I
was a huge fan of Rusty Cundieff’s Fear of a Black Hat and Tales from the
Hood. With that powerful one-two punch,
he cemented himself as a filmmaker to watch in the ‘90s. After Sprung he sort of quietly slipped
through the cracks, working primarily in television. When he did resurface, it was often with
hysterical results. (His segment in
Movie 43 is great.) Now Cundieff is back, along with
his producing partner Darin (Deep Blue Sea 2) Scott, twenty-three years
later with a sequel to their horror anthology classic.
The
wraparound segment, “Robo Hell” (**) has Mr. Simms (Keith David, taking over
from Clarence Williams III) visiting a security advisor, Dumass Beach (Bill
Martin Williams) who is about to unveil his new prototype for the
“Robo-Patriot”. Simms’s job is to tell
the A.I. stories to help it understand human nature and be able to assess criminal
threats. The tales are as follows:
“Good
Golly” (** ½) has two college girls visiting the “Museum of Negrosity”
featuring Jim Crow era antiques and artifacts.
The girls want to buy a gollywog doll, but the proprietor of the
establishment refuses to sell it. They
return in the night to steal the doll with deadly consequences.
This
story is sort of a callback to the killer doll segment from the first film. It starts off with a lot of
atmosphere and an interesting set-up. Despite
one nifty kill (I’ve seen plenty of gut-ripping scenes in my day, but never a
gut-WHIPPING scene), the finale is a tad disappointing and feels like something
you’d see in a Troma movie.
The
next story is “The Medium” (***). A trio
of thieves accost a former pimp-turned-preacher (“He had an e-PIMP-hany!”) to
find the location of his secret stash of money.
When they accidentally kill him, they go to a John Edwards-inspired charlatan
TV psychic to contact his spirit. The
séance works better than anticipated.
This
one works as both a Tales from the Hood segment as well as a throwback to the
old Amicus horror anthologies of yesteryear.
The set-up may be a tad longwinded (there’s probably too much backstory
with the psychic), but the punchline is fun.
The thieves’ eventual comeuppance offers up a nice array of gore effects
too.
“Date
Night” (** ½) has two knuckleheads getting hooked up with two hotties on
Tinder. They play Cards Against Humanity
for a bit before slipping the girls a roofie.
The duo gets more than they bargained for when the girls turn out to be
immune to their tactics.
This
tale starts out as a parable on the dangers of social media dating. Too bad the interesting intro is
undone by a limp conclusion. I do give
it points for blending an old school vibe with a newfangled technology, but
it’s not wholly successful.
“The
Sacrifice” (**) combines the story of a ‘50s lynching victim and a modern-day
black Republican working for a racist politician. It seems his very pregnant white wife has
been having disturbing dreams.
Eventually, ghosts of slain civil rights leaders reach out to him, demanding a sacrifice for their cause.
The
Sacrifice by far the most serious and grim tale in the bunch. It’s also the most heavy-handed too. (It’s also the second story revolving around
pregnancy.) The back-and-forth narrative
doesn’t quite work either and the timeliness and urgency of the piece is
undermined by a handful of amateurish performances.
Sure,
a lot of the social commentary is a bit on the nose, but you can get away with
that in a horror film. The problem is, the
film is just too long (nearly two hours) and uneven to work as a whole. Some stories feel rushed, while others take
their sweet time. (The Medium could’ve
probably been expanded to make a standalone feature.)
David
was a fine replacement for Williams III.
He takes delight when saying the character’s patented catchphrase, “The
shit!” over and over again. I just wish
he was given juicier dialogue to sink his teeth into throughout the film. The rest of the performances are uneven. This installment could’ve used someone on par
with the original’s Corbin Bernsen and Wings Hauser, who knew how to sell their
character’s menace with a sense of style.
The
Robocop-inspired wraparound segments are odd and clunky. I understand it was Cundieff’s intention to
bring attention to the underlying problems inherent in America’s police force,
but a robot cop just seems out of place compared to the tales revolving around
killer dolls, seances, vampires, and ghosts.
It also doesn’t help that the design on the Robo-Patriot is rather crummy.
I
know I’ve been talking up Cundieff, but it’s his producer and co-director Darin
Scott who actually directed the two best segments. It should come as no surprise that Scott
knows his way around a horror anthology, having produced From a Whisper to a
Scream, one of the all-time best the genre has to offer. Scott’s segments are no less as uneven as
Cundieff’s, but they’re a big step-up from his last sequel directorial effort,
Deep Blue Sea 2.
Tales
from the Hood 2 offers up sporadic fits of amusement. The inconsistent tone eventually sinks it. Still, as far as twenty-three years later DTV
horror sequels go, you can certainly do much worse.
Now
that Rusty is back in the director’s chair once again, is there any chance we
can get Fear of a Black Hat 2? The
landscape is perfect for a sequel.
Imagine Ice Cold going all Kanye and visiting The White House. Tasty Taste pulling a Jay-Z and becoming part
of the Illuminati. Tone Def becoming a
reality star. This thing writes itself!
Are you craving more reviews of horror sequels? Well, you can read all about them in my
latest book, The Bloody Book of Horror, which is currently on sale at
Amazon. Get your copy HERE.
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