So much average

best movie i've ever seen.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

In an attempt to bring something positive to the inner-city, a group of wealthy suburban teens decide to purchase an abandoned mansion in the ghetto and convert it into a happenin' nightclub. Their parents, who spent their youth in the city, have passed down an urban legend about a man named Bones, who was brutally murdered in the area. Unfortunately, the kids don't heed their warnings and stir up trouble when they happen upon the bones of the dead 70s gangsta residing in the basement of their new digs. "Bones" is a fun mix of old blaxploitation and contemporary horror. The acting (like most things about the movie) is hit or miss. The young actors playing the teens do a tolerable job. Snoop plays the titular roll and doesn't have that many scenes, but he's decent when he's on screen and probably the smoothest horror villain ever. Pam Grier gives an out-there performance as Bones' lover from the old days, now a worn and slightly crazy fortune-teller overly-protective of her teen daughter. The movie tries to take on some interesting themes about the intersection of class and race, as well as the suburbanization of America's cities. But who am I kidding, the real selling point here is the nastiness. There's plenty of sick gore scenes (including lots of icky maggot sequences!) they will please any horror fan. Some of the special effects are misguided, but some of them are effectively creepy. Overall, it's not as bad as many genre fans claim it is. It's like a less serious take on "Candyman." The plot is a somewhat muddled, and I never really understood the motives of half the characters. If you can overlook the obvious missteps and silly abrupt ending, there is an enjoyable movie in there.

I rented this movie not expecting much, and that is a good thing because this film is a real stinker. The overall idea is not very original, which is okay. Some gangster named Jimmy Bones died and is coming back for revenge, or something or another. Plot does not really matter for a movie like this, you just watch and try to enjoy the ride. Now, this is not near close to the worst movie I have seen, I have seen far, far, far worse, but it is also quite far from the best movies. My main gripe with this flick may sound dumb but...pink blood? What is that? The pink blood really takes a lot out of it...it makes it more unrealistic (though not realistic to begin with) and just looks...bad. I have seen $5,000 budgeted films with better looking blood! And other than the pink blood, the movie is just stupid and annoying to me. I say avoid, but some may like it. Worth a rent, I guess, if you want to see a cool pool table death......with pink blood.

I've read the other comment referring to Snoop Doggs'horror film, Bones....When this first came out it was my favourite horror film but I watched it that many times that it lost its' lustre.The effects are great and plenty of blood and some gore from the outset. The beginning sets the tone for the rest of the film as it's one of those films that you just NEED to get to the bottom of why it is happening and what actually took place to cause it. It all unfolds at a pace enough to keep your interest as a viewer. This film is still a very watchable and enjoyable film in my opinion, even today. It was nice to see Snoop in something different and anyone that is a Snoop Fan will enjoy this film all the more.....7 out of 10.

An attempt to make a modern-dress Gothic melodrama that is just not successful. Ernest Dickerson has a good grasp of the iconography of horror films, but he can't put them together well enough to make a good scary movie. He borrows concepts and images liberally from Clive Barker, Dario Argento, and Mario Bava - but all it shows is that he's a good copycat, not that he's a good stylist. From the idea of evil reviving itself by consuming a victim (Barker's "Hellraiser", but cinematic ally dating at least back to Hammer's "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" from 1965), thru the rain of maggots (Argento's magisterial "Suspiria"), to the disembodied hand reaching out of the darkness to torment the dead man's lover (Bava's masterpiece, "Whip and the Body"), there really is nothing here that we haven't seen before and better. The conceit of setting it in a ghetto with an all-black cast promises an interesting variation on your basic "revenge from beyond the grave" scenario, but beyond the music and fashions it's still a pretty clichéd film. One of the problems is that Dickerson just can't seem to leave well enough alone - like the maggot scene. OK, it's raining maggots and it's terrifying, we get it already, is it really necessary to go for the gross-out by showing people EATING them? Or the scene where Maurice is killed - again, the dog-spirit eats Maurice to give form and substance to Bones' cadaver, we get it, it's not necessary to linger on the details of the chow-down. It's never scary - just disgusting. Even his attempts to inject humor are forced and heavy-handed, with the idiotic scenes of Bones carrying the heads of his victims and having them carry on an interminably pointless conversation. And again, he doesn't show it to us once, there's at least three long scenes with the chatty heads so whatever humor there was is pounded into unconsciousness thru repetition. But the most glaring problem with this movie is that we are asked to sympathize with a character who is, at bottom, just as big a bad guy in life as the crack dealers who murder him. Dickerson tries to show us Bones as the protector of his 'hood, but come on - he's exploiting his people just as much with his numbers game, or did it never occur to anyone to ask how Bones got the money for his supah-dupah fly crib when everyone else around him lives in complete poverty? For a MUCH better horror movie that reflects the black urban experience, rent "Tales from the Hood" instead.