Growing up in the ’90s, my path to the glory of Pam Grier took an odd route. I was probably about 12 years old watching an HBO First Look for John Carpenter’s Escape From L.A., and they spent what seemed an inordinate amount of time fawning over this woman playing Hershe Las Palmas, the transsexual crime boss formerly known as Carjack Malone. Being a snot-nosed kid, I had no idea who Grier was. Of course, since then I’ve come to know and appreciate her as genre royalty, with a list of credits extending from ’70s blaxploitation film like Coffy and Scream, Blacula, Scream to all sorts of film and television roles spanning five decades. That said, whenever I see or hear mention of Grier, my first thought will be of her bantering in a put-on deep voice to an eye-patched Kurt Russell.

I always knew that I’d want to cover a Grier flick for this column, but given that I’d already seen Scream, Blacula, Scream, I wanted to find something new (to me, at least) that would have the horror flavor we all love. I vaguely remember seeing the DVD cover for Bones when it came out and thought to myself, Oh, a horror movie starring Snoop Dogg! That will most certainly be terrible. But when I found out that Pam Grier was in it, I figured if nothing else, I’d get to watch her. But the joke’s on me here, because I’ll be damned if I didn’t love this utterly insane cornucopia of genre tropes where the goal seemed to be “throw everything at the wall and don’t really give a shit what sticks.”

The premise is actually pretty simple: would-be entrepreneur Patrick (Khalil Kain) buys an old building in the neighborhood where he grew up in to turn it into a nightclub. What he doesn’t know is that the building was once the home of Jimmy Bones (Snoop Dogg), a local bookie who had that “heart of gold” thing going until he mysteriously disappeared one day in 1979. Well, he didn’t so much disappear as he was murdered by corrupt cop Lupovic (Michael T. Weiss), drug dealer Eddie Mack (Ricky Harris), and none other than Patrick’s father, Jeremiah (Clifton Powell). Of course, it wouldn’t be a true revenge film unless Bones’ lady was there to be traumatized by the event, and Grier steps in as empathetic Pearl, who has been dealing with his death while raising her daughter, Cynthia (Bianca Lawson).

With such a straightforward premise, I’m in awe at how many different elements they stuffed into this movie. Blaxploitation movies have a beloved history of taking horror tropes and making them their own, but usually they only utilize one or two basic elements. Blacula, of course, delved into the Dracula mythology. Abby is the blaxploitation answer to The Exorcist. Bones, however, has a little bit of everything. The film’s gothic look and ability to shape-shift into a wolf has those shades of Dracula, but since it’s Snoop Dogg, of course they weren’t going to miss the opportunity of giving him some Krueger-style one-liners. We also get a regeneration sequence with flashes of Hellraiser, and the flashbacks to Bones’ death have a distinct aroma of The Crow.

It feels as if Director Ernest R. Dickerson, who previously directed the underrated Tales From the Crypt movie Demon Knight, spent the day before production watching a marathon of favorite horror movies and was inspired to fit all of them into an 85-minute movie. As you may suspect, the shifts in tone for this flick are rather abrupt. The ominous haunted house movie that starts in the first act gives way to gross-out sequences with raining maggots. We’re meant to sympathize for Bones as he’s brutally killed in a flashback sequence, and mere minutes later he’s literally talking to the still-living severed heads of those who killed him. There didn’t seem to be much care given for thematic flow, but somehow I was along for the ride the whole time.

The key to making these shifts work is that every character commits to their particular slice of the pie. Pam Grier operates in the world of the revenge film, so she plays things pretty straight without any knowing winks. Pearl is haunted by Bones’ death both literally and figuratively, and Grier plays that perfectly. Kain and his group (including a young Katharine Isabelle) are the likeable kids who have the misfortune of picking the wrong house to try and stake their claim. They’re relatable and make you root for them even while knowing most of them won’t make it. And villains Weiss, Harris, and Powell exist for the sole purpose of being varying degrees of sinister. If anyone truly suffers from the tonal shifts of the movie, it’s Snoop Dogg. As Bones, he’s the only one who has to maneuver through all of these tropes. His attempts were a bit hit-or-miss, but you have to give him credit for his efforts.

Credit is also due to the effects department, as the movie’s hodgepodge of horror elements requires a variety of gags. I particularly appreciate the crimson, paint-like blood that hearkens back to the kind you’d see in exploitation fare of the ’70s. I also dig Dickerson’s use of purple for his vision of hell in the final act. That being said, I’m pretty sure the walls in said hell were lined with black garbage bags, while the makeup used to make Weiss look like he gained weight appears to be globs of oatmeal pasted to his face, and the CGI looks pretty much like you would imagine from a low-budget horror movie from the early 2000s. But I’d almost be disappointed if this movie didn’t have some crappy effects elements to it. It’s not supposed to all be “good,” but you better be damn sure that it’s fun.

Lastly, I’d be remiss if I dug into a blaxploitation movie without at least taking a peek at its themes on race. In this case, what I found most interesting was that in the hierarchy of the revenge film, Jeremiah’s betrayal ranks as worse than Lupovic’s racism. In virtually any revenge movie, the protagonist works their way up what I call the “ladder of evil.” They usually start with the lackeys, move on to evil middle management, and end on a showdown with the Big Bad. In Bones, Lupovic’s death is practically an afterthought. Bones even dismisses Lupovic’s actions as being part of his racist nature, with his focus more on punishing his former friend and right-hand man Jeremiah for winning wealth and status at the expense of those close to him (namely, Bones himself). That’s why Jeremiah is the last one on Bones’ list to meet his end and, as one would expect, it’s in particularly unpleasant fashion.

As someone who only recently discovered the wonders of the blaxploitation genre, I’m glad to see that its spirit has continued into the twenty-first century. In Bones, Dickerson has given us a flick with all of the elements that make this sub-genre so appealing: schlocky camp balanced with healthy doses of substance and pathos, all coated with well-executed homage. Dig this one up. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

  • Bryan Christopher
    About the Author - Bryan Christopher

    Horror movies have been a part of Bryan’s life as far back as he can remember. While families were watching E.T. and going to Disneyland, Bryan and his mom were watching Nightmare on Elm Street and he was dragging his dad to go to the local haunted hayride.

    He loves everything about the horror community, particularly his fellow fans. He’s just as happy listening to someone talk about their favorite horror flick as he is watching his own, which include Hellraiser, Phantasm, Stir of Echoes, and just about every Friday the 13th movie ever made, which the exception of part VIII because that movie is terrible.