Tales From the Hood is a 1995 horror anthology film directed by Rusty Cundieff, and executive produced by Spike Lee. It presents four short African American-themed horror stories, presented within the frame story of three drug dealers buying some "found" drugs from an eccentric and story-prone funeral director.
Plot
Framing segment
The film begins with a trio of teenage drug dealers in South Central named Stack (Joe Torry), Ball (De'aundre Bonds), and Bulldog (Samuel Monroe, Jr.) arriving at a mortuary, Simms' Funeral Home, to purchase some drugs found in a back alley by the mortuary's eccentric owner, Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III). Simms says he has stored the drugs safely inside the mortuary and asks the three to assist him in getting them. As the four make their way through the mortuary, Simms relates stories to the trio about some of his recent "customers."
Rogue Cop Revelation
During his first night on the job, young black police officer Clarence Smith (Anthony Griffith) is taken by his new partner Newton (Michael Massee) to the scene of what initially appears to be the routine traffic stop of a well-dressed black man. When Clarence runs the man's plates, he learns that the man is in fact Martin Moorehouse (Tom Wright), a city councilman and black rights activist who has recently been on a crusade against police corruption. Clarence watches in horror as Newton, along with fellow officers Billy (Duane Whitaker) and Strom (Wings Hauser), brutally beat Moorehouse with their nightsticks and vandalize his car. When Clarence insists they take Moorehouse to a hospital, two of the officers appear to agree. However, once Clarence leaves, they instead drive his car out to the docks, where Strom shoots the battered Moorehouse up with heroin and plants some in his car before pushing it into the water with Moorehouse still inside. Moorehouse is posthumously labeled a hypocrite.
One year later, Clarence has quit the police force. He is now a drunk and consumed with guilt. When taking a walk in his neighborhood, Clarence sees a mural of Moorehouse, then has a vision of a crucified Moorehouse begging him to "Bring them to me!" Clarence convinces the three police officers involved in Moorehouse's death to meet him at Moorehouse's grave. Once there, the officers begin to insult Moorehouse, culminating with Billy urinating on Moorehouse's grave. A zombified Moorehouse bursts from the grave and drags the officer beneath the ground by his genitals. Moorehouse's coffin bursts from the ground, opening to reveal Billy's mutilated corpse with Moorehouse clutching Billy's still-beating heart. Strom and Newton flee in horror.
A lengthy chase sequence ensues, culminating with Moorehouse decapitating Strom and tricking Newton into shooting the gas tank of his patrol car. Moorehouse then chases Newton into an alley, where he telekinetically throws a number of used needles into the cop's body, pinning him to the wall mural. Newton screams as he melts into the mural, becoming a painting of himself crucified.
His vengeance nearly complete, Moorehouse accosts Clarence and asks him why he didn't help him when he was being beaten. "Where were you when I needed you, brother?" he asks Clarence, then reaches out and grips him. Clarence ends up in a mental institution, bearing the blame for the murders.
Boys Do Get Bruised
Walter (Brandon Hammond) is a quiet and sensitive boy who shows up to school one day with bruises on his arm. Walter's caring teacher, Richard Garvy (Rusty Cundieff), notices the bruises and asks what happened; Walter claims that he was attacked by a monster. A few days later, he shows up at school with another bruised arm. While the other children play, Walter sits inside and draws; after making a drawing of a boy named Ty, one of the school bullies, Walter crumples it up, causing Ty's body to suffer spontaneous damage.
Later that night, Mr. Garvy visits Walter's home and asks Walter's mother, Sissy (Paula Jai Parker), about the monster. Sissy responds by claiming that Walter's injuries are his own fault as a result of his own clumsiness; she then tells Walter not to reveal anything about the monster to anyone else. As Mr. Garvy prepares to leave, Walter's stepfather Carl (David Alan Grier, in a very rare non-comedic role) arrives home; the audience learns that Carl is the monster (in Walter's imagination, Carl is shown as a monster). Angry that Walter has told his teacher about him and called him a monster (a tattoo of the word "Monster" can be seen on Carl's arm), Carl terrorizes Walter and then whips his mother with a belt.
Mr. Garvy turns around to check on Walter and sees Carl abusing Walter and Sissy. After Mr. Garvy bursts into the house, the men begin to fight. With the focus of anger off him, Walter takes the opportunity to grab a drawing he made of the monster. As Walter begins to fold and crumple the drawing, Carl becomes mangled and helpless. Sissy stomps on the wadded-up paper to end the threat. Finally, Mr. Garvy gives the paper to Walter, who then burns the paper to completely immolate Carl.
KKK Comeuppance
Mr. Simms shows a doll, instead of a corpse, to Ball, Stack, and Bulldog. Ball believes the "dead motherfucker got killed with the dolls." Mr. Simms answers yes, but explains it wasn't just "any ordinary doll."
The story begins with Duke Metger (Corbin Bernsen), an obnoxious and racist Southern senator who was also a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. He is in his office filming a campaign commercial when he sees protesters outside the office. Jewish and African-American groups teamed up together to protest against Duke for being a racist and a former Klansman, as well as inhabiting an old slave plantation. In fact, one individual tells the reporter about the dolls that are animated by souls of tortured slaves and warns that it is not a myth.
Meanwhile, Duke and his African-American "image-maker" assistant notice a large painting of Miss Cobbs, a voodoo witch, and her dolls. Duke says racial slurs to his assistant, who attempts to ignore his rantings. Duke also refers to the dolls as "Negro dolls." One of the dolls is seen under the floorboard as the assistant leaves.
