Directors/Screenplay – Rusty Cundieff & Darin Scott, Producers – Rusty Cundieff, Griff Furst & Darin Scott, Photography – Thomas L. Callaway, Music – Frederik Wiedmann, Visual Effects – Mutiny FX (Supervisor – Dustin Solomon), Special Effects Supervisor – Casey Markus, Production Design – Alicia Keywan. Production Company – Universal 1440 Entertainment/40 Acres and a Mule.
The Mouths of Babes and Demons
Director – Rusty Cundieff.
Tony Todd (William), Sage Arrindell (Brooklyn)
Ruby Gates
Director – Darin Scott.
London Brown (David Burr), Donny Lucas (Paul Bradford), Arnie MacPherson (Mickey), Rachael McLaren (Staci Bradford), Jahron Wilson (Ethan Bradford), John B. Lowe (Joe), Ernie Pitts (Detective Powers)
The Bunker
Director – Rusty Cundieff.
Cooper Huckabee (Denton Wilbury)
Operatic
Director – Darin Scott.
Savannah Basley (Chela Simpson), Jaime M. Callica (Park), Lynn Whitfield (Marie Benoit)
Dope Kicks
Director – Rusty Cundieff.
Patrick Emmanuel Abellard (Percy Woodhouse), Rita Deverell (Mama Conjure)
Plot
The Mouths of Babes and Demons:- William escorts young Brooklyn to meet her mother but she is fearful of the bad things that she believes are pursuing them. Ruby Gates:- David Burr has been hired to remove the tenants from the Ruby Gates apartment building so it can be demolished. Paul Bradford and his family are the only holdouts who refuse to go. David takes the step of hiring someone to set a fire in their apartment, but this goes wrong and the Bradfords are burned alive. David is then haunted by apparitions and visions. The Bunker:- The white supremacist Denton Wilbury is holed up in his bunker with guns, threatening anybody who comes onto his land while broadcasting to the outside world. Operatic:- Park is impressed with the backup singer Chela Simpson and offers to manage her. She is out of work and so he obtains her a job as home companion to the aging opera star Marie Benoit. Chela and Park become lovers but then he proposes that they kill off Marie to get her money. Dope Kicks:- Percy Woodhouse is a thug nicknamed the Punch and Grab Bandit who assaults victims and steals from them. After he accidentally kills one of his targets, he is cursed to walk a mile in his victim’s shoes.
Tales from the Hood (1995) was a horror Anthology with the distinction that it was made by African-American filmmakers and all of its horror stories were set around African-American issues. It has gained a modest cult following over the years. After two decades, original director Rusty Cundieff returned with two sequels Tales from the Hood 2 (2018) and Tales from the Hood 3 here. Cundieff co-directs and writes/produces both sequels with Darin Scott, who produced and co-wrote the original. Also back on board both sequels is Spike Lee as Executive Producer and the film comes out under Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule production company banner.
The disappointment of the Tales from the Hood sequels is that they are cheaply and indifferently made. There is still the same theme of African American horror stories but at least a couple – The Bunker and Operatic – move well out of the ‘hood setting of the title, while it is not at all clear where the setting of the wraparound takes place. Both sequels feel that they are made solely because the original film is well remembered and they are only milking that success.
The first episode Ruby Gates is a Supernatural Retribution story. Rusty Cundieff directs with the crude jumpshocks that are usually the domain of Mick Garris – the director of Sleepwalkers (1992), The Stand (1994) and Riding the Bullet (2004) – of London Brown seeing the kid bouncing his ball outside; a clown toy falling out of the closet; London calling the family’s home number and getting the answer phone saying “We can’t answer the phone because you burned us alive”; or his cellphone bursting into flames. The story reaches a standard and predictable comeuppance for this type of anthology, conducted with no subtlety.
The Bunker is notable for being the only Tales from the Hood episode to feature no African-Americans – there are some faces present in the crowd right at the end but no speaking parts. The show is dominated by an amazing monologue from Cooper Huckabee as a white supremacist ranting into his ham radio about the government taking his land and his second amendment rights and at one point even humping a blow-up doll of a Black girl. There is an improbable twist ending where he is revealed to be in some kind of zoo on display as an example of a racist – I would be fascinated to know what kind of social conditions would have to come about to make such a scenario possible.
Operatic does offer the great Lynn Whitfield back on the screen, albeit in a nothing much role. The episode seemed to hold promise but ends up being no more than a stealing of the plot set-up and twist ending from The Skeleton Key (2005).
The final episode Dope Kicks is another supernatural comeuppance piece. Sort of it you can imagine a horror version of The Cobbler (2014), before the episode goes off the rails at the end condemning its protagonist to Hell. It is not a very well thought out piece.
Even stranger is the wraparound story with Tony Todd escorting a child to meet her mother, where the girl is insistent that they are pursuing pursued by scary things. The reaches an ending that turns things on their head, although like the other episodes not much is clear about what is happening or why.
Trailer here