FORTY years after his memorable role as Jose in The Harder They Come, Carl Bradshaw is back in The Skin, a supernatural thriller that opened recently in the Caribbean and North America.

Bradshaw plays Vision, a psychic of sorts.

“He is more like a scientist who sees things in advance. He has certain powers,” Bradshaw told the Jamaica Observer.

Bradshaw has been typecast throughout his acting career, playing several shady characters, the most famous being Jose. The Skin takes him in another direction.

“As far as I am concerned I am diverse, I started out in comedy. If you remember, Smile Orange was originally a stage play before it became a film,” he said.

Shot in Antigua and produced by Hama Films Antigua, The Skin has been shown in Antigua and Barbuda and Trinidad and Tobago. Last weekend, it had two screenings in New York.

Antiguan Mitzi Allen, co-owner of Hama Films, says The Skin has been on the film festival circuit since its release in 2011. The Antiguan company hopes to show it in Jamaica this year.

The Skin is written and directed by Howard Allen. Mitzi Allen’s husband. It is their fourth feature project.

The couple previewed the film at the Barbados Film Festival in 2011 rather than having a premiere at home.

“I really liked the feedback from the industry folks, it was honest and constructive. A pre-screening outside of Antigua was the best thing we ever did,” said Mitzi Allen, who is the film’s executive producer.

The Skin is built around Michael and Lisa (Brent Simon and Aisha Ralph), a young couple on the verge of losing their home. Their luck seems to change when Michael, while on a photo-shoot at historic Betty’s Hope Estate, discovers an ancient vase and sells it to an antique dealer (Jeff Stewart).

The couple gets little time to celebrate their good fortune before strange things begin to happen. They are introduced to a Jamaican mystic (Bradshaw) who informs them that the relic is not really a blessing, but a curse.

Next on the agenda for Bradshaw is a documentary, Jamaica From The Eyes of Carl Bradshaw, which he hopes to complete next year.