Hood of Horror

Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror is a horror anthology in the vein of Tales from the Hood. Snoop Dogg plays the "crypt keeper" role in this horror anthology.

I like the first story the best. A young woman is given a "special gift". She ends up abusing her new gift and becomes as bad as the people she was originally trying to stop. This tale features Danny Trejo (From Dusk Till Dawn) and Billy Dee Williams (Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back).

The next tale finds a spoiled young man forces to move in with his father's old Vietnam buddies before he can gain his inheritance. The young man and his girlfriend treat the vets poorly. Ernie Hudson (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Ghostbusters) stars in this story.

The third and final story involves a young man who trades everything for success. Diamond Dallas Page (The Devil's Rejects), Lin Shaye (Critters), and Jason Alexander (The Burning) star in this tale.

Snoop Dogg is featured in the wrap around scenes.

Despite the solid cast, I found Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror be rather slow.

Hood of Horror is a gangsta horror anthology (gangthology?) comprising of three ghetto-flavoured tales, loosely tied together by an animated wraparound story. Whilst the stylish cartoon section is confusing and ultimately forgettable stuff, the bulk of the film is far more successful, being well written (much of it by 2001 Maniac's Tim Sullivan), very gory (albeit in a strictly tongue in cheek style), and confidently directed by Stacy Title.

Hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg 'MC's the whole shebizzle (as he might say), introducing each story in his inimitable OG style, and what fun they are: first up is 'Crossed Out', which sees graffiti artist Posie (Daniella Alonso) being given the power to kill her enemies simply by crossing out their 'tags'; tale number two is 'The Scumlord', which stars Anson Mount as a racist, sexist Texan loudmouth who is set to inherit a tenement in the ghetto, but on one condition—that he spends a year in the building with the current occupants, his father's army buddies, the all black Fighting 88; the last story is 'Rapsody Askew' which follows ambitious rap artist Sod (Pooch Hall) as he does whatever it takes to achieve fame and fortune.

A lot of people seem to dislike this film, calling it cheap and amateurish, but I had a great time with it even though I'm not a massive fan of the hip-hop scene: there are several familiar faces in the cast (Danny Trejo, Ernie Hudson and Lin Shaye) who lend proceedings a certain air of class. the splatter is very enthusiastic, the women are bootylicious, and I'm almost certain that the tunes are phat.

Now, I don't want to say this is the worst movie ever, but it's pretty bad. If it weren't for a couple redeeming qualities, this movie would be at the very bottom of the barrel.

First of all, if the production value weren't so good, it wouldn't have even received the one showing it did. The production value is top notch. If it didn't involve Snoop Dogg, Danny Trejo, Jason Alexander, and a handful of other cool B-stars, then this movie wouldn't even be heard of. But it does. There is also one death that I didn't see coming. The others are terribly executed, no pun intended.

The opening sequence, while cool looking, is ages too long. Snoop is his usual double g self. "Keepin it real," as it were. Some of the acting is down right laughable, namely Posie. And at times the director chooses to use clichéd camera tricks for seemingly no reason, other than to disorient you in a scareless horror flick.

Intentional laughs, none. Scares, none. Smile worthy cheesy moments, a couple.

Was it worth paying to see in the theatres? No. Is is worth paying for to rent? No. But is it worth getting your favorite style of intoxicated and watching it with a group of friends? Almost.

Yes it is a hip hop version of Tales from the Crypt, with Snoop Dogg as the Crypt ... I mean the story teller! You'll get treated to three different stories here. And they are surprisingly good ... or at least they don't really suck!

There are the gross ideas here and there and the clichés have to be used (it seems), but you'll get a lot of familiar faces (Danny Trejo and others), that do support the small stories/plots. It's good fun, the effects are decent, the acting is OK for horror, but it's not top notch. And the intermissions, are not that good, I would even say they do divert too much! That means the crypt keeper can rest ... in peace actually ;o)

This film contains three interwoven tales from the hood, with Snoop Dogg (sometimes as an animated gangster and sometimes as a man in hell) narrating between segments. I use interwoven in the loosest sense because they really seem to have connection at all. I will discuss each one briefly.

The first segment was about a woman named Posey who is granted satanic powers by a homeless man (Danny Trejo) and can kill rival gang members by simply crossing out their spray tags. It's really stupid. The plot is weak, Posey's acting is awful. Even Trejo and Billy Dee Williams cannot save this one. There is a great death scene involving a beer bottle, but that doesn't make up for the rest of this segment.

The second segment was actually really good. A redneck and his girlfriend move into a home for retired veterans, with one of them, Roscoe, being played by Ernie Hudson. Hudson is great, as is the rich redneck. The deaths here are weaker (other than the explosion scene) but the plot is much better -- this was written as a real story and not just a throw-away idea. In fact, it could have been its own movie or at least an episode of "Masters of Horror". If you only watch this part, you might find the movie watchable.

The third part was just foolish. Because these are tales from the hood, of course they took the stereotype route and one man escapes the hood by rapping. But he becomes haunted by his friends that he left behind to die. Some of the makeup here is pretty disgusting, which I mean in a nice way, but the overall story is just an excuse to show a guy in the studio rapping. If you already have Snoop Dogg in your cast list ,you don't need to add another man rapping.

I suppose the problem of the film as a whole is that it was written and directed by different people in different segments. Compare this to "Creepshow", which is a lot more consistent. The best part -- part two -- was written by Tim Sullivan, the man behind "2001 Maniacs". It shows. I may not have been the biggest fan of that film, but Sullivan knows how to tell a story that horror fans appreciate (and he has some weird obsession with Confederate sympathizers). The other writers? I have no idea who they are.

Other reviewers have called this film the "Hood of Horrible", and I want to jump on that bandwagon. It wasn't well made, it was poorly written for the most part, and although even some of the worst films can still be enjoyable, this one just wasn't. The odds of me seeing this a second time are pretty slim. If you get the chance to see it the first time, pass up on it and watch James Franco's "The Ape" instead.