Book of Joe

Book of Joe (1984)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mildly entertaining student film from director-writer Kevin Tenney about a politician who is assassinated and then a black man (Clyde Talley II) who is arrested for the crime. He asks for lawyer Joseph Able (Rob Zapple) to represent him and just as it seems like the man is going to get off with the crime, he admits that he's Jesus Christ and it causes a media storm.

If you're expecting anything like WITCHBOARD or NIGHT OF THE DEMONS then you're going to be disappointed. This short film was pretty much unvieweable until it was released on the Special Edition of the director's WITCHTRAP. In the interview about that movie, Tenney admits that he was shocked to become a horror director because that wasn't where his passion was. This student film certainly shows that as there are no horror elements here but instead just a decent social drama.

There's nothing ground-breaking here but I actually found the film to be mildly entertaining and it did have an interesting idea that dealt with political and racial issues. The Jesus Christ character constantly warning and questioning humans had some interesting ideas and I'm sure this could have been turned into a fascinating feature. As it stands, this will mostly appeal to fans of Tenney that want to see what he was doing before the horror films. It should also be noted that this features three cast members who would later appear in WITCHTRAP.