J.D.'s Revenge. 1976. USA. Directed by Arthur Marks. Screenplay by Jaison Starkes. With Glynn Turman, Louis Gossett Jr., Joan Pringle. 35mm. 96 min.
The Blaxploitation genre didn’t often detour from its usual coastal-metropolis haunts to touch on cities like New Orleans, but when it did, as in J.D.’s Revenge, the result could be haunting…literally. In this spooky, lively New Orleans classic, Glenn Thurman (in a career-defining role) plays a man haplessly overtaken by the ghost of a vengeful hustler, who takes over his body to wreak vengeance 30 years after an act of betrayal. Like many films set in New Orleans, J.D.’s Revenge has more than its share of Black magic and clever haunts, but it subverts the usual stereotypes by leaning into the mean, spiritually gnarled grit that defines the genre—a dash of urban fury amid all that Bayou weather.