Movie Review: Bones

Bones 

New Line Cinema, The Lloyd Segan Company, Heller Highwater Productions, Hannah Rachel Production Services, USA, 2001. 

No, this isn't a Star Trek TOS spin off but a modern blaxploitation horror movie. 

Two drug dealers hide in an abandoned building and demon dog eats them. In 1979 Jimmy Bones (Snoop Dogg) was respected protector of the hood (=boss pimp). He gained his wealth by selling lottery tickets. He was betrayed by his friend murdered by corrupt cops when he refused to sell crack. Nowadays the area is a ghetto full of drug dealers. 

Jimmy Bones

Four teens Patrick (Khalil Kain), his brother Bill (Merwin Mondesir), sister Tia (Katharine Isabelle) and friend Maurice (Sean Amsing) buy the building and plan to turn it into a night club. The house is haunted by Jimmy's spirit. Tia finds a black dog and adopts it. Local psychic named Pearl (Pam Grier) warns against feeding the dog. Pearl has daughter Cynthia (Bianca Lawson) who friends with Patrick. Patrick's and Bill's father Jeremiah (Clifton Powell) has worked hard to get out of the ghetto. He says that trying to renovate the house is a bad mistake. 

Bones mansion

Patrick

Bill, Tia, Patrick and Maurice

Meanwhile gangsta Eddie Mack (Ricky Harris) and corrupt cop Lupovich (Michael T. Weiss) are talking business. Appropriate to the genre Eddie has a white girlfriend Snowflake (Erin Wright). When the kids find Jimmy's skeleton and decide to hide it, Jimmy rises from the grave to have vengeance. 

Demon dogg

Cynthia and Pearl

Jeremiah

Snoop Dogg plays mainly himself. The beginning does okay job setting up the plot. This is like ghetto version of "Nightmare on Elm Street" with ghost house effects (hands come out of walls, maggots, blood drips from ceiling etc.) However the ending ruins the gothic atmosphere with some campy and predictable scenes. Some influences to Italian giallo can be seen, lighting and weird camera angles. It has a touch of Lucio Fulci with the concept of merging the worlds of the living and the dead. Also there are some stylish and gothic scenes and ghost vision à la "The Evil Dead." As such it is moderately entertaining but could have been more effective if they had kept the style more similar to the atmospheric first half instead of relying on special effects in the end. 

Eddie Mack and Snowflake

Bones is angry

Rating: Average 

Starring: Snoop Dogg, Pam Grier, Michael T. Weiss, Clifton Powell, Ricky Harris, Bianca Lawson, Khalil Kain, Merwin Mondesir, Sean Amsing, Katharine Isabelle, Ron Selmour, Deezer D, Garikayi Mutambirwa, Erin Wright, Josh Byer, Kirby Morrow, Ellen Ewusie, Lynda Boyd, Boyan Vukelic, Marcus Moldowan, Mavis D'Andrade, Colin Foo, Emy Aneke, Randy Schooley, Tracey Classen, Donny James Lucas, Shanel Nelson-Murray, Chaynade Knowles, Brittany Moldowan, Helena Yea, Gladys Phillip, D. Harlan Cutshall, Carlos Joe Costa, Jeni Le Gon, Chaka White, Keith Provost, Brantley Bush, Linda Chow, Charles Jones Jr., Ashanna Bri, Victor Formosa, Alina Kaufman, Jonathan Mubanda, Danny Waugh 

Director: Ernest R. Dickerson