Tales from the Hood (1995)

What happens when you mix cinematic black commentary of the early 90s — think Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society — with the pulp goodness of Tales from the Crypt? Tales from the Hood, that's what. Brought to you by the same guy who directed House Party 2 and executive produced by Spike Lee, this is an attempt to bring serious social commentary to the horror genre. Does it work? Not really. But is it worth a viewing? Yes.

A group of gangbangers are asked by a mortician to stop by his funeral home to exchange money for some drugs he found in an alley. While on the way to the hidden stash the gang is told four stories about some of the "customers" lying in coffins. Each of the stories has a point and a message: police brutality, reparations, child abuse, gang violence. Pretty weighty stuff, wrapped up and delivered under the guise of horror. And therein lies the problem: this movie is not scary, just predictable. If you've seen pretty much any episode of Tales from the Crypt, or read any of the original comics, you'll guess the ending early on.

Weak scripts can be salvaged if the director is on point and the talent is outstanding, both of which isn't true for this. In fact the execution is generally terrible, the performances merely forgettable. But here's the thing: despite all that Tales from the Hood has going against it, I still like it.

Clarence Williams III, Linc from the original Mod Squad, turns in an interesting performance as the funeral director. It's fun hearing him say "yes, let's go get the shit" over and over again with a maniacal smile and sparkling eyes, and he does a good job of keeping up the tension in between the four disparate stories. The best performance definitely goes to David Alan Grier. Known for his comedic roles and stand-up, he does an outstanding job as a child abusing boyfriend and makes you wish he would do more serious roles.

Each of the stories has merit even if the execution doesn't live up to the concept. If nothing else I applaud the attempt to make a horror film that discusses African-American issues instead of using the token black guy as the inevitable first victim.