#25 - Bones (2001)

Bones (2001)

(dir. Ernest Dickerson)

Back in the '70s, gangster Jimmy Bones was loved by his community, but after he disappeared his neighborhood became run down and dangerous. Over the years he became a legend, but the locals avoid the house where he used to live - something terrible happened there, and now it may be a gateway to a city of the dead. There are definitely some old creepy-looking stone buildings in shitty areas of Syracuse that look a whole lot like the one featured in this film, but I'm assuming they don't look like rad haunted gothic manors inside, and that blood doesn't drip from the plumbing.

When this movie's opening credits featured a Snoop Dogg track that samples James Brown's "The Big Payback" and a '70s blaxploitation aesthetic, I knew I was in for a good time. I had always written this off as a cheesy cash-in on Snoop's popularity, but when I learned it was directed by Ernest Dickerson (who also made the stellar Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight) I got interested. It's actually pretty good - it suffers from some bad CGI, and the pacing is sometimes weird, but overall it's really fun and creative. It gets pretty wild with some of the effects, with Bones carrying around severed heads that talk and walls of twisted tortured souls reaching out to pull victims in. Oh, and lots of lots of maggots raining from the ceiling, Suspiria-style. 

This isn't perfect but it throws a lot of really cool ideas out there and most of them stick. Even the effects that look bad are at least creative. Snoop is a little underused in the first half of the film, but when he's on screen he's fun to watch. He's not exactly a great actor, but his normal persona is a good fit for the character. Pam Grier is in this too, although it occasionally felt like she was phoning it in a little.

If you like creative horror that isn't afraid to get a little silly, I definitely recommend checking this out. Way better than I expected!