#26 - Tales from the Hood (1995)
Three young men head into a creepy funeral home to pick up a drug shipment, but as they walk through the building the eccentric funeral director insists on telling them stories about the deaths of some of his clients. As the name may imply, this is an EC Comics/Tales from the Crypt-style anthology film with four moralistic stories that focus on mostly black characters. Despite some humorous moments, the segments are for the most part fairly serious in tone, more so than I would've expected. They deal with themes of police brutality, domestic abuse, and even a white supremacist politician (hmmm). These stories hardly need supernatural elements to be scary.
The first segment is about an activist who is murdered by corrupt police officers, and who returns from the grave one year later to exact his revenge. The second concerns a teacher who recognizes signs of child abuse in one of his students, only to find that there may be more going on than meets the eye. The third is about the aforementioned white supremacist politician, who moves into the mansion of a former slave owner that supposedly trapped the souls of his slaves in a bunch of creepy dolls. Finally, the fourth (and probably the most disturbing) segment deals with a murderer who undergoes a radical behavioral modification treatment in prison which involves an A Clockwork Orange-style montage of horrific acts of violence.
Overall this was a very good anthology. The highlight is Clarence Williams III as the bizarre funeral director, who chews the scenery in every scene of the framing story. All four stories are good in their own way, too - the white supremacist/possessed dolls one was probably the silliest, but also maybe the most relevant. The second segment, about domestic violence and/or a horrible monster, starts off super strong but ends on a goofy note that I thought was at odds with the tone of the rest of the story. Despite some flaws, this one is definitely worth your time.
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