossett Jr.), who, we shall learn was her lover, who then promptly
shoots Walker dead!
The action then skips
ahead to modern times and we meet Isaac/”Ike” (Glynn Turman — Cooley
High, Thomasine & Bushrod, Attica, etc.), a law student, who is
working his way through school as a cab driver. He has the evening off and is out clubbing
with his girlfriend, Christella (Joan Pringle — in her theatrical debut, after
working nearly a decade with small roles in various TV series epsidoes,
including Ironside and That’s My Mama) and a couple of
their friends when he gets roped into being on stage and is hypnotized.
That little stage stunt is the catalyst that sets in motion a series as Ike has flashbacks of the events that occurred 30 years prior and, to make matters worse, he is slowly inhabited by the spirit of J.D. Walker … who is out for revenge. His life becomes a living hell as he takes on the persona — and gangster look (‘70s style, that is) — of Walker.
Things come full circle
when Ike hears the now-reverend Bliss (Gossett) preaching on the radio (pity
the poor old white woman who was his fare at the time) and he knows what he has
to do. It really gets strange when Ike
meets Bliss’ “daughter,” who is the spiting image of his sister (Alice Jubert
in a duel role).
J.D.’s Revenge works both as a period Blaxploitation action film — Ike transforming into a “Super-Fly”
gangster and all — and a nice black-riff on the possession films of the day — The
Exorcist, Abby and The Omen (it kicked off the summer of 1976 and
J.D.’s Revenge finished it). The only
thing that is a little off is the ending (sorry, no spoilers here on that one).
Arrow Video will be
including a newly-prepared video session with producer/director Arthur Marks,
an Arthur Marks trailer reel, plus more goodies not yet announced.
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