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Tales from the Hood: A Dead Seriously Good Film
Episode 13224th September 2025 • Hip Hop Movie Club • Hip Hop Movie Club
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Don't be scuuuurrrred, the Halloween season is near! We dove into the 1995 horror anthology movie Tales from the Hood.

Tales from the Hood is a horror anthology about three young men who visit a mysterious funeral home, where the eccentric mortician tells them four supernatural stories that blend scares with social commentary on issues like police brutality, racism, and domestic violence. Think "The Twilight Zone" meets urban horror, with each tale exploring how supernatural justice comes for those who commit very human evils. 

Topics discussed:

  • A quick snapshot of this cult classic
  • Where this fits in the hip hop canon
  • Fun facts about this fright fest
  • The impact this film had on Black storytelling
  • Fan reaction then and now

Also check out:

We are screening Tales from the Hood in celebration of its 30th anniversary, in conjunction with the First Saturday Horror Series and the How Could You?! podcast at SteelStacks in Bethlehem on October 4th. Tap in and come through! Get tickets.

Director Rusty Cundieff also helmed Fear of a Black Hat, which we reviewed in 2024. Listen now.

Credits

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMCs JB, BooGie, and DynoWright. Theme music by BooGie.

And remember:

Don't hate...period.

Check us out:

Our final screening of the year at SteelStacks is Straight Outta Compton. We're celebrating its 10th anniversary on November 13!

Buy tickets

Check out our live event schedule and more at our Linktree.

Hip Hop Movie Club on:

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Transcripts

Speaker:

Hey fam, don't be scared.

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The Halloween season is near and so we dove back into the 1995 horror anthology movie,

Tales from the Hood.

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This is Hip Hop Movie Club, the show for serious hip hop fans who want to deepen their

cultural knowledge.

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We've watched over 75 hip-hop themed movies and in this episode, we will tell you if it is

a hidden gem or if it should stay buried.

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We'll give you a quick snapshot about the film, talk about where it fits in the hip-hop

canon, a few fun facts, what kind of impact this film had and what fans said about this

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movie.

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Tales from the Hood is a horror anthology

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about three young men who visit a mysterious funeral home where the eccentric mortician tells them four supernatural stories that blend

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scares with social commentary on issues like police brutality, racism, and domestic

violence.

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Think The Twilight Zone meets urban horror with each tale exploring how supernatural justice comes from those who commit very human evils.

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All right, Tales from the Hood.

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Let's talk about director, some of the key cast members.

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Boogie, you want to take us through some of those?

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I know it's a Rusty Cundieff film, but Spike Lee was executive producer on this one.

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Absolutely.

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This is definitely a Spike Lee joint.

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As you can tell from some of the issues that it tackled throughout the film.

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But yeah, let's talk about the cast a little bit.

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We've seen some very familiar faces in this one.

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From several of the films that we've reviewed and some that we haven't seen in other

films, but just legendary nonetheless.

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The Mortician was played by Clarence Williams III.

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I old school, I grew up on the Mod Squad.

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So this was my man from back in the day.

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He was convincingly

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Creepy.

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Very weird, just like what is going on?

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a couple of In Living Color alum, David Alan Grier, T'Keyah Crystal Keymah.

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We had some other cast members from movies that we've reviewed, just to name a few of

them.

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We had Joe Torry DeAundre Bonds, Roger Smith

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Paula Jai Parker, Sammy Monroe Jr.

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Yeah, I mean, you're gonna look at this film and if you've watched some of the films that

we reviewed, you're gonna definitely recognize a lot of the cast members in it.

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And it was good.

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think that they all played off each other well.

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Yeah, that's a surprise.

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Corbin Bernsen, Roger Dorn from Major League was in this.

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It's one of my favorite movies.

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Now it's kind of odd that he was cast in this, but he played a former KKK member who was a

politician.

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And we'll talk about that a little bit, that some some interesting facts regarding that

character and his name.

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He does.

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Quite well-casted.

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Yeah, for sure.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And we mentioned director Rusty Cundieff.

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We had reviewed Fear of a Black Hat, which came out two years prior to this.

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And that was just a parody on hip hop culture.

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And as you mentioned, Boogie, with Spike Lee involvement, you see the social commentary

mixed with the campy horror.

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And I really enjoyed that combination of those two collaborating.

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Absolutely.

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Yeah, so really good cast.

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So where does this fit like in the hip hop film Canon?

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It's unique, right?

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Because it's an intersection of the mid nineties hip hop because we'll get to the

soundtrack.

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It has some really good tracks on that.

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This is right at the heart of the mid nineties hip hop.

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Hip hop is really gaining steam and popularity and becoming more mainstream.

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So I call it hip hop's golden age.

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And the focus on the social consciousness and street narratives is what a lot of folks

were doing back in the day and telling those types of stories through rap.

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Tupac, Cube, et cetera.

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Right, a lot of cautionary tales in hip hop and this is kind of like somebody took the

lyrics from a few songs and put them into a film.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, definitely.

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is pretty well done.

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I like the anthology format where you have, vignettes,

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you can call them like different stories, but they all tie together by that social consciousness.

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You got one about police brutality, one about domestic violence, you have gang violence,

and then straight up racism, the one with the dolls.

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the format works and each one was not too long, not too short.

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It kind of laid it out really plainly for you so that you can kind of understand what was

going on really quickly.

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And once the retribution of sorts came towards them, they didn't drag it out.

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It just kind of got to the point, got out and just moved on to the next one.

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which I thought worked really well because sometimes It got right in, it got right to the

point.

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If you couldn't really understand what was going on, I mean, it was pretty

simple to understand.

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Right, right, it was pretty simple to understand.

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It was authentic and it was gritty with the detail with the police brutality, they're

really, really brutal and framing him with the drugs and injecting him and it was just

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crazy.

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But then they get their comeuppance, We'll do like a deep dive into the soundtrack.

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They only played a handful of songs, but there are some bangers in this one.

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You see some elements of Wu Tang on the soundtrack.

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Inspectah Deck has a song, Let Me At Them.

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Kurupt is on this one, MC Eiht. So back when soundtracks were an actual thing where you go out and buy the CD.

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And this was a pretty good one.

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It went to #16 on the Billboard chart and number one in the hip-hop R &B chart.

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it did better than the movie itself, at least at the time, in terms of box office.

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Right.

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you got some pretty, pretty legit, people in the soundtrack.

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I was like, whoa.

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And it's crazy because I remember when the movie came out, but I didn't

necessarily remember the soundtrack as much, but looking at the soundtrack, I'm like, man,

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I should have listened to this when it came out.

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Right.

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was right up our alley.

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oh

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man, got an Inspectah Deck is like, you know, that's one of my favorite Wu-Tang lyricists.

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I say that all the time.

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He's so underrated.

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But he just comes in and he delivers every time Scarface, Spice-1, like ODB, Havoc

and Prodigy, MC Eiht like all these people I listen to.

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Grave Diggaz you know, like, what?

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listen to these guys.

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I pulled it up on Spotify afterwards and Yeah, it's just kind of underrated.

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Back to the movie though.

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We start the film with the title track by Domino and Chill, but really there wasn't that

much more hip hop in it.

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Like just from a score standpoint, but they do play “Born to Die” by Spice-1 in a couple

of spots and really good needle drops there.

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They really, really move the story.

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the scene with Crazy K getting the behavioral modification playing during the montage of

the

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Yes.

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Jim Crow, all the lynching stuff.

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Well executed, I say.

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yeah.

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That uh was some shock value for you right there.

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song with the montage playing, it drove the point right on home.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And some other interesting tidbits or fun facts from this movie that I had researched

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the director Rusty Cundieff cast his real life parents in the film.

