Theatrical Poster
I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of horror anthologies. I don’t really no why, that just don’t pump me up the way one solid story does. There is the odd exception such as Creepshow, but on the whole they just leave me cold. I did however have fairly high hopes for Hood of Horror, especially with the names involved. Tim Sullivan, director of 2001 Maniacs co-wrote and produced HOH, so straight off the gun my interest was piqued. Also the acting talent here was more than enough to keep hopes high.
Things start off well, with an animated opening sequence that was quite frankly cool as fuck. This introduces us to Snoop Dogg’s transformation from street gangster into the Hound of Hell. From there on in he introduces three stories, each one following the actions of the main character, and how they influence there destination in the afterlife.
The first story is about Posie, a graffiti artist who after a run in with some street thugs meets what appears to be the incredibly ugly brother of Danny Trejo. Trejo’s character then imparts what at first seems a wondrous gift on Posie, but will she use it wisely?
This is probably the best segment in my eyes. It was short, sharp and to the point. The humor was sick and twisted, and it contained some quite innovative death scenes. Billy Dee Williams pops up briefly as a Pastor and, along with the rest of the cast in this section , does an admirable job.
Following that the middle story joins Ernie Hudson and his Army buddies, who are joined the son of their landlord, and ex-Army Colonel. He has to stay with the Veterans for one year in order for him to have the building and the rest of his inheritance handed over to him. Of course he doesn’t want to wait a year for this, so starts to make the lives of the old codgers a living Hell.
Again, this is a solid segment with a wonderful ensemble cast. The humor is even sicker than before, however it is seriously lacking in the horror department until towards the very end. Then it just gets plain nasty!
Wrapping, or should I say rapping (sorry for the shit joke), up the anthology is Rapsody Askew. Here we follow the meteoric rise to stardom of rapper Sod (Pooch Hall) and his subsequent downfall. The highlight of this section is undoubtedly Lin Shaye’s evil turn as the head of security. Apart from that I felt it was all a little predictable. Nasty in places, funny in a sick and twisted way, however it just didn’t work as well as it could.
Everything is tied up with another animated sequence, which again is great fun to watch, before closing with the expected rapping of our Devilish host Snoop Dogg.
I left this movie feeling truly underwhelmed, and can’t quite put my finger on it. Sure the humor was spot on, even the gore surprised me, but what it really lacked was any sense of real horror. There were no scares whatsoever, not even so much as a random cat jumping out forcing an involuntary bowel movement.
If you call a movie Hood of Horror you really should have a little horror in it. Guts and gore don’t add up to horror. During the middle story I even forgot I was watching a horror movie.
However, Hood of Horror was trashy, even sleazy, good fun. The language, script and jokes all hit the spot throughout each segment. The acting was solid as you like, Snoop especially seemed to revel in his role as host and protagonist. It would appear that the rapper does have a genuine love for the genre, and I’m sure we will see him pop up in more horror flicks in the future. I just hope that next time there are a few more scares and a little less reliance on gore.
What did make a truly refreshing change was seeing a genre piece with a predominantly Black and Latino cast. I really don’t like to throw the race card into my reviews, but it is an undeniable fact that horror movies have been the mainstay of White cinema. If this movie is anything to go by I am definitely up for more, despite this movie’s shortcomings.
Hood of Horror really is trashy B-movie horror, that needs to be enjoyed with a few homies, some bitches and 40′s. Scrap that attempt at street talk and just crack a fucking beer open and enjoy it for what it is, and not what it could have been.
