TALES FROM THE HOOD 2 (2018)

 

(Directors/screenwriters: Rusty Condieff and Darin Scott)

Storyline

Mr. Simms, the undertaker-now-more storyteller from the first TALES FROM THE HOOD (1995), is back, with new, horrifying and dark-humored stories about evil dolls, avenging vamps, experienced ghosts and spirit-filled psychics.

Review

HOOD 2 is a mostly good follow-up to the 1995 original film. The wraparound story is “Robo Hell,” a ROBOCOP (1987)-meets-MINORITY REPORT (2002) framework where the devilish Mr. Simms (played by the wicked-funny Keith David) reprograms a military robot intended for racist purposes.

In the first Simms-spun story is “Good Golly,” a roadside black history museum becomes a grisly deathtrap for three dumb teens who try to steal a doll that’s been imbued with historical evil. This is splatteriffic and fun.

“The Medium” is a laugh-out-loud funny short tale about what happens when gangstas, seeking to contact a dead man who ripped them off, visit a white fake medium. This was especially entertaining because of its actors and amusing ending.

The third story, “Date Night” is a solid, if predictable entry about two playas who get taken by more-than-they-seem women.

HOOD 2 ’s final Simms story (“The Sacrifice”) is a heavy-handed BLM-sourced work, where a black political consultant’s future is threatened in a horrifying way when he refuses to acknowledge the sacrifices of black civil rights people who came before him. Although imaginative in parts, it’s preachy and runs spell-it-out-to-the-mentally-challenged long. Well-intended, but too much.

Overall, HOOD 2 is a worthwhile film, fun, smart-minded, solidly acted and well-intentioned, despite its second-tale predictability and overly earnest shortcomings in “The Sacrifice.” 

Followed by TALES FROM THE HOOD 3 (2020).