Porn, pimping and
promoting horror movies? Snoop Dogg appears to be living quite the ideal life of luxury! In fact, if it weren't for the crappy hip-hop music he produces, I'd even be jealous at him. Anyways, with "Hood of Horror" the Dogg emphasizes his already notorious reputation of cool 'gangsta-rapper'. You may expect a whole lot of macho gibberish, gangster slang, and rap song with explicit lyrics. As the Hound of Hell, Snoop Dogg introduces three little horror segments in crypt keeper narration style and lends his voice to the animated wraparound story revolving on how Devon ended up working for the devil himself. Strangely enough
I really didn't hate the film. I prepared to see an overload of nonsense and verbal ghetto showdowns that would push the horror to the background, but "Hood of Horror" actually offers an impressive amount of carnage and ferocity, and the separate tales are surprisingly engaging. The animated opening and interludes between the segments are slightly overlong, but interesting and roughly violent enough to please fans of horror and grim comic book adaptations. It's very reminiscent in style to the "Sin City" comics, for example. The first segment is the most textbook one to feature in a ghetto-anthology, I think, with an orphaned girl from the hood receiving special powers to eliminate the graffiti thugs in her neighborhood. Naturally, she gets over-enthusiast and the powers turn against her soon. This isn't the most original story of the three, but the deadly "accidents" are sublime (bottle-through-the-face, anyone?) and there's a neat guest appearance for Danny Trejo as the uncanny sorcerer. My personal favorite segment is the second one, revolving on a spoiled white brat and his trashy girlfriend moving in with his departed father's old Vietnam buddies, because the testament states so. The young couple continuously torment, blackmail and humiliate the veterans, but when arrogance turns into rape and murder, the veterans collectively decide to fight back Vietnam-style. The atmosphere of "The Scumlord" owes more to old-fashioned 70's Blaxploitation than to nowadays horror-splatter (which is probably why this is my favorite segment), but there's still some nice bit of nastiness to enjoy. If you think the deaths of the couple are extreme, wait until you see what overcomes the Chihuahua! There are some familiar faces in this segment as well, like Ernie Hudson, Tucker Smallwood and the lovely Sydney Tamiia Poitier. The content of the third and final story, entitled Rapsody Askew" feels familiar again, but the narrative structure is original and the climax is surprising. The plot centers on two rappers with a poverty background that build up a successful career out of nothing. Now that he's acclaimed and famous, Sod subjects himself to a wild life of drugs and parties, but continues to praise his friend Quon who was recently killed in a mysterious liquor store hold-up. During one of his numerous parties, a mysterious uninvited guest faces him with the dreadful things he has done. One of creative minds behind "Hood of Horror" was Tim Sullivan, who's also the director of the hilarious "2001 Maniacs". The light-headed tone and excessive use of gory make-up effects of both films are comparable, actually. It's an unmemorable and lacking film, but certainly not a complete waste of time.
Review of Hood of Horror