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His father, John, played the priest at Rhodey's funeral and his mother Christina played

Miss Cobbs, the woman in the painting with the dolls in the KKK comeuppance segment.

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Yep.

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That was good, a little family affair.

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yeah.

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interviews with Rusty Cundieff talking about how his mom doesn't have any lines in this, but

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she can play angry and like withering stare really good.

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I thought, if I know mom's, mom's can do that.

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Hahaha

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yeah, yeah.

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That's a universal trait right there.

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Slam dunk casting call.

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Hahaha.

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I surmised this right away.

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When I saw Corbin Bernsen was a politician from the KKK named Duke, I was like, is it a

play on David Duke?

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And it was actually his name was Duke Metger.

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And it's a combination of two real life white supremacists, a former neo-Nazi

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Klansman, David Duke and Tom Metzger, who founded the White Aryan Resistance.

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So they combine those two names.

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Um, which, you know, it worked in this, in this case, obviously.

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no subtlety here.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Any other fun facts that you guys came across?

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This is actually Rosalind Cash's last feature film.

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Yeah, shut out to Rosalind Cash. I forgot them I don't know how I forgot to mention her

name

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Yeah, playing the characters that she's had in the past, like in General Hospital and

stuff like that, to play this, like,

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malevolent doctor doing this behavioral modification

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thing on Crazy K, it was really creepy.

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But she has such a regal presence that, like, doing this torture, it's like, whoa, it

makes it even

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You know, this is a campy

this is a campy horror movie.

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But this part was like really kind of

bone rattling.

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Especially the final scene of, of the,

the procedure

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where it's shot with a strobe light.

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And that weird part was the actual, like,

really scary part to me.

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If there was a scary part,

this movie like, wow,

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like the mental torture going on here,

it was like dead.

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seriously bad.

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And really heavy, right?

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It was it was almost like you could

you could almost imagine someone

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attempting to do something like this.

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Yeah. That's it was very realistic.

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Like in the sense of

I can see somebody trying to do this.

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Yeah.

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You know, this is very, very reminiscent.

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Maybe even, straight up

copy of A Clockwork Orange. Yes.

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But you could also think

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that it seems implausible, but it's

very plausible that someone would do this.

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I mean, so.

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These kinds of, like, actual like,

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scary stuff is, was really,

really good to have in a movie like this

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because it gives you that,

that core of something actually serious,

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besides the other social issues

brought. Up.

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But yeah.

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And gave it some weight to it.

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And then the comeuppance dolls were Chiodo

brothers

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dolls that they also used in Team

America: World Police

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So that.

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They were great.

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I could watch a whole movie of. That,

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of. These, these revenge dolls.

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And they were they were good man.

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I like the scene when he was down

the hallway and he's running towards them.

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It's like.

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Oh my God, it's so creepy.

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So good, so good.

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And then attacking Corey Burson

and just eating them alive.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Very satisfying.

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Yeah. It was.

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Yeah yeah yeah.

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This film

I mean talk about impact and legacy.

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Like I don't think it has a strong legacy.

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It's kind of a cult classic.

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It's campy horror

and with with a bit of a hood theme.

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It was this is my first time

watching as much better than I expected.

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I like broken up the vignettes,

but it worked.

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And I think that combination of hip

hop and horror,

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you know, we've seen that progress

throughout the years.

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I'm not saying that this one would

like blaze trails, but it was good.

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It kind of followed the theme of like a

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Tales from the Crypt,

you know, Twilight Zone type format.

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I'll let you weigh in on this BooGie, but

I think the biggest impact of this film

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is it really sort of

opened up the idea of Black horror,

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like uppercase B, the Black

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directors, Black

filmmakers making horror movies.

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You can make the connection

between this and Candyman

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by near the cast,

and Get Out by Jordan Peele and other.

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I'm missing other movies,

but those were like the bigger ones.

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Right?

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It took a while for it to really kick in.

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I guess.