While Duke and his assistant are working on Duke's media skills, the assistant falls down the stairs to his death (it is later learned that the doll seen under the floorboard earlier is the one that caused his death). In the limo after the assistant's funeral, Duke notices the doll and orders the driver (who is also African-American and despises Duke) to pull over so he can throw the doll out the window and leave it lying on the street. Duke has done another obscene action, which makes the spirit very angry and vengeful.
Later, Duke comes in contact with the doll (after noticing a blank spot on the painting) he threw out on the street and has a fight with it. When Duke throws a vase at the doll at first, the doll disappears and attacks Duke out of nowhere. The doll is cannibalistic and tries to eat Duke. Duke is injured, but he manages to stop the doll by beating it with the flag. He also damages the painting from which blood pours.
Duke takes the doll outside to his porch and ties it to a dart board. He blasts at the doll with his shotgun and goes back inside to rant at the painting about not being able to beat him and his shotgun. But in the midst of his rant, Duke finds more doll images faded to white. After Duke begins chasing several small footsteps throughout the house, he finds the previously blasted doll in the hallway, reattaching its head. The doll attacks again and chases Duke into his office. Duke manages to lock the doll outside and tries to figure out a way to help himself. He sees that the painting has all the doll images faded to white. Terrified, Duke turns around to see the army of dolls. He covers himself in the American flag as the dolls converge and devour him. Miss Cobbs then disappears from the painting and manifests herself into the room, holding the first doll in her arms. Satisfied, they both smile as they witness the carnage taking place before them. With both Duke and his assistant's deaths, the dolls are now satisfied.
Hard-Core Convert
The dealers are getting impatient and want the drugs they were told about now because they don't have all night to listen to Mr. Simms' strange stories. Bulldog is skeptical about Simms having said that everything he says is real. Ball notices a corpse in another room and says they really have to see it. When Simms asks them if they knew the guy, Bulldog says it was just someone they saw around. Mr. Simms explains the final moments of Crazy K.
The story begins with Crazy K (Lamont Bentley) driving down the streets of LA in his Mustang. Crazy K, who's real name is Jerome John, is a violent gang member and homicidal psychopath who has killed many people with no mercy. When he comes to a stoplight, he notices the car of an enemy he's been trying to kill for a long time. Crazy K parks in a neighborhood and shoots the enemy when three other men attack from a house nearby. The men shoot down Crazy K and are later shot by policemen who arrive at the siege. Crazy K is badly injured, but he survives, is arrested and brought to prison.
Dr. Cushing (Rosalind Cash) arrives at the prison and transfers Crazy K to another place which is hidden deep underground. Crazy K meets an inmate who is a homicidal white supremacist and raves about killing a lot of black people and the end of days for blacks, which upsets Crazy K and causes him to punch him in the face. Then the man asks Crazy K the races of the victims he killed, silencing Crazy K because he, in fact, is guilty of killing African-Americans.
Crazy K is put through the process of torture to learn that everything he did was wrong (a la A Clockwork Orange). Dr. Cushing tries to make him a new man. His head (with K printed on the front) is shaved off and he is "clean" if he regrets all his violent actions on other people. Crazy K is put through a slideshow of images involving the KKK and victims of lynching along with a montage showing all those he has killed. Dr. Cushing asks if he doesn't like the image of black people dying. She even asks "How many brothers have you slayed?!"
Crazy K is put through the next stage, in which he is put in a sensory deprivation chamber. He is confronted by all the souls of his victims and must explain why he killed them. Crazy K has two chances to make up for it: he must succumb to the vengeance of those he's killed or turn his addictive gang life around. He keeps answering false statements until it eventually leads to a young and innocent little girl who had nothing to do with Crazy K; she was killed when Crazy K's bullet came through her window and hit her in the chest. Crazy K doesn't accept responsibility for what he's done; his selfish and arrogant behavior makes him say that he doesn't care about others and doesn't want to be in the place anymore. Dr. Cushing tells him that he won't get another chance for forgiveness. To this, he replies, "I don't give a fuck!" The souls haunt him more and more as he mutters "I don't give a fuck!" until it goes back to when he was shot. It was a final chance for redemption for his sins and he refused, so Crazy K dies brutally. The story ends with Crazy K's corpse lying abandoned on the street.
The Ending
When the last story ends, the drug dealers are revealed to be the murderers of Crazy K. They become angry and demand to know how Simms knows of their murder as they threaten to kill him and demand their drugs. Simms leads them deep into the funeral home and tells them their "reward" is in three closed caskets, all of which have their corpses inside. The dealers are terrified to know that they are dead, and at the will of Simms, their guns burn red, forcing the dealers to drop them.
Simms explains to them that after killing Crazy K, some of Crazy K's "boys" killed them in retaliation. The now-panicked drug dealers desperately demand to know how Simms knows everything. Simms, growing more eccentric by the second, tells them "This ain't no funeral home!" The three start to realize the gravity of the situation as Simms exclaims: "Welcome to Hell, motherfuckers!" and transforms into Satan. The drug dealers are terrified at the sight of him, and the walls of the funeral home shatter to reveal the fiery reality of where they had been all along: Hell. The movie ends with the dealers burning in agony, along with others, as Satan laughs.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack containing hip hop music was released on May 5, 1995 by MCA Records. It peaked at #16 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Rating
The movie is rated R for "graphic brutal violence and strong language" by the MPAA.
References
External links
