Tales from the Hood 1&2

Executive-produced by Spike Lee, this horror-comedy anthology sees a Limited Edition UK 2-disc Blu-ray release (3,000 copies only) with TALES FROM THE HOOD 1 & 2 in one set. Various urban horror stories address issues concerning the African-American community with themes ranging from police brutality, gang violence, institutional racism and the plain supernatural.

In both films, the stories are linked by eccentric Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III in the original, Keith David in the sequel) though it’s not giving away the obvious when Mr. Simms turns out to be the devil in disguise… think the ‘Crypt Keeper’ in Tales From The Crypt albeit in human form.

TALES FROM THE HOOD (1995):
When young drug dealers Stack, Ball and Bulldog arrive in Mr. Simm’s funeral parlour in South Central LA they are not coming to pay some last respects. Far from it, Simm’s claim that he found a serious stash of drugs now hidden in the mortuary is enough reason for the trio to put up with an unsettling sight of coffins and other related paraphernalia. Luring the youngsters into believing the drugs will soon be theirs (and they would be prepared to kill for it), Simms reveals four stories relating to some of the dead bodies reposing in the coffins.
In the first story, Rogue Cop Revelation, young black police officer Clarence Smith and new white partner Newton arrive at a scene where fellow white officers Billy and Strom seem to run a routine car licence plate check on a black man who turns out to be respected city councilman and black rights activist Martin Moorehouse. Unfortunately, by the time Clarence learns the interrogated man’s true identity via a computer check in his police car, his hostile colleagues have beaten him to death. Riddled with guilt at not having prevented the murder, Clarence quits his job when one year later, now an alcoholic, he spots a mural of Moorehouse in his ‘hood. Bloody revenge is nigh when the painting seemingly comes to live with the words “Bring them to me”…. In Boys Do Get Bruised quiet pupil Walter turns up with bruises on his face. As the bruising becomes more severe over the weeks, concerned teacher Mr. Garvy decides to visit Walter’s home, with the boy’s mother Sissy claiming the bruises are a result of Walter’s own imagination in which a monster keeps attacking him. The unpleasant truth is revealed when Sissy’s new and abusive boyfriend Carl turns up… Hard-Core Convert is a clever spin on ‘Clockwork Orange’ in which violent gang member Crazy K gets his comeuppance when, after his arrest, is first confronted with a homicidal white supremacist followed by a sensory deprivation experiment during which he’s the guinea pig… The strongest story is KKK Comeuppance in which arrogant and racist Southern Senator Duke Metger – a former member of the Ku Klux Klan – gets plenty of flack from both Jewish and Afro-American protestors for setting up his office at an old slave plantation which, to make matters worse, used to belong to his grandfather. Dismissing a tale that the former plantation is apparently haunted by dolls resembling the souls of the tortured slaves, Metger and his Afro-American spin-doctor Rhodie get a deadly surprise when a large painting depicting hoodoo witch and doll creator Miss Cobbs seems to come to live, and the dolls with it… Shame this segment didn’t make more use of the admittedly creepy dolls though the main one made it into the sequel. The film ends with the conclusion to the Welcome To my Mortuary frame story.

TALES FROM THE HOOD 2 (2018):
Once again we have a frame story in this much delayed sequel though this time ‘round it doesn’t take place in a mortuary but in the near future where general slime bag and devious prison operator Dumas Beach is busy constructing the prototype of ‘Al’ – a so-called ‘robo-patriot’ able to function as a robotic law enforcement officer and if necessary, executioner. In order for ‘Al’ to better detect who is a criminal, Dumas has recruited the great storyteller Mr. Simms to fill the heads of his future robotic army with useful information, suggesting a ‘Black Lives Matter’ theme (how very pc and how very in keeping with the Zeitgeist!). Mr. Simms proceeds to tell his first story Good Golly in which white bimbo Audrey and her equally moronic black friend Zoe take a trip to a rural outback where they visit a strange building called The Museum of Negrosity. Audrey makes it clear she wishes to purchase a particular gollywog doll named Golly Gee to add to her collection but is sharply reprimanded by the museum’s curator for not fully understanding the racist history of these dolls. When Zoe accidentally bumps into a chair that has black history the curator reprimands the girls further. Angrily they leave the premises but secretly plan to return at night, together with Audrey’s insensitive brother Phil, to break into the museum (which isn’t even locked!) and steal Golly Gee. Initially succeeding, the glass case in which the doll is kept smashes to pieces when Phil and Zoe play out kinky games using a former whipping post (as you do) used for slaves, which then topples over. Broken artefacts are the least of the teenagers’ worries for Golly Gee has suddenly grown large and come to life… The message here is well intended but the ending is just silly! In The Medium fake TV-psychic John Lloyd doesn’t know his own abilities until three thugs force their way into this house with the help of accomplice Sandra and order the medium to channel the spirit of their latest murder victim in order to find out the hiding place of stolen money or else… Or else indeed! In Date Night best friends and would-be rapists Ty and Kahad get a taste of their own bitter medicine after having drugged two girls in their luxury home – following a date arrangement on social media network site Tinder. The strongest (and most harrowing) story here is The Sacrifice involving black councilman Henry Bradley whose white partner Emily is pregnant again after a miscarriage. The house already filled with anxiety, tensions arise further when Henry’s mother accuses him of being involved in an election campaign supporting Republican candidate William Cotton whose mission it is to take Mississippi back to its core values, joking that in the old days his assistant Henry would have been serving the assembled guests instead of addressing them with a glass of champagne in his hand. Meanwhile, Emily is convinced that the unborn child inside her keeps getting smaller and claims to see the ghost of Emmett Till, a 14-year old black boy who was brutally lynched in 1955. The story then goes into flashback and back to 1955 where we witness the atrocity that sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Back in the current day, Dr. Gwinette refuses to attend to Emily after learning that she is in fact married to Henry… are we to believe that this had never occurred to the doctor before? As more and more ghosts appear in the garden, including those of four girls killed during a KKK-bombing on a Baptist Church, Martin Luther King and other victims of racial injustice, Henry begins to understand that he needs to sacrifice himself in order to atone for the fact he supported Cotton (a secret Klan Patrol member) – otherwise the Civil Rights Movement and all the victims deaths would have been in vein. The film concludes with a twist to its Robo Hell frame story.

Special Features include:
* Feature commentary on Tales from the Hood by Rusty Cundieff (2017)
* Welcome to Hell: The Making of Tales from the Hood (2017, 56 mins): feature documentary featuring interviews with the cast and crew
* Interviews / Trailer / Gallery and Booklet.