Deliver Us from Evil (1975)

Deliver Us from Evil: Directed by Horace Jackson. With Marie O’Henry, Renny Roker, Candi Keath, Cal Haynes. Fed up with violence in their neighborhood, a janitor, a teacher and a disabled boy band together against drug dealers and other thugs.

“Renny Roker stars as Chris Townes, a volatile young man who drifts from job to job, and even gets in trouble with the law. As aimless as he is, his consciousness does get raised as he meets Mindy (Marie Ou0026#39;Henry), a recreation director at a school. Regularly, Mindy and the students, including a paraplegic named Little Joe (Danny Martin), are terrorized by bullying local drug pushers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUltimately, this is a quite sobering treatise on the elements tearing apart the black community from within. Its low budget shows quite readily, and while the filmmaking may lack slickness, the message still comes through loud and clear. The script, by producer-director Horace Jackson, does fall back on speechifying at the end, as Chris addresses the audience directly in an urgent wake-up call. Youu0026#39;ll realize that when tragedies strike near the end of the film, things wonu0026#39;t be resolved anytime soon. Still, itu0026#39;s hard to deny the satisfaction of seeing one of the antagonists be ostracized by his father.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe actors are similarly impassioned themselves, although with the character of Chris, itu0026#39;s not a quick progression / character arc. Much of the cast is made up of no-names, although veteran actress Juanita Moore (the 1959 version of u0026quot;Imitation of Lifeu0026quot;) makes a special appearance, and you might recognize Ou0026#39;Henry from u0026quot;Three the Hard Wayu0026quot; u0026amp; u0026quot;Dr. Black, Mr. Hydeu0026quot; and Roker from u0026quot;Melindau0026quot; u0026amp; u0026quot;Honky Tonk Freewayu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs with many blaxploitation features, one of the joys lies in the music score, performed by u0026quot;The Enchantmentu0026quot;, although it may be just a little TOO omnipresent.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eObviously, this is something of an obscurity within its genre, but blaxploitation fans should find it to be interesting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSeven out of 10.”