Monday, October 22, 2018

THE 31 MOVIES OF HORROR-WEEN: TALES FROM THE HOOD 2 (2018) **


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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