name	Tales From the Hood
director	Rusty Cundieff
producer	Darin Scott
writer	Rusty Cundieff &Darin Scott
starring	Clarence Williams IIIDe'aundre BondsLamont BentleySamuel Monroe Jr.Joe TorryWings HauserTom WrightAnthony GriffithRusty CundieffBrandon HammondDavid Alan GrierPaula Jai ParkerCorbin BernsenRosalind CashLamont Bentley
music	Christopher Young
cinematography	Anthony B. Richmond
editing	Charles Bornstein
studio	40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks
distributor	Savoy Pictures
released	May 24, 1995 (USA)
runtime	98 min.
country	United States
language	English
budget	$6,000,000 (estimated)
Gross	$11,797,927 (USA)
followed by	}}

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.

Frame and plots

Framing segment

The film opens in South Central Los Angeles when a trio gang of teenage drug dealers, Stack (Joe Torry), Ball (De'aundre Bonds) and Bulldog (Samuel Monroe Jr.), arrive at Simms' Funeral Home to purchase some drugs from Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III), the mortuary's eccentric owner. Mr. Simms claims that he found the drugs in an alley and has them safely stored in the mortuary. Throughout the movie, the drugs are referred to as: "the shit". He asks the dealers to help him get the drugs and, as the four make their way through the building, relates stories about some of his recent "customers" as he states, "Death, it comes in many strange packages".

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 a routine traffic stop of a well-dressed black man.

When Clarence runs the car'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, together with fellow officers Billy (Duane Whitaker) and Strom (Wings Hauser), brutally beat Moorehouse with their nightsticks and vandalize his car. When Clarence insists that Moorehouse should be taken to a hospital, two of the officers appear to agree.

Clarence tells Newton that Billy and Strom should be reported for what they did, but Newton disagrees. Strom and Billy drive Moorehouse' car to the docks. Strom shoots the battered Moorehouse up with heroin, plants some in his car, then pushes it into the water with Moorehouse still inside. Moorehouse is posthumously labeled a hypocrite.

One year later, Clarence has quit the police force and is a guilt-consumed drunk. On 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 the death to meet him at Moorehouse's grave.

Once there the officers begin to insult Moorehouse, with Strom urinating on Moorehouse's grave, then orders Billy to do the same thing. As Newton and Strom prepare to kill Clarence, a zombie-like Moorehouse bursts from the grave to drag Billy 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 ensues: Moorehouse decapitates Strom and tricks Newton into shooting the gas tank of his patrol car. Moorehouse then chases Newton into an alley, where he telekinetically throws used hypodermic needles into the cop's body, pinning him to a 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. Moorehouse grabs Clarence by his throat and says: "Where were you when I needed you, brother?". The scene ends with Clarence in the mental hospital. Two orderlies outside his cell mention that he killed the officers and that he used to be an officer himself. Moorehouse is never mentioned.

Boys Do Get Bruised

Walter (Brandon Hammond) is a quiet and sensitive boy who shows up to school one day with bruises around his cheek and eye. 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 again shows up with a bruised arm. While the other children play, Walter sits inside and draws a boy named Tyrone, one of the school bullies. Walter crumples the drawing up causing Tyrone to suffer spontaneous injuries.

Later that night Mr. Garvy visits Walter's home and asks Walter's mother, Sissy (Paula Jai Parker), about the monster. Sissy claims that Walter's injuries are the result of his own clumsiness; she then tells Walter not to reveal anything about the monster to anyone else.

As Mr. Garvy is leaving, Walter's mother's boyfriend, Carl (David Alan Grier in a very rare non-comedic role) comes home: seen through Walter's imagination, the audience learns that Carl is the “monster”. Thinking 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 Sissy with a belt when she intervenes.

Mr. Garvy turns around to check on Walter and sees Carl abusing Walter and Sissy: Mr. Garvy bursts into the house and begins to fight Carl. With Carl's attention elsewhere, Walter grabs a drawing he made of the monster and begins to fold and crumple it. Carl becomes mangled and helpless; unable to accept defeat. Sissy stomps on the wadded-up paper to end the threat. Finally Mr. Garvy gives the paper to Walter, who burns it, completely immolating Carl.

Walter finally kills the monster. Later, Carl's burnt corpse is in the coffin in Simms' Funeral Home .

KKK Comeuppance

Mr. Simms shows a doll, instead of a corpse, to Ball, Stack, and Bulldog. Ball remarks that the "dead motherfuckers be playin' with dolls, now, right?." Mr. Simms agrees, but explains that it wasn't "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.

The senator is in his office filming a campaign commercial when he sees protesters outside the office: Jewish and African-American groups have teamed up to protest against Duke for being a racist, a former Klansman, and for inhabiting an old slave plantation. One individual (Art Evans) tells the reporter about the dolls, animated by the 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 was the cause). At the funeral, one of the townspeople warn Duke to leave the house or else he'll end up like his assistant or worse. In the limo after the assistant's funeral, Duke notices the doll and orders the driver (another African-American who despises Duke) to pull over so he can throw the doll out the window into the street.

