Review of Tales from the Hood (1995) by Carlos I — 19 May 2017

I don't remember this film being much of a hit or being a film anyone took much notice of when it first came out, but I think if it had it come out now it would have garnered more attention. The film is essentially a blaxploitation versions of Tales form the Crypt, telling several horror short stories but with a racially provocative twists.

Although I haven't seen the recent horror film "Get Out" it sounds very similar to this one in that it is a well made horror film at it's core, but also features an interesting not so subtle subtext about race, racism, and race relations.

Clarence Williams III takes on the Cryptkeeper role as a creepy funeral director who tells three drug dealers he's trapped in his place of business four scary stories, each with a twist. The best two come in the middle of the film, one about a boy who tells a teacher about a monster who lives in his home, which features an uncharacteristically dark role for David Alan Grier, and another story about a racist southern politician, Corbin Bernsen, who gets his comeuppance by a small army of dolls possessed by the spirits of slaves killed on the plantation where he's now set up office.

I probably liked the latter best from my obsession with little things attacking bigger things (i.e. Puppet Master, Gremlins, Troll, Ghoulies, Critters, etc.). But as I said earlier, this film came out at a time when films about race were supposed to be high minded ventures like "Do the Right Thing," "Higher Learning" or "Menace II Society," and were not supposed to be exploitative genre films, so I think this film was consequentially not taken very seriously, eventhough it was produced by Spike Lee.

Overall, this isn't a horror classic or even a particularly insightful film about race, but it is one that I think deserves more respect than it's gotten. Christopher Young also provides the film a fine eerie score.