I was not expecting much here, but this movie is actually surprisingly well put together. Yeah, some of the acting is hammy, but it's good with its mythology and its stories have a good central theme. The production is definitely passable.
The movie starts with a short animated sequence in which Devon, voiced by Snoop Dogg, is involved in a gang shootout during which his sister is shot and killed. It's a strong possibility he fired the shot that killed her. A demon named Liore offers him the chance to save his sister's life by killing himself and giving his soul to Liore. In exchange, Liore also makes Devon a Hound of Hell: a pimp demon with the ability to offer people the choice to damn themselves or save their souls. Snoop now appears in person and gives a short tour of hell, involving a puking midget demon.
Crossed Out
A tagger named Posie is haunted by the gang-related deaths of her parents. After interfering with two thugs trying to make unwanted advances on a girl, she spars verbally with the leader then sprays him in the face and runs away. She's abducted by a mysterious hobo played by Danny Trejo who drugs her and gives her a totally bitchin' skeletal tattoo on her arm. This tattoo gives her the power to kill by tagging over people's names. After crossing out the tag of the thug who chased her the other day, she overhears news of his untimely death and realizes she was the cause. Drunk on power, she begins crossing out the tags of his entire band of thugs. There's a short montage while she gleefully takes out a swarm of low level street scum. However, after a time she begins tagging her own name and Danny appears to tell her she abused her power instead of using it to break the cycle of violence in the city. He strips the tattoo from her and raises some of the recently deceased gang members from the dead. They kill her, spraying her brains along a wall. The spatter is later revealed as a beautiful painting of flowers and Snoop reappears to admire the mural with Danny before taking Posie's soul.
The Scumlord
This story concerns a bigoted white trash Texan named Tex and his trophy wife. Tex's father ran a retirement house for 4 black war veterans whom he had served with, where he treated them with respect and friendship. The elder Tex included a provision in his will that his son would have to live with the vets for one year so that they could teach him honor and respect before getting his inheritance. After moving in, Tex and his wife harass and defraud the elderly veterans, led by Ernie Hudson, with the intention that they'll move out leaving him the property to flip and resell at a profit. Unwilling to report Tex to the VA since they'll be split up, they comply with his demands. Eventually the money he's stolen from the vets causes them to begin starving and become unable to afford their medications. When Tex eventually kills the friendly maid/cook, the veterans decide it's their duty to retaliate. Hudson beats Tex to death while the wife dies in a freak accident. The veterans inherit the elder Tex's fortune and the wife's yap-yap dog, so they celebrate. Snoop reappears and informs them that he's their new landlord before he drags off Tex's soul while the puking midget hauls off the wife.
Rapsody Askew
The final story is about a rapper, SOD, who begs God for a chance to spread His word if God just helps him gain fame. Immediately outside of the church he meets Quon, who had just broken a window with a ball, and they instantly become partners. Flash forward and the rapper is cleaning house at an awards show following the tragic shooting death of Quon. During an after party he's trapped by a mysterious woman played by Lin Shaye who removes the door to the room. She then begins to replay his life for him, culminating in the death of his friend. A zombiefied Quon then enters the room carrying another tape, showing another perspective on the crime revealing SOD was wearing a bulletproof vest and had orchestrated the assassination with the help of his bodyguard. Quon was constantly trying to keep SOD's ego in check and keep him from ruining his career or his life with senseless crime and hard drugs. Even turning down a solo career to keep the team together. The bodyguard appears as a hysteric SOD tries to tell him Quon is in the room, but he doesn't see Quon. After the bodyguard reiterates his crime, the deceased MC then grabs two knives and shoves them into his eyes. As SOD picks up the knives and tries to attack the undead Quon with them, two girls open the door and see SOD standing over the dead body. The woman offers him a choice: stay in the room, go to prison for murder or leave the room and go out in a blaze of glory. SOD grabs the bodyguard's gun and commits suicide by cop. Snoop then appears and takes his soul to hell along with the two Texans and Posie.
I actually really liked this movie. It's pretty dark and gruesome, with decent effects, but there's a light-hearted swagger lent to it by the tone of the framing story and some of the writing during each story's climax. Posie's story is probably the weakest because of its timeframe. Rapsody Askew is probably the best. Scumlord is decent but the characterization of Tex and his wife is beyond caricature. I understand it's done for a reason, but it's so over-the-top you have no sympathy for them at all while Posie and SOD felt more like real people done in by their own flaws.
Anyway, anthologies continues with: Campfire Tales.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment