[Once
again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the
entire month of October. I've done this the last few years on The Cleveland
Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded (usually with the help of a few other
writers). Other times I didn't. We'll see if I can pull it off this year.]
I’m
pretty sure I’ve mentioned this in a review before, but it bears repeating. Everyone
seems to understand that science fiction explores themes that deal with real
life, often controversial social and political issues like racism, religion, and
power-hungry leaders. But horror is all too often assumed to be devoid of such
insights even though it can be just as political.
Case
in point: Rusty Cundief and Darin Scott’s TALES
FROM THE HOOD 2. As the title implies, the structure and tone come from the
old E.C. comic books (and the TV show they inspired), ‘Tales From the Crypt’. That
is to say, there’s a “host” who introduces a series of creepy stories that are
generally as campy as they are gruesome, and almost always end with a twist.
In
the case of TALES FROM THE HOOD 2,
though, there’s an extra element to be found. Each of the horror stories
contained in this anthology deal with highly charged racial issues. That the filmmakers
are able to mix serious (and often uncomfortable) socio-political commentary with
B movie entertainment and not sacrifice either is no small feat.
Our
host for this terrifying trifecta of tales is Portifoy Simms (Keith
David, JOHN CARPENTER’S THE THING, replacing
Clarence Williams III from the first film). Portifoy has been hired by Dumas
Beach (Bill Martin Williams), a sleazy businessman who made his fortune in the
private prison industry. Now he’s looking to make even more money with his
latest invention, a crime fighting robot he calls the RoboPatriot. But first,
he needs to program it to recognize criminals. Beach figures Simms
can share some crime related stories with his bot to this end. Yeah, it’s a pretty
silly set-up, but its in keeping with the film's comic book inspiration.
Simms
then relates four stories, all of which do indeed feature criminals getting
their come-uppance, but not quite in the way Beach expected. Nonetheless, he
figures his crime fighting robot is good enough to present to the public. It
should be no surprise to viewers that the robot’s big debut has a few glitches.
Speaking
of glitches, there are a few in this movie. Nothing too serious, but noticeable
nonetheless. Perhaps the most obvious one comes in a segment about date rape
that feels especially relevant at this moment in history, right down to a line about boys being boys. Hard to get into
specifics without giving away the twist, but let’s just say the way cameras
work in this story are inconsistent.
The film’s low budget also hurts at times,
particularly when it comes to showing RoboPatriot in action. But this is, after all, a
B movie inspired by comic books, so does it really have to be that convincing?
Shortcomings
aside, far more here works than doesn’t. The entire cast is good, but Keith
David in particular seems to relish playing his version of the Crypt Keeper. And
the campy, comic book tone not only works well to leaven some stories with
humor, but also to give Mr. Simm’s final tale, the film’s most sober, more of
an impact by contrast. Including real life civil rights figures, notably Emmett
Till, in one of this final tale was a risky move, but it pays off. Here’s hoping
Mr. Simms has a few more tales to share next Halloween, as there seems to be more people than ever who could stand to learn a thing or two from them.
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