Tales from the Hood 3 is an American horror anthology directed by Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott, and a sequel to Tales from the Hood and Tales from the Hood 2.
As William (Tony Todd) escorts a young child named Brooklyn (Sage Arrindelle) to her mother they are pursued by something they refer to as “the bad things." In order to calm herself Brooklyn tells William a collection of stories:
Ruby Gates
Slumlord David Burr (London Brown), owner of the Ruby Gates apartment complex, plans to bulldoze it and replace it with high-rent condos. A wrench is thrown in his plans by the only people left in the building: The Bradfords, who refuse to move during their son's cancer treatment. With his boss threatening to sue him for fraud and time running out, Burr takes drastic measures to convince them to leave which could have dire consequences for everyone.
The Bunker
White supremacist Denton Wilbury (Cooper Huckabee) finds himself in a tense standoff with law enforcement. As the time in the bunker increases so does his derangement....
Operatic
Aspiring singer Chela Simpson (Savannah Basley) is hired as a caretaker by Marie Benoit (Lynn Whitfield), an elderly and wealthy former opera performer. Though the two seem to bond, Chela and her manager/boyfriend Park (Jaime M. Callica) have some rather ulterior motives. Ms. Marie however may not be as helpless as she appears.
Dope Kicks
Percy Woodhouse (Patrick Abellard) is not a very nice person. Dubbed The Punch & Run Bandit, he brutally assaults and robs anyone he deems vulnerable be they man, woman or child. After his latest crime leaves him in possession of a pair of gold sneakers Percy starts to experience some rather peculiar ailments. Mr. Woodhouse is about to learn the old adage "Do onto others..." the hard way....
List of tropes applying to this film:
- Ambiguously Evil: William has a lot of signs pointing to him being secretly evil, but he’s just so damn warm and likeable that you hope he really isn’t. The ending reveals he is a child murderer who has killed multiple children.
- And I Must Scream: Percy who becomes physically impaired to the point were he can't move or speak before he can apologize to Victor. Not only is he trapped in his living corpse as demons claw at it in a futile effort to extract his soul for eternity, everything that happens to his last victim's body will happen to his as well and he's going to feel everything. You know it’s bad when it is explicitly stated that going to Hell is the better option.
- Asshole Victim: Plenty.
- Denton is a despicable, unhinged racist, and he winds up getting himself killed in the most pathetic way possible when his bullet ricochets off of a Force Field and hits him in the head.
- Percy assaults people in order to rob them. His actions wind up dooming him to an And I Must Scream situation.
- William is a serial child killer who clearly enjoys his murders very much, so it’s hard to feel pity for him when the ghosts of his victims butcher him, and the Devil drags his soul to Hell.
- Nearly averted by Chela and Burr, who are initially guilt-ridden by their crimes, but ultimately go all in on them and get their comeuppance.
- Berserk Button: As far as Chela is concerned, her voice is perfect. Do not tell her any different.
- Body Surf: In “Operatic”, Marie and her lover, Park, use hypnosis and a magic ritual to steal the bodies of others. It's stated that Park has had multiple bodies over the years, while Marie has been waiting for the right one — a young woman with a beautiful singing voice — to come along, so that she can have the singing career she wasn't able to have in her own time.
- Canon Character All Along: Brooklyn is actually Mr. Simms, having taken another form to help William's victims get revenge upon him.
- Can't Take Criticism: Marie called Chela's voice "serviceable", but in need of training. It's barely even a critique, but it's enough for Chela to imagine cracking her head open.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Denton rambles at length about several highly racist conspiracy theories.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Burr, who hires an arsonist to collect insurance money and is perfectly willing to commit murder to keep out of jail.
- Crazy Survivalist: Denton, who is probably the most pathetic example in all of fiction.
- Creepy Child:
- Downplayed. Brooklyn may know several creepy stories no child should ever hear or know, but she’s pretty cheerful and naive otherwise but this is all a facade for her true identity as Satan, come to set up William’s end.
- The ghosts of William's victims play this straighter, being completely mute outside of screaming in agony.
- Ethan Bradford wasn't creepy while alive, but as a ghost, well...
- Disney Villain Death: Burr and Chela die this way.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Despite Marie apologizing for critizing her voice, Chela goes all-in on murdering her and stealing her money.
- Domestic Abuse: Denton rambles about how he beat his wife to put her in her place.