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This, you know, this is now 30 years ago.

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Yeah.

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But having Spike

Lee there to kind of push this along,

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I think really launched

the subgenre of Black horror films.

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Yeah. I mean, I definitely agree.

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I mean, prior

to this, we didn't really have we didn't

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have a whole lot of, like you said,

Black quote unquote Black horror films.

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But yeah, this definitely opened the door.

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And and I think that

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I'm almost disappointed in myself

that I haven't watched his prior,

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because I remember when it came out,

I distinctly remember when it came out

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and I was just like,

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this is going to be so cheesy and corny,

and I'm like, I'm not watching that.

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And meanwhile, you know, we're sitting I'm

sitting here watching

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this with my mother, you know,

so that we can review it tonight.

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And I'm like,

oh my God, this is actually pretty good.

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Like I really enjoyed it.

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Like the subject matter.

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I mean, I think it was very poignant

and I think that

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every scene I played out,

I could relate to each story.

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And it was it was something that like,

oh God, if that really did happen,

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that would be kind of scary.

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Like, oh my God, like you said, the

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the last one with the, with the covers,

that was just that was bone rattling.

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But they definitely did show

that there's a marketplace

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and a space for,

for Black horror films. And,

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yeah, I mean, Spike

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Lee, always a visionary trailblazer and,

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producing this, but

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yeah, I'm just like I said, I'm almost

disappointed I didn't watch his prior.

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That's probably my biggest takeaway

from watching from watch

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this film is that I'm disappointed

that I didn't watch it prior.

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Yeah.

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And I had not seen this before either.

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So I'm glad I watched this.

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Yeah. And I think I already mentioned

I haven't seen either.

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So yeah, glad we're watching it

and I'm glad that it's a good one

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because we will be doing this

collaboration event,

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which will promote again at the end,

an episode

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with the First Saturday Horror series, the

How Could You?! podcast.

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And, hopefully

we have a big turnout for that.

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And, I'm glad it's not a dud of a film.

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Yes, this is actually has some good

message behind it, and it's entertaining,

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and it has the horror elements

and good cast. It checks

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a lot of the boxes.

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Yeah, yeah, I was a little nervous,

but I'm not nervous anymore.

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I mean, I’m going to enjoy watching this

on a big screen.

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Yeah, sure.

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Yeah.

It's going to be fun on a big screen.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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I guess the monster

all along was oppression. So,

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Yeah.

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It's just it's it's too bad

that this film holds up

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as well as it does almost because

like these, we have the same issues

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30 years later then and in some cases,

it feels like it, nothing's changed.

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Right? Yeah.

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It seems like it even made now the like

this missing is like a cell phone.

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Right? Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Some sort of like,

you know, relevant technology,

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like a cell phone or tablet or something.

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But yeah, everything,

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everything in this film

that it could absolutely happen right now.

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And it's still happening.

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It's still happening. Yeah. Yeah,

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yeah, yeah.

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The nice thing about this film is that

it does deal with these social issues

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in a way that most horror films get,

don't really get to this extent.

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I mean, there's always some sort of

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message in an even in a horror film,

but like, this one was very much

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a social commentary film

that used horror as as the backdrop.

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It was unique

in that sense, where it was ambitious,

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you know, you go and go Tales

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in the Hood, and you'd think

it's only going to be horror.

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But the social commentary was huge

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and it it's what gives into staying power

today.

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You could say, go ahead and watch this

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and you're going to get a lot of value

out of it. Yeah.

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And it's a viable option for,

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you know, a

screening at a community theater.

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So come see it.

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Come on. My yeah, yeah.

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Come on I mean I yeah

I don't know if we looked up some of the

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I think I like mixed reviews.

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It didn't have like great reviews

like initially,

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but I think over time people

start appreciating yes, the content.

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And even now it's only a 6.6 on IMDb,

no, 58% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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But I was reading some reviews,

some re reviews.

