(1990)
Dir - Ron Underwood
Overall: GOOD
While giant monster movies are not the most interesting or frightening in the horror field, the good ones can still stand out as innocent and harmless fun. The first in the Tremors series, (which has had oodles of direct to DVD sequels, prequels, and even a TV show run), reinvents no rules and sticks to the small group of townsfolk isolated and left to their own wits formula and does nothing wrong in the process. Having a premise of giant sand slugs randomly deciding to wake up and feed on people is hardly anything to take seriously and a wise move was made by making Tremors as much a comedy as anything else. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward work fine together as goofy yet proficient handymen yokels and the only thing that comes close to sinking some of the funny is the movie's noticeable PG-13 rating where characters have to routinely say "pardon my French" and for the most part, we know that most of the characters and all of the kids are going to end up just fine. Not that it needs to be a profanity-ridden bloodbath, but in dire situations such as this one, you would logically assume that there would be more casualties and the word "fuck" might get tossed around more liberally. Minute complaints though and thankfully this was pre-CGI so the practical monsters look fantastic and get plenty of screen time as well.
(1995)
Dir - Rusty Cundieff
Overall: GOOD
Director/actor Rusty Cundieff and producer/co-writer Darin Scott's follow-up to the brilliant hip-hop mockumentary Fear of a Black Hat was Tales from the Hood, an anthology horror outing that is taken just seriously enough to be admirable. Not surprisingly, the film is very topical for the African-American community, using inner city gang violence, domestic abuse, police misconduct, slavery reparations, and institutional racism as its very real backdrops for over the top, rather tongue-in-cheek horror premises. This melding of both serious and ridiculous themes should come off as messy, but it is consistently engaging, able to laugh at itself when appropriate. Most of the performances are exaggerated and hammy, (there are lots of characters who are hysterically screaming the word "fuck" at each other for one thing), but some of the segments also play it more reserved, particularly "Boys Do Get Bruised" with a very against-type portrayal from David Alan Grier. "KKK Comeuppance" utilizes the ole revenge seeking, killer dolls premise while "Rogue Cop Revelation" and "Hard-Core Convert" are the most overtly political in nature. The framing story with a goofy "host", (because you have to have one of those), is fun and the ending is satisfyingly grandiose, reminding us that in the end it is just a silly little horror movie when all is said and done.
(1999)
Dir - Antonia Bird
Overall: MEH
A troubled production behind the scenes, Ravenous had directorial problems resulting in Antonia Bird being brought in as a replacement once shooting had already begun. Further studio interference continued along the way and though the end result surprisingly does not suffer as much from these issues as one would expect, it still ends up being a tad underwhelming. Yet another black horror comedy based off the Donnor party and Alfred Packer real life stories, (though it is nowhere near as full-blown silly as Trey Parker's Cannibal! The Musical), Ravenous mostly benefits from its solid cast and unrelenting gruesomeness, but falls flat due to its half-baked themes. It neither explores the insatiable cannibal lust that befalls the victims nor the wendigo mythology it borrows from nearly enough, becoming rather one-note in the process. The reasons some characters embrace their newfound, human meat predicament while others deny it, (or do both, depending on the scene), could have went further than just speech after speech about how powerful it feels to feast on other people. So though the satirical tone is appreciated, it is just not all there.
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