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Tales from the Hood Blu-ray offers solid video and great audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
A strange funeral director tells four strange tales of horror with an African American focus to three drug dealers he traps in his place of business.
For more about Tales from the Hood and the Tales from the Hood Blu-ray release, see Tales from the Hood Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on July 25, 2017 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Four short films comprise Tales from the Hood, all brought together under the pretense of a drug deal that seems to be headed down the
wrong path when three armed youths (Joe Torry, De'Aundre Bonds, and Samuel Monroe Jr.) confront a creepy mortician (Clarence Williams III). The
film, from Director Rusty Cundieff (Sprung) and Executive Producer Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing), explores timely issues in the black community --
police brutality, racism, violence in the home, and black-on-black violence -- with a pinch of dark humor, a sprinkling of the supernatural, and a whole
lot of purpose.
Below is a brief plot overview of each tale.
Tale 1: A community activist named Martin Moorehouse (Tom Wright), despised by the police for his anti-corruption rhetoric, is pulled
over.
Three white cops -- Newton (Michael Massee), Billy (Duane Whitaker) and Strom (Wings Hauser) -- severely beat him while a rookie black officer,
Clarence (Anthony Griffith), watches in horror. The white cops eventually end Moorehouse's life, injecting him with drugs and pushing his car into
water. A
year
passes. The truth behind the incident has not been revealed. Clarence has quit the force and taken to drowning the painful memories with alcohol.
One night
on a
binge, he believes the late Moorehouse's spirit calls him to bring the officers to his grave. He does so, and bloody chaos follows.
Tale 2: A young boy named Walter (Brandon Hammond) has just transferred to a new school. He's beaten on the playground and saved
by
his kindly teacher Richard (played by Director Rusty Cundieff). But the school nurse notices that Walter bears wounds not sustained on the
playground, bruises that
are
several days old. He confides in his teacher that he fears "the monster," a creature he draws in class and claims is responsible for his injuries.
Richard
confronts Walter's parents but doesn't discover what he expected.
Tale 3: A racist gubernatorial candidate named Duke Metger (Corbin Bernsen) is running on a platform that's anti-affirmative action and
anti-reparations. His sycophantic aide is killed, seemingly by random happenstance, but Duke soon realizes that a black-skinned doll was at the
scene and appears
to be following him. It turns out that the doll is part of a large painting depicting a hoodoo witch that seems to have a grudge against him and
his racist ways.
Tale 3: A hardened young black criminal named Jerome (Lamont Bentley) is no stranger to murder and violent crime. His bullets have
found many targets, but his violent tendencies finally land him behind bars. His sentence is nontraditional, however. He's transferred into a radical
new conditioning center where he is forced to come to terms with what he has done.
Tales from the Hood might play with an occasionally, and rather mild, humorous bend, but its stories are fairly dark in terms of structure
and darker in terms of the social issues they tackle in each film's own roundabout way. Violence and hate are certainly at the center of each, in
some form of fashion. Each segment engages the supernatural, whether in literal manifestations of something from a dark
beyond, the figurative demons one faces or creates, or some hybrid thereof. The filmmakers certainly do not hide intent in the stories; each one
is straightforward in narrative posture, clear even through what is sometimes a jumbled mass of violence, mischief, and mayhem. Each one
encourages the viewer to think beyond the crudities of the stories and contemplate the very clear real-world parallels that abound in each.
Entertainment value beyond the thematic currents is rather high. The film never shies away from excess and occasionally enjoys dramatic novelty.
Some of the
stories lack ingenuity, but the compact runtimes, quickly developed characters, and rapidly unfolding scenarios keep the audience interested and
engaged. The second segment -- the story of young Walter, an abuse victim at the hands of a "monster" -- is easily the finest of the four. It's a
Shyamalan-esque tale with a unique twist ending that could have easily been expanded into a feature film. Performances are good all-around. The
cast, tasked only with relatively brief work but sometimes extensive emotional or physical challenges, performs universally well, expanding beyond
the script
and bringing out the best (or worst, as the case may be) of every player in the film.