Later, after noticing a blank spot on the painting, Duke comes in contact with the doll he threw out on the street and has a fight with it. When Duke throws a vase at the doll, it disappears and attacks Duke out of nowhere, trying to eat him. Duke is injured, but he manages to stop the doll by beating it with an American 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 then blasts 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 realises more doll images in the painting have 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 an 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 in 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 dead, the dolls are now satisfied.

Hard-Core Convert

By now the dealers are getting impatient and want the drugs they came for, not wanting to listen to Mr. Simms' strange stories all night. Bulldog is skeptical about the truth of Simms' stories.

Ball notices a corpse in another room and says they have to see it. When Simms asks them if they knew the man, Bulldog says it was just someone they had seen around their neighborhood. Mr. Simms explains the final moments of Crazy K.

Jerome Johns aka "Crazy K" (Lamont Bentley) is a violent gang member and homicidal psychopath who has killed many people with no mercy. He is driving down the streets of LA in his Mustang. Coming to a stoplight, he notices the car of an enemy he's been trying to kill for a long time and follows him. Crazy K parks in a neighborhood and has a brief argument with the enemy and shoots the enemy when three other men attack from a house nearby (assuming that the enemy he killed was with the three unseen gang members who shoot back at him, later revealed to be the three drug dealers from the beginning). The men shoot Crazy K and just as they are about to kill him the police arrive and due to one of the shooters firing at the police in an attemp of fleeing the scene are shot and killed by police who arrive at the scene. Crazy K is badly injured but survives, only to get arrested and sent to prison.

As described by a prison guard Crazy K Has Received a life sentence for suspection of murder three times along with other charges. Dr. Cushing (Rosalind Cash) arrives at the prison and transfers Crazy K to another facility, hidden deep underground. Crazy K meets an inmate who is a homicidal white supremacist and raves about killing 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 a process of torture to learn that everything he did was wrong (à la A Clockwork Orange). Dr. Cushing tries to make him a new man and help change his violent life of murder. 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 gorry gang violence and warfare 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 says Cain was the worlds first murderer (Cain killed his brother, Abel), she even asks "How many brothers have you slayed?!" going into fact that Crazy K killed many countless innocent or guilty victims without remorse or second though.

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. He keeps giving true or false answers until it eventually leads to a young and innocent little girl who had nothing to do with Crazy K; she was killed when the bullet from Crazy K's gun came through her wall and hit her in the chest. Crazy K doesn't accept responsibility for what he's done; he is selfish and arrogant, saying that he doesn't care about others and doesn't want to be in the place anymore. Dr. Cushing warns 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 the moment when he was shot, which he refused to redeem himself but because of his bitter arrogance of not carring if he could'nt change he should be left to die like his victims.

It was actually a final chance for redemption for his sins which he refused, so the three men shoot Crazy K brutally. The story ends with Crazy K's corpse lying abandoned on the street.

Ending

When the last story ends, the three drug dealers are revealed to be Crazy K's killers. 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, each of which has their corpse inside. The dealers are terrified to learn that they are dead; at the whim of Simms their guns burn red hot, forcing the dealers to drop them.

Simms explains that after killing Crazy K, some of Crazy K's "boys" killed them in retaliation. Confused, Ball says to Simms "What the fuck you tryin' to say, we dead muthafucka?" to which Simms replies "VERY!".

Bulldog then asks Simms "If we're dead, then what the fuck we doin in a funeral home with yo crazy ass?" 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 as 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.

Cast

Clarence Williams III - Mr. Simms

Joe Torry - Stack

De'aundre Bonds - Ball

Samuel Monroe, Jr. - Bulldog

Tom Wright - Martin Moorehouse

Anthony Griffith - Clarence

Wings Hauser - Strom

Michael Massee - Newton

Duane Whitaker - Billy

Brandon Hammond - Walter

Rusty Cundieff - Richard Garvy

Paula Jai Parker - Sissy

David Alan Grier - Carl

Corbin Bernsen – Duke Metger

Roger Guenveur Smith - Rhodie

Lamont Bentley - Crazy K

Rosalind Cash - Dr. Cushing

Soundtrack

{|class="wikitable" !rowspan="2"|Year !rowspan="2"|Album !colspan="2"|Peak chart positions !rowspan="2"|Certifications |- !width=40|U.S. !width=40|U.S. R&B; |- |1995 |Tales from the Hood

Released: May 9, 1995

Label: MCA

|align="center"|16 |align="center"|1 |

US: Gold

|- |}

Rating

The movie is rated R for "graphic brutal violence and strong language" by the MPAA.

Release

The movie was released theatrically on May 24, 1995. Later that year, the movie was released on VHS by HBO. In 1998, HBO released the movie on DVD, but the DVD is now out of print. As of December 21, 2009, there are currently no plans for a new release.

References

http://www.blockbuster.com/movies/tales-from-the-hood.html from blockbuster

External links

Pictures from IMDb

Category:1995 films Category:1990s horror films Category:Hood films Category:40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks films

it:Tales from the Hood ru:Истории из морга