The Thing with Two Heads

A vehemently racist surgeon- dying from an inoperable heart condition- hires a black doctor as his predecessor...not knowing he was black.

When he finds out, he tries to fire the doctor, but the doctor insists on fulfilling his contractual obligations.

The dying surgeon wants to prolong his life, by transplanting his head, onto someone else's body- so that his genius can live on.

The plan is to get someone from death row to agree to the procedure instead of being executed.

And, in some sort of case of divine irony, the only volunteer is a black inmate- on death row for a crime he claims he did not commit.

His time is about up...and he wants to use the extra time to prove his innocence.

Now, you have a racist white guy's head on a black dude's body...with the plan being to, eventually, cut the black dude's head off, so that the white guy can have his body.

The white doctors don't feel qualified to do the job, so they turn to the black doctor for help with the final procedure (ie getting a black dude to cut a black dude's head off a black dude's body so a racist white guy can have it...).

But before they have a chance to, the black dude (who still has the most control over his body) escapes- taking the black doctor hostage in the process.

Now they are on the lam...with both the black dude and racist white guy's head trying to convince the doctor to amputate the other.

As you can tell, this is the blaxploitation version of The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant from the year before. They would later be released together on DVD.

The animatronic head used in the transplant scene is sweet! But all the rest of the special effects are pretty bad. Particularly in the last bit when the white actor takes control of the body and is driving/walking around.

Before that, there's a humorously long dirtbike vs cop cars chase scene in which they crash 14 cop cars (though it seems like a lot more).

And the ending all goes down very abruptly.

It would have been nice if they had wrapped up the whole he was innocent angle. But it still has a feel good ending. And properly so, because Big Jack (the black dude) and his girlfriend are about the most lovable characters ever.

It's not extremely racist either, worst he gets called is a black bastard, alongside some bad taste jokes that come off in context. But it get's the idea across pretty clearly in an almost light-hearted way.

But you are happy to see him get f*cked over in the end.

A fun little film of the it's so bad it's good kind.

5.5 out of 10.