Tales from the Hood (1995)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Rusty Cundieff

Writers (WGA):

Rusty Cundieff (written by) &
Darin Scott (written by)

Release Date:

24 May 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Crime | Action

Tagline:

Where nightmares and reality meet on the street

Plot:

A strange funeral director tells four strange tales of horror with an African American focus to three drug dealers he traps in his place of business.

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | African American | Funeral Home | Death | Police

Cast

Clarence Williams III	...	Mr. Simms
Joe Torry	...	Stack
De'aundre Bonds	...	Ball
Samuel Monroe Jr.	...	Bulldog
Wings Hauser	...	Strom
Tom Wright	...	Martin Moorehouse
Anthony Griffith	...	Clarence
Michael Massee	...	Newton
Duane Whitaker	...	Billy
David Alan Grier	...	Carl
Brandon Hammond	...	Walter
Rusty Cundieff	...	Richard
Paula Jai Parker	...	Sissy
Corbin Bernsen	...	Duke Metger
Roger Guenveur Smith	...	Rhodie

MPAA:

Rated R for graphic brutal violence and strong language.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the tale of the crooked cops, the murdered man getting revenge is displayed earlier on in the Police Database as "Martin Ezekell Moorehouse", however, later on, his grave reads "Martin Ezekiel Moorehouse."

Quotes:

Dr. Cushing: But you are responsible for the lives you've taken... for the dreams you've turned into nightmares.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Embalmer (1996)

Soundtrack:

From The Dark Side

Mediocre horror anthology film with one excellent tale

Tales From the Hood, another horror anthology film dripping with EC comics-style ghoulishness, strings together four stories told by a wild-haired, macabre funeral director (Clarence Williams III) to a trio of gangbangers seeking their missing drug stash in a mortuary. Virtually all of the tales are familiar -- walking corpses and voodoo dolls are staples of the format -- but director Rusty Cundieff makes every effort to inject the proceedings with social morality. Child abuse, racism, and police brutality each get a pretty heavy-handed treatment, but the last story, involving a voluntary "behavior modification" technique for an unrepentant killer (ala A Clockwork Orange) explodes off the screen. In the film's most powerful sequence, Cundieff serves up a quickly cut montage of unsettling images culled from a number of state historical archives depicting vicious, stomach-churning lynchings meant to deter the rapacious young killer from wanting to harm any more people. It's potent stuff, and makes one wish the rest of the film had this kind of intensity.