Review of Hood of Horror

Introduction

Portmanteau, or anthology films are nothing new - Amicus used the format in such movies as Asylum and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and more recent examples would be the Creepshow films. Hood of Horror is hosted by Snoop Dogg who links the three stories as the Hound of Hell, a man who sold his soul to the devil in return for his sister's life.

The film starts with an animated sequence explaining how Devon (Snoop Dogg) became the Hound of Hell and proceeds to him introducing the first story, Crossed Out. In this a young woman is given the opportunity to clean up the streets by placing a red cross on someone's graffiti tag which then causes them to die in an accident. The second instalment, The Scumlord, follows a redneck man and his wife who must live in a building with four black war veterans for a year, or until they die, in order to collect his inheritance. Rapsody Askew, the third and final segment, follows a young rapper whose astronomical rise to the top comes at a price.

Video

The 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer is excellent with good colours, definition and contrast. The visual effects are impressive and the anime sequences that occur throughout the movie are well animated and reminded me of Korn's Freak on a Leash music video and Afro Samurai.

Audio

Sadly this only has a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track with a lack of clarity especially with the amount of bass in the soundtrack. The rap/hip-hop music is perfectly suited to the street or ghetto content.

There are no subtitles.

Extra Features

There is a theatrical trailer and, in the 'More from DNC' section, trailers for Living and the Dead, Small Town Folk and Grey Zone.

Unusually, there is no Chapter Selection option, with chapter dividers every 10 minutes through the film.

Conclusion

Cordozar Calvin Broadus, or more commonly known as Snoop Dogg, is predominantly known for being a rapper but has had a remarkably long acting career, mostly in bit parts, but has had sizeable roles in Arthur and the Invisibles, Racing Stripes and Starsky and Hutch. Fortunately in this he sticks to the Snoop Dogg persona rather than trying to act and is perfectly fine as the host of this anthology film. Of the three stories, The Scumlord is by far the best, revelling in bad taste and with Ernie Hudson adding some gravitas to the piece. The other two are OK with Danny Trejo and a 40oz bottle of beer stealing the show in the first one but the final segment, despite Jason Alexander donning a strange English accent, is more or less forgettable, the sort of morality tale that has been done many times before.

Although not in the slightest bit frightening and with only a modicum of comedy value, Hood of Horror is still watchable fare mainly due to the production values and some gory death scenes. It's no Creepshow, but is perhaps still worth a look.