Tales from the Hood

I saw this for the first time recently as i am planning to check out the 3rd part. This one aint scary but some segments r entertaining n at the same time it showcases the problems faced by a community.

The first one bah rogue cops - This one's ur typical revenge of the ghost, a dead fella comes back to take revenge.... The second one bah monsters - This one's a creative one, it potrays the destructive powers of grief with a dash of Cellar Dweller. Mayb Babadook got inspired by this one. The third one bah racism - This one's bah miniature dolls wreaking havoc on a racist neo nazi. Its a bit gory. The last one bah another chance - This one's the best. Inspired by Jacob's Ladder mayb.

"This ain't no funeral parlor. This ain't the terrordome. Welcome to HELL mothaf*#%@!" In not too many words I want to express my respect for one of the most underrated horror movies of the 90s. Like The Twilight Zone it is a segmented film (although all directed by Rusty Cundieff) that spans across a good variety of horror genres. The real horrorshow here, though, is the domestic/racial issues against the black community. Cleverly (and without being preachy or offensive to white people), Cundieff disguised his agenda with rich characters and a bone chilling conclusion.

The HIGHPOINT of this movie for me is the film's proverbial ringleader- a funeral parlor director. The man, brilliantly and hilariously underplayed by a bug-eyed Clarence Williams III, finds a stack of drugs he wants to sell to three young hoods. As you watch you begin to wonder what eerie agenda he really has in store. These scenes tie all the vignettes together.

Also, the final segment is a very profound statement on gang violence (although beware, this is the preachiest segment). I like to call it A Clockwork Black because it applies Anthony Burgress's idea of reversing violence onto the offender onto a gang leader called Krazy K. Those K's in his name aren't a mistake either! Cundieff underlines a necessary argument about between black-on-black violence by comparing K to a neo nazi.

Like any memorable work of horror, Tales remembers to keep its monsters metaphorical. Police brutality, domestic violence, racial profiling, and gang violence are the most hideous creatures found here. I complement Rusty Cundieff on a job well done there. Excessive campiness and at-times generic camera work keep this from being great, but nothing stops its relevance in the genre.

STAR RATING: *** out of 4.

An interesting, at times totally innovative take on the horror film genre. Three young black hoodlums go to a funeral home where a bizarre mortician (an eerie Williams) takes them on a tour and shares four terrifyingly twisted ghost stories. The first involving corrupt cops is routine and obvious; the second is a unique take on child abuse that is creative and fairly creepy; the third involving vengeful voodoo dolls is at times shocking, at times corny, but eerie and crafty in its own right; the fourth about gang violence and rehabilitation is highly imaginative and something to marvel at; the film's unique amalgam of horror and social commentary isn't always on target, but the special effects are convincing, and the performances rock solid, making this a fairly impressive showing for all those involved. **½

I watched "Tales from the Hood" back when it was initially released, and haven't seen it since. I seemed to remember that it wasn't really much of anything noteworthy. But I was given the chance to sit down and watch it again here as 2021 begins, so of course I did so.

And turns out that the 1995 horror anthology "Tales from the Hood" was actually a lot better than I remembered it to be. So revisiting it was definitely not a waste of time.

As anthologies go, the segments and stories are of various degree of entertainment value and worth, and so is also the case for "Tales from the Hood". I must admit that I really enjoyed the first segment the most, the one with the police officers. And the narrative story that tied the segments together was also rather interesting, well except for the ludicrous ending.

"Tales from the Hood" is more than just a collection of horror stories, because it deals with issues such as police brutality, racism, gang related crime, domestic violence, and so forth. And I must say that these issues were nicely tied into the different segments, which added a good amount of enjoyment to the segments, making it more than just average horror.

The special effects, practical effects and make-up in the segments were good, and were helping the stories along nicely.

There is a good amount of familiar actors on the cast list, and I will say that they did a good job in putting together the ensemble of performers for this anthology. And it should also be said that the performances put on were enjoyable.

All in all, "Tales from the Hood" is an enjoyable horror anthology, and my rating of it lands on well-deserved six out of ten stars.

Tales From the Hood, another horror anthology film dripping with EC comics-style ghoulishness, strings together four stories told by a wild-haired, macabre funeral director (Clarence Williams III) to a trio of gangbangers seeking their missing drug stash in a mortuary. Virtually all of the tales are familiar -- walking corpses and voodoo dolls are staples of the format -- but director Rusty Cundieff makes every effort to inject the proceedings with social morality. Child abuse, racism, and police brutality each get a pretty heavy-handed treatment, but the last story, involving a voluntary "behavior modification" technique for an unrepentant killer (ala A Clockwork Orange) explodes off the screen. In the film's most powerful sequence, Cundieff serves up a quickly cut montage of unsettling images culled from a number of state historical archives depicting vicious, stomach-churning lynchings meant to deter the rapacious young killer from wanting to harm any more people. It's potent stuff, and makes one wish the rest of the film had this kind of intensity.