Director: Stacy Title
Year: 2006
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
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 that showcase their chance at redemption or end up in the Hood of Horror.
Review:
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 exact 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 whom she targets. 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 makeup, 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 are 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 setup. 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 finds himself all alone. Suddenly forced to own up to his past with his partner whom he set up 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 are the few gore effects on display. In short, this was a good segment.
Hood of Horror-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 that showcase their chance at redemption or end up in the Hood of Horror. While not entirely bad, the wraparound sketches are hit-or-miss. The prologue is fine if a little nonsensical, but it at least gives a decent backstory to the protagonist. The in-film 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.
Overview: ***.5/5
Really decent Anthology series hurt only by its sketchy wrap-around segments, there are plenty of likable factors here in the rest of the stories that come off incredibly well as a result. Those who appreciate this kind of genre effort, are huge anthology fans or appreciate the creative crew while most others out there should heed caution.
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