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One of them, I think, was the British Film

Institute at that time that's come out.

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They, they mentioned that there was some

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sentiment that the police brutality thing

was exaggerated.

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It turns out it wasn't exaggerated at all.

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We should have been listening

to Black people all this time.

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You know, it's crazy.

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I mean, yeah,

they there's been stories that have been

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passed down through generations, you know.

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Yeah, there's actual generational trauma,

you know,

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with dealing with police officers.

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I mean, I have my own interactions

that have traumatized me in a sense,

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but that's beside the point.

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But but yeah, this stuff does happen.

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Absolutely does. Yeah.

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I really did enjoy this movie.

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Watch this all over again

and I will at our event.

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Yeah.

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Anyone get give a quick

shout out to a couple listeners.

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We got some some friends

over at Kutztown University in Kutztown

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PA doctor Marlene Farris

thank you for listening.

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Shouting us out in your class.

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And our friend Ali Akarcesme, who had collaborated with us,

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he did a panel discussion with us

Boyz n the Hood over in Bethlehem.

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So shout out to to you

fine folks over there at Kutztown.

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KU coming in strong. Golden Bears.

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If y'all can make it.

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Come on out. Come on out.

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Yeah, yeah, spread the word.

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Give that extra credit for.

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There you go.

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Right. Yeah. Come on out.

Bring your students.

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Right.

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I know it's,

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And Lehigh, you know, hopefully a D.J.

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ARM has ties to Lehigh he taught hip

hop classes.

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DJ ARM 18 over there.

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You know right around the corner

from Lehigh University.

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Back in session.

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I had the opportunity to tour

the beautiful campus over the weekend.

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My daughter loved it there. It was.

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It was amazing. Beautiful day for it.

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Great architecture, library, classrooms,

just a wonderful vibe out there.

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Why don’t we go around and give

our rating for Tales from the Hood.

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So BooGie, for Tales from the Hood,

would you bring that funky flick back

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or leave it in the vault?

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Bring a funky flick back?

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No, no other commentary necessary.

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DynoWright.

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Bring that funky flick back

or leave it in the vault.

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I am bringing this funky flick back.

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And that just because

we have an event coming up.

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But this was legitimately

a good movie. Yes.

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And make it unanimous.

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I will bring this funky flick back.

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It. Like I said, it

checked all the boxes for me.

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Right on.

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Thanks for tuning in to the Hip

Hop Movie Club show.

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I'm DynoWright.

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Filmmaker, longtime hip hop fan.

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And today, as we record September 16th,

it's the anniversary of Rapper's

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Delight coming out in 1979,

which was my introduction to hip hop.

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Imp the Dimp!

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I’m JB, 80s and 90s

nostalgia junkie, longtime hip hop fan.

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And this film was nostalgic for me

because it brought back memories

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of watching Tales from the Crypt on HBO,

as well as the campy Toxic Avenger series.

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Yeah, can't forget about The Toxic Avenger

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and, BooGie. a DJ,

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longtime hip hop fan

and in the spirit of Halloween,

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I absolutely enjoy

dressing up and scaring people.

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Yeah.

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I have video clips of me

sitting on the porch, dressed up

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and scaring the heck out of some trick

or treaters.

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It is hilarious.

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Think of those prank videos.

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When the guys are sitting there, you know,

people walk by and jumps at them.

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BooGie got the jump scares.

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Next week

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we'll be reviewing Anaconda starring Ice

Cube, Jennifer Lopez and many more.

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Join us Saturday, October 4th

at the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas

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at Steel Stacks in Bethlehem,

PA as Hip Hop Movie Club teams up

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with the First Saturday Horror series

and the hosts of the How Could You?! podcast

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for a special screening of Tales

from the Hood. This very film.

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You'll not want to miss this

spooktacular event.

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See this movie on the big screen!

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Don't hate because

you can see what the result would be.

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That's right.

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That's right.

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Cautionary tales.

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