13 Nights of Shocktober: Tales from the Hood

by A. J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Nightmares and reality meet on the street: Tales from the Hood

Since I could not find an acceptable werewolf movie this Shocktober, I’ve decided to include a second horror anthology movie. At first, I was reluctant to do so until I saw the ridiculously entertaining and spooky Tales from the Hood, written and directed by Rusty Cundieff. This horror anthology from 1995 presents four stories all dealing with African-American characters or issues. This film may not be directly related to the HBO series Tales from the Crypt, but it is certainly influenced by the EC Comics, on which Tales from the Crypt was based, and anthology horror films of the 1960s and 70s. Tales from the Hood takes its title from the 1972 Tales from the Crypt film.

The film begins with three young criminals entering a funeral home where they expect to buy some high quality drugs from the mortician. The mortician, Mr. Simms, played with wonderful subtle eccentricity by Clarence Williams III, is supposed to have very “good shit.” As he takes them to where “the shit” is, they tour the funeral home and Mr. Simms tells them stories about his previous “customers.” In the first story, “Rogue Cop Revelation,” a respectable black community leader is murdered by corrupt police officers who later face the consequences of their reprehensible actions when the murdered man comes back from the grave. It is probably the weakest of the four stories, but by no means bad. It is a good place for the film to start.

The second story, “Boys Do Get Bruised,” is by far the best and would be an outstanding short film on its own. It is about a shy, quiet boy named Walter that reluctantly confesses to his teacher that the bruises he has are not just from the school bully, but from the “monster” in his house. His teacher sees drawings Walter made of the school bully and the monster; Walter draws the monster as a horned beast with glowing eyes. Later the school bully is sent to the hospital for unexplainable, spontaneous injuries. Walter’s drawings might be the key to stopping the monster. David Alan Grier, known best for his comedic work, has a role in this story that is far from light. His character is cruel and severe, and Grier plays it so well that you’re amazed by his performance, while also being shocked and scared by his character. The whole film is worth watching just for this chilling story alone.

In “KKK Comeuppance” Corbin Bernsen plays Duke, a former, but unreformed, Ku Klux Klan member running for political office despite protests from black and Jewish community groups. To make matters worse, he has moved into a former plantation that was the site of a slave massacre. There is a painting in the house of Miss Cobbs, a voodoo priestess, surrounded by dolls, each one representing a victim of the massacre. Strange things begin to happen as dolls disappear from the painting. This story is the most ridiculous, but also the most fun. 

The final story Mr. Simms tells is a chilling psychological freak-out. “Hard Core Convert” is about a violent gang member named Crazy K who survives being shot only to end up in prison. Once there, he is transferred to a facility deep underground where he is subjected to radical experimental rehabilitation treatment inspired by A Clockwork Orange. In the next cell is a white supremacist who says he likes Crazy K because they both like killing the same kind of people: black people. The final phase of Crazy K’s treatment involves being put in a sensory deprivation chamber where he is confronted by the ghosts of his horrible, reckless actions. The film ends back in the funeral home with Mr. Simms and the drug seekers. The final scene might not be a big surprise, but it is a perfect fit and ends the movie with a bang. 

There is a lot of blood and gore and monsters in Tales from the Hood. For the most part the special effects hold up well and are extremely effective, except for the ones that are wholly CGI; however, those dated images only last for a moment and don’t diminish the rest of the movie. Tales from the Hood succeeds at what The Twilight Zone managed to do so well: delivering scares and chills while also giving us heavy social commentary. The moral messages do not hinder entertainment value, they enhance it along with our overall enjoyment. This movie finds the right balance between spooky fun ("Rogue Cop Revelation" and "KKK Comeuppance") and real horrors with a supernatural twist ("Boys Do Get Broken" and "Hard Core Convert"). The ultimate result is a movie that is loads of fun, incredibly entertaining, and just the kind of movie you want to see come Halloween time.