October 2, 2018
Written by: Rusty Cudieff, Darin Scott
Starring: Kedrick Brown, Alicia Davis Johnson, Creighton Thomas
Quote: "Welcome to hell mother fucker!"
Trivia: The director team approached Clarence Williams III to play the story teller again over the years but since the twenty year gap between the first movie and this sequel, Williams did not feel he was up to it.
I cannot express how excited I was to watch this movie when I heard it was coming out. I have a very clear and fond memory of when I was in sixth grade, after a sleepover, watching the first Tales from the Hood on a VHS rented from Blockbuster while eating Chinese food. I don't know why this memory has stuck with me so much over the past twenty plus years but regardless, the movie had a huge impact on me. I immediately loved the movie not just for the gore and for the silliness but also because even then I could recognize that this movie was tackling things bigger than itself. That movie was one of several movies looking at the social and political problems of life in America's inner cities. The rise of gangster rap and the success of Boyz n The Hood and Menace II Society are both symptoms of the myriad problems in America. These movies and the culture become so pervasive that they were even parodied by several comedies, including Fear of a Black Hat (also by the same filmmakers as Tales from the Hood), Don't Be A Menace to South Central.., and CB4. Far from just silly gangster movies, all these movies took hard (and admittedly often silly) looks at the realities that many urban black people were forced to deal with.
Riding the success of Get Out and Atlanta, Tales from the Hood 2 continues the social commentary by once again take a poignant look at American society with four new horror tales. While this movie is updated with new elements of American culture (such as the #metoo movement), it's unfortunate that many of the same problems persist and the stories reflect this fact. With all the heavy social and political commentary, the film is careful not to take itself too seriously and become overly preachy. The film uses the absurd to create really comedic moments while also including enough blood and gore to satisfy the horror crowd.
