Ok, this movie wasn't all that bad. It wasn't quite a B-movie, but it's not worth anymore than 5 points, though. It had decent flashback sequences (and note the blacksploitation theme throughout the movie to go along with those) with good music and a good feel to add to a "horror" movie. Snoop did a pretty good job as well, even though not changing his damn voice around the end would have helped for an extra point. And it had a new hot face for the sexy girlfriend in trouble, Bianca Lawson.

BUT, it did get goofy and unbelievable in MANY scenes. The complexity seemed to be added on after the script was written. The cutoff head scene was funny and actually a pretty good thing to add to the movie to lighten the mood. And the whole idea that we are to be afraid of Snoop coming back to bitchslap the lot of us is ridiculous. What was up with the fake blood? The worst looking around...

I don't anyone who is a fan of horror films will appreciate this film. It seems to have been made for Snoop fans or people going out to watch a bad horror film (for it's humor, not for scare tactics.) It was a cool club in the movie, though!

I must say this film was a little better than I expected, however, having said that I wasn't expecting much in the first place. Im not giving anything away - the storyline is very straightforward and the blurb on the back of the dvd/video cover is quite sufficient in explaining the plot. <p> If you like your horror movies whether they be A or Z grade (like I do) then this film is worth a peek. The horror scenes are quite decent. There is a surprising amount of genuine suspense (even I jumped a few times)and quite a few laughs - but dont even try and look any further into the film than this! If you are one of those people to whom the quality of a plot must be in league with films such as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Godfather" - AVOID AT ALL COSTS. This film should only be viewed by those who are fans of the horror genre. <p> This is a messy film when taken seriously, it makes very little sense, the explanation as to how Mr Bones became of the undead is limp to say the least. Pam Grier (Jackie Brown) is wasted in this film - she has no room to show any of her (in my opinion) excellent talent and comes off wishy washy. Snoop Dogg is a terrible actor and I was very glad that his main roles in the film were limited to flashbacks and the climax. Unfortunatley once again the directors and writers had no idea how to finish the film and resorted to the old "spirit of the thought to be defeated demon managed to slip into someone else for no apparent reason" cliche. Also I was HIGHLY dissapointed with the death scene of Bones that caused the whole thing -very weak. For horror fans out of interest only. 5/10

An attempt to make a modern-dress Gothic melodrama that is just not successful. Ernest Dickerson has a good grasp of the iconography of horror films, but he can't put them together well enough to make a good scary movie. He borrows concepts and images liberally from Clive Barker, Dario Argento, and Mario Bava - but all it shows is that he's a good copycat, not that he's a good stylist. From the idea of evil reviving itself by consuming a victim (Barker's "Hellraiser", but cinematic ally dating at least back to Hammer's "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" from 1965), thru the rain of maggots (Argento's magisterial "Suspiria"), to the disembodied hand reaching out of the darkness to torment the dead man's lover (Bava's masterpiece, "Whip and the Body"), there really is nothing here that we haven't seen before and better. The conceit of setting it in a ghetto with an all-black cast promises an interesting variation on your basic "revenge from beyond the grave" scenario, but beyond the music and fashions it's still a pretty clichéd film. One of the problems is that Dickerson just can't seem to leave well enough alone - like the maggot scene. OK, it's raining maggots and it's terrifying, we get it already, is it really necessary to go for the gross-out by showing people EATING them? Or the scene where Maurice is killed - again, the dog-spirit eats Maurice to give form and substance to Bones' cadaver, we get it, it's not necessary to linger on the details of the chow-down. It's never scary - just disgusting. Even his attempts to inject humor are forced and heavy-handed, with the idiotic scenes of Bones carrying the heads of his victims and having them carry on an interminably pointless conversation. And again, he doesn't show it to us once, there's at least three long scenes with the chatty heads so whatever humor there was is pounded into unconsciousness thru repetition. But the most glaring problem with this movie is that we are asked to sympathize with a character who is, at bottom, just as big a bad guy in life as the crack dealers who murder him. Dickerson tries to show us Bones as the protector of his 'hood, but come on - he's exploiting his people just as much with his numbers game, or did it never occur to anyone to ask how Bones got the money for his supah-dupah fly crib when everyone else around him lives in complete poverty? For a MUCH better horror movie that reflects the black urban experience, rent "Tales from the Hood" instead.