Tales from the Hood

As long as I can remember seeing Negro-oriented horror films, I can still recall that disgusting feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. As much as I love violence and rap, the idea of a bunch of Negroes running away from some supernatural entity screaming "Nigger!" non-stop just turns me off to the genre as a whole. Much to my surprise, Tales from the Hood was actually excellent and construed the horrifying reality of propaganda behind even the simplest of big-budget films.

Director Rusty Cundieff appears in one of the segments aimed at showing the horrors of a black step-father. His role is that of an incredibly docile teacher who has an almost "white" stature. This character is the teacher to a boy who fears a monster that leaves him with welts and bruises. The white man's black man then goes to the boys house and unwillingly "unleashes" the monster which results in a fight between two "African-American" adults; One being a large male with a demeaning presence, and the other being a wimpy dread-locked queer.


The stories range from quirky "Better-than-Creepshow" to urban surrealism "Black men ruin everything good" The scene in example of the second type of short, would be the last segment called Hard-core Convert. All in all, this segments purpose it to set up the twist ending and to provide this film with more structure by ripping off Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. The question of "Can man be rehabilitated?" is answered in this film. The path that the character chooses is obviously the same path that the director/writer has in mind for the average Negro criminal. As Mr. Simms says and I quote "I don't think you can rehabilitate those types. No, you just kill them"

The violence towards Negroes doesn't stop there. The stories exchange all their own political commentary on "hot" topics such as police brutality and black-on-black violence, with a dash of neo-Nazi's in them. The most infamous tale of all is KKK Comeuppance; a tale which features the single most horrifying doll horror story ever. A story to marvel over; An ex-Klansman is running for Governor of a southern state. If that weren't enough, he still hates "spooks" While he is about to refurbish his recently bought house (An old slave plantation with a macabre past), the local crazy Uncle Tom begins to spout ridiculous stories about killer dolls. Madness ensues.


I didn't care too much for the first story (Rogue Cop Revelation.) The standard zombie format is going to be stale; making him black isn't going to change things up. Out of all the originality that is present in this film, this short is the sore thumb that drags it down. Most viewers of this film have seen this film as a child. While i can recall the excitement of renting a Hard R rated film, I wouldn't have appreciated this piece of self-hating trash as much as i do now.

This film is an exercise in inter-racial racism. A classic horror anthology with touches of satire and sparkles with horrifying segments of Negro lynchings, burnings, axings, and many more archived footage with a point to prove. Negroes are going to be the end of themselves. While the many remain to be of a pure and independent spirit, most would rather blame their parents or whine about growing up in the streets. Rusty Cundieff is basically telling you to shut the fuck up and change your life, or else. It comes as no surprise that this anti-Negro film directed by a Negro is executive produced by Spike Lee.

-mAQ