Tales from the Hood features a satisfying 1080p transfer that could sometimes stand a little more of a natural filmic quality to it but that more
often than not pleases. Grain retention is inconsistent, appearing evenly distributed in some places, a little heavier and snowier in others, and almost
nonexistent in still other scenes. Never does the movie appear too smooth or lacking detail, though. Generally, in a broader sense of what the transfer
has to offer, most details are fine, sharp and revealing across the board, from staples like skin and clothes to various environments under a number of
lighting conditions. Indeed, the film can be, and mostly is, fairly dark. Nighttimes exteriors and lower-light interiors define much of the film. The most
colorful and most evenly lit comes during the Duke segment, where daytime exteriors and well lit interiors, along with an ample amount of color, define
the short. Blacks are always deep and dense throughout the entire film but do enter crush territory on occasion. Colors are stable, cheerful and
accurate in that aforementioned Duke sequence and holding firm even in poor light. A bit of noise and macroblocking are evident in darker corners, but
the transfer is otherwise free of serious blemish, whether source or encode.
Tales from the Hood arrives on Blu-ray with a pair of English language DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtracks, one listed as "alternate."
There's not a major difference to be heard between the two. Playing primarily the main (top listed) track and switching over to the other to resample
various scenes that might shed some light on the matter -- more intensive bits of action or music, for example -- yields little change. Listen hard and
one might be able to make out a faint improvement in fullness and depth to the primary track, but generally speaking there seems to be no real reason
to choose one over the other. Regardless of which track one chooses, the two-channel presentation is quite good, full and detailed and never wanting
for significantly more stage presence than it already enjoys. The track yields several surprisingly intense effects, such as when Walter's "monster"
attempts to get into his room. It's loud, intrusive in a good way, and detailed even with its aggressive posture. Gunshots, explosions, and other high
power elements produce high-yield results. Music is likewise excellent, playing with impressive stage width and a fair amount of clarity throughout the
range, from sharper highs to thumping lows. Ambient effects enter and define a number of environments in the film. Dialogue is well positioned in a
phantom center placement with only a few occurrences of less-than-ideal clarity.
Tales from the Hood contains several supplements, including an audio commentary track and a lengthy new retrospective. The package also
features reversible cover art.
Audio Commentary: Co Writer/Director (also Actor) Rusty Cundieff covers the film in detail. Much of the information repeats from the
excellent
retrospective (see below), but there's much more new here as well. Both are well worth the time.
The Making of Tales from the Hood (1080p, 56:13): A new and lengthy retrospective that analyzes the film in detail: themes,
purpose, scriptwriting, real-life parallels, characters, visuals, and more, breaking down by story and collectively alike. A very high quality piece.
Vintage Featurette (1080i, 6:04): A much more condensed, basic, and less interesting look at the movie.
Theatrical Trailer (1080i, 1:41).
TV Spots (1080i, 3:26 total runtime).
Photo Gallery (1080i, 9:46): Sketches, behind-the-scenes stills, images of props, and promotional materials.
Tales from the Hood remains an entertaining and relevant film more than two decades after its release. It has aged well, a few visual effects
notwithstanding, and that it hasn't lost its darkly humorous but timely edge says much on society but also the film's relative failure to make much of an
impact. Still, it means well, it plays well, and both longtime fans and newcomers alike should find Shout Factory's Blu-ray a worthwhile addition to their
collections. Solid video and audio are complimented by a healthy allotment of generally good bonus content. Recommended.
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to Tales from the Hood. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to Tales from the Hood in the search box below.
U.S. label Scream Factory has detailed its upcoming Collector's Edition Blu-ray release of Rusty Cundieff's film Tales from the Hood (1995), starring Clarence Williams III, Wings Hauser, Tom Wright, David Alan Grier, and Corbin Bernsen. The release will be available ...
U.S. label Shout Factory and its horror-thriller offshoot Scream Factory have dated a number of upcoming Blu-ray releases. Amongst them are Gil Bettman's Never Too Young to Die, Rusty Cundieff's Tales From the Hood, and Nick Gillespie's Tank 432.
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