Bones (2001) is a horror movie about Snoop Dogg playing a 1970s-era pimp who comes back from the dead to take ghoulish revenge on those who crossed him. In the mix are a group of young promoters and musicians planning to open up a nightclub – unfortunately it’s in the building that Snoop Dogg’s character, Bones, haunts the walls and whose actual bones are buried in the basement. It’s a goofy idea and the movie has a sense of humour: Snoop Dogg is the Freddy Kreuger type who throws out a one liner when someone is dispatched. It wasn’t a hidden gem or completely perfect to me – there are some flaws. For example, they hold back on Snoop Dogg as an actual presence, a bit like the first Nightmare On Elm Street or Hellraiser, building you up for his eventual entrance. But the last half hour is the movie I wanted – just make that the whole thing. Also: actors play characters in the present and in flashback during the 1970s. While some actors are just aged up or made to look younger, like Pam Grier who plays Snoop’s lady back in the day but also has psychic powers and is a fortune teller. However, with the crooked cop character played by Michael T. Weiss (remember that TV show The Pretender), they slap a fake Klump fat-face on him to be middle-aged and it looks ridiculous (they couldn’t hire Mike Starr for the part?). Bones wasn’t particularly scary, but a perfect horror movie to watch on Halloween as it is goofy and kooky, gross and violent, but quite fun. Directed by Ernest Dickerson, the cinematographer for Spike Lee’s joints like Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X, but also director of Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight; he knows his horror movies and alludes to other great films with certain shots. There’s a fun mix of dated CGI and practical effects (the writhing black liquid bodies of the dead as a demonic wall feature is a highlight). My favourite part was the sequence where maggots rain down on characters for five minutes, no doubt a tip of the hat to the Italian masters like Dario Argento and Luci Fulco. For those who’d like a mix between a haunted house movie and a blaxploitation flick with some blunt commentary on gentrification and a hip hop soundtrack, Bones awaits on iTunes.
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