Horror Noire of the 1990's: Tales from the Hood

Tales From the Hood (1995)

Director: Rusty Cundieff

Executive Producer: Spike Lee

Starring: Clarence Williams III, Joe Torry, David Alan Grier, Corbin Bernsen, Rusty Cundieff, Paula Jai Parker

“Where nightmares and reality meet in the street.”

Tales from the Hood is a cult classic, and is as much a piece of poignant social commentary as it is a horror anthology. The four stories deal with issues such as racism, police brutality, gang violence, and domestic abuse. The storyteller is an eccentric mortician by the name of Mr. Simms, with wild hair and even wilder eyes. He relates the narratives to three gang members, who have come to his funeral home to retrieve the stash of drugs that he found. As they move through the funeral home, Simms periodically stops at caskets, where he relates the story of that person’s demise.

In the first, titled “Rogue Cop Revelation,” A Black rookie police officer clashes with three thuggish white officers, who are all veterans with a penchant for corruption and violence.

The protagonist of the second story, “Boys Do Get Bruised,” is a little boy who–along with his mother—is being terrorized and abused at the hands of a nameless “monster.”

In “KKK Comeuppance,” Corbin Bersen is a white supremacist senator in the Deep South who eventually gets his comeuppance at the hands of the Ancestors.

“Hard Core Convert” is the final tale, in which a violent gang member is convicted of multiple crimes and agrees to enter into an experimental behavior modification program. The methods, however, prove to be extreme, and call to mind “A Clockwork Orange.” 

As a whole, the film is an engaging mixture of straight-ahead horror, incisive satire, and dark humor. As its title suggests, the movie plays out very much like an unholy union of “Boyz in the Hood” and “Tales from the Crypt,” culminating in a sinister twist.