Best movie of this year hands down!

Am I Missing Something?

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Crossed over into the other side, a man is told to warn others like him to see the error of their past, and recounts three stories which showcase their chance at redemption or end up in the Hood of Horror.The Good Stor(ies): Crossed Over-Living in the hood, an aspiring artist tackles with a group of local thugs over her uplifting graffiti in their neighborhood. Taken in by a homeless derelict after a conflict, she finds herself able to extract supernatural vengeance on those when she crosses out their names. The more she resorts to physical acts of violence, the more she gets corrupted by what she's doing, and soon becomes a target for those who she targeted. Overall, this was an entertaining and really enjoyable segment. The gore in this one is one of the best features, as the kills are plain messy. There's a beer bottle breaking open the back of the head and splattering the wall behind them, a phone cord wrapped around the neck and ripping the throat out, a messy gunshot wound and a fantastic kill with a soda bottle, and all have a ton of bloodshed. Along with the great demon make-up, this is a great area. The plot isn't bad, being a great range of redemption and corruption handled nicely, and along with a good pace, makes this one a great opener.The Scumlord-Arriving at an apartment building, a man and his wife find that his deceased father left it to them if they lived in it for a year. After meeting the tenets, they decide to upswing the low-rent district to their freewheeling lifestyle, which doesn't sit well with them. After one demand too many leads to a wrongful death, they rise up against the couple for their disrespectful ways. This one wasn't that bad and had some good parts to it. This one does have a great way of settling the revenge here as necessary, doing everything that's required to make it something that is looked forward to. The actions here set-up the revenge taken out later and is done just well, making the revenge as well as the execution of the actions altogether. That, though, points out the segment's lone flaw, in that it's entirely too predictable. Nearly everyone will have seen this one's resolution coming a mile away since this one's a really clichéd set-up. It's still highly watchable, though.Rapsody Askew-Getting a record contract, a wannabe rapper uses it to escape the streets and ends up taking the world by storm with his music. Preparing for a concert, he parties with his posse backstage before getting a warning from the building's supervisor about the party and find himself all alone. Suddenly forced to own up to his past with his partner who he set-up in order to capitalize on his death to get famous, and must soon live up to the wronged deeds of his past. This was a really good and enjoyable segment. That it takes a great spin on the redemption revenge angle is fantastic, as the build-up to it throw the use of videos is pretty novel, and for it to be done in a dressing room allows for some really nice scenes. What's also great is the macabre twist it pulls out with the double turn at the end and using it to make the final segment great. The impressive camera-work during the sequence to highlight the trippy visuals going on is another big plus, as is the few gore effects on display. In short, this was a good segment.The Bad Stor(ies): While not entirely bad, the wraparound sketches are hit-or-miss. The prologue is fine is a little nonsensical, but it at least gives a decent back-story to the protagonist. The in-films ones are better, with the animation allowing for some more graphic images than conventions would allow and overall making them quite entertaining. It's simply the fact that they carry on the story's ending in animation rather than the other way around, and this somewhat knocks it down, along with the minor flaws within the individual stories.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, drug use, Brief Nudity and a mild sex scene.

The "trilogy of terror" has been a horror movie staple ever since Vincent Price made a name for himself in the 1960's starring in all those Roger Corman adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe short stories. Now, 40 years later, director Stacy Title is attempting to carry on that tradition with "Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror," as dimwitted and cheapjack a B-movie travesty as we've come across in quite some time.Acting as a sort of gangsta' rap version of Elvira, Snoop Dogg serves as the host of the show, introducing us to the three stories, then providing a sermonizing moral as wrap-up when each of them is finished. The first episode, entitled "Crossed Out," tells of a young woman given the power to supernaturally exterminate all the graffiti artists in her neighborhood simply by spray-painting a giant red x through their work. The second entry, "The Scumlord," is a parodic tale of a group of grizzled Vietnam vets who turn the tables on their racist landlord. The third, "Rapsody Askew," is a confused account of a rap star forced to face divine judgment for the error-filled life he's led.Despite the movie's title, there isn't a single suspenseful moment in any of the segments, which, when taken together, feel like a trio of under-conceived and under-nourished rejects from the old "Twilight Zone" series. As the two "name" players in the cast, Billy Dee Williams and Jason Alexander are literally the only things separating "Hood of Horror" from your average amateur movie shot in someone's backyard on 8-millimeter. Even the gore is remarkably over-the-top and cartoon-like in nature, the kind of thing one would expect from a group of precocious high school students in their first experience with a camera.As uninteresting as it is uninspired, "Hood of Horror" gives anthology films a bad name.

Come on already... It's Snoop Dogg's horror anthology. I've certainly wasted more time on less. Hood Of Horror delivers straight forward campy fun, in the vein of "Tales From The Hood", "Creepshow" and a slew of others. HOH's three stories harbor lots of gory slapstick, boobs and gratuitous splatter, as Snoop himself hosts the bloody events. Anyone who rented / bought this film, and was thinking it would be anything other then the above (should be slapped with an idiot stick). The stories are silly, the acting is over-the-top and the idea behind the film is humorous... That's why it works! I expected an evening of comical B-movie splatter, and HOH delivered. Perfect for a Halloween party viewing or for anyone who enjoys unpretentious, old school horror / comedy. Way to go Snoop... Snoop-A-Loop.

This film contains three interwoven tales from the hood, with Snoop Dogg (sometimes as an animated gangster and sometimes as a man in hell) narrating between segments. I use interwoven in the loosest sense because they really seem to have connection at all. I will discuss each one briefly.The first segment was about a woman named Posey who is granted satanic powers by a homeless man (Danny Trejo) and can kill rival gang members by simply crossing out their spray tags. It's really stupid. The plot is weak, Posey's acting is awful. Even Trejo and Billy Dee Williams cannot save this one. There is a great death scene involving a beer bottle, but that doesn't make up for the rest of this segment.The second segment was actually really good. A redneck and his girlfriend move into a home for retired veterans, with one of them, Roscoe, being played by Ernie Hudson. Hudson is great, as is the rich redneck. The deaths here are weaker (other than the explosion scene) but the plot is much better -- this was written as a real story and not just a throw-away idea. In fact, it could have been its own movie or at least an episode of "Masters of Horror". If you only watch this part, you might find the movie watchable.The third part was just foolish. Because these are tales from the hood, of course they took the stereotype route and one man escapes the hood by rapping. But he becomes haunted by his friends that he left behind to die. Some of the makeup here is pretty disgusting, which I mean in a nice way, but the overall story is just an excuse to show a guy in the studio rapping. If you already have Snoop Dogg in your cast list ,you don't need to add another man rapping.I suppose the problem of the film as a whole is that it was written and directed by different people in different segments. Compare this to "Creepshow", which is a lot more consistent. The best part -- part two -- was written by Tim Sullivan, the man behind "2001 Maniacs". It shows. I may not have been the biggest fan of that film, but Sullivan knows how to tell a story that horror fans appreciate (and he has some weird obsession with Confederate sympathizers). The other writers? I have no idea who they are.Other reviewers have called this film the "Hood of Horrible", and I want to jump on that bandwagon. It wasn't well made, it was poorly written for the most part, and although even some of the worst films can still be enjoyable, this one just wasn't. The odds of me seeing this a second time are pretty slim. If you get the chance to see it the first time, pass up on it and watch James Franco's "The Ape" instead.