- Downer Ending: None of the segments end well for the protagonists, though they all deserved it. “Ruby Gates” is the biggest downer, since at the end of the day, the Bradfords are still dead, even if they gave Burr his just desserts.
- Dragged Off to Hell: The final fate of William.
- Subverted with Percy. Demons keep trying to take him, but thanks to the voodoo curse, his soul is trapped in his undead body for the rest of eternity.
- Even Evil Has Standards: A twofold example in the wraparound segment. William is legitimately disturbed that a child has been told these clearly inappropriate horror stories while Brooklyn, who is revealed to be The Devil, is disgusted by William's child murders.
- Faux Affably Evil: Discussed by William, who proves to be an example himself.William: Evil has a way of looking real nice and shiny on the outside.
- Force Field: One is used to keep Denton contained in his exhibit.
- Foreshadowing: It's kind of odd that the little girl character is the one telling the scary stories instead of the devil this time. It's because between the two of them, William isn't the devil, at least not literally.
- Ghostly Goals: Burr's and William's victims want revenge and stick around to give them bloody payback.
- Ignored Epiphany: Burr initially feels guilty over inadvertently causing the death of the Bradfordsbut he ultimately shoves his guilt aside and begins trying to kill anyone who could expose him.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Denton is by no means sympathetic, but he is highly pathetic and generally comes off as a loser who would be pitiable if his woes weren't his own doing (and wasn’t a white supremacist).
- Jerkass:
- Percy, who victimizes anyone he deems weaker than him and shows no remorse for beating an old woman into a coma or inadvertently killing someone.
- Denton, who is a virulent white supremacist who rambles about his highly racist conspiracy theories and is heavily implied to have beaten his wife.
- Kick the Dog: Percy beat an old woman into a coma because she landed on top of her purse... after he kicked her multiple times to take her purse.
- Lampshade Hanging: William lampshades that Brooklyn's mother has to be terrible at parenting to tell her all the horrific tales that make up the film.
- The Mentally Disturbed: Mickey, the arsonist Burr hires, is heavily implied to be schizophrenic and often rambles about his delusional view of the world.
- Monster Clown: Ethan Bradford’s clown doll is briefly transformed into one to torment Burr.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Burr is initially guilt-ridden after accidentally killing the Bradfords, but ultimately decides he'd rather save his own skin than try to atone.
- Mythical Motifs: A subtle one, Dope Kicks has some similarities to the legend of Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a titan who stole fire from the Olympians to give to humanity and is punished by the gods by having an eagle eat his liver for all eternity (it would grow back every day). Percy was a thief who stole from a Voodoo witch's grandmother and is cursed for putting her in a coma. Percy stole a pair of sneakers from his latest victim and was cursed to "Walk a mile in his victim's shoes" by the Voodoo witch until he apologized. When he's too late to do so, he's punished for all eternity by being pecked at by demonic birds who've come to harvest his soul but are unable to do so.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Percy doesn't take a subtle approach to his robberies.
- Our Zombies Are Different: A voodoo curse placed on Percy causes him to go through all the suffering his latest victim went through. Since he killed said victim, he starts exhibiting the different stages of death and decomposition. The only way to break the curse is for him to apologize to his victim, but he fails to do so before the autopsy begins.
- Pet the Dog: Surprisingly, Satan/Brooklyn (of all people) is arguably doing this for the children murdered by William. (S)he expresses disgust at William's child murders, helps the ghosts of the murdered children get their revenge and doesn't interfere or seem at all bothered when the childrens' souls leave their bodies and presumably ascend to Heaven (out of his reach).
- Psychopomp: Percy witnesses an angelic being manifest to collect and caress the soul of a woman killed in a car crash, and a shrieking crow-like humanoid claw the soul out of a businessman who keels over on a subway platform. Similar bird-faced psychopomps repeatedly try to claim Percy's own soul, but the voodoo curse prevents them from seizing it.
- Railing Kill: Chela, after swapping bodies with Marie, is shoved off a railing by Park and dies of her injuries.
- The Reveal: The ending of “The Bunker” reveals Denton was trapped inside a zoo sometime in the future where bigotry is a thing of the past, exhibited due to being the last racist. The voices he was hearing were actually a family watching him, and the loud noises were the children tapping on the glass.
- Shout-Out: A serial child murderer named William, who is ultimately killed by the ghosts of his victims, who are wearing animal masks. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
- Straw Loser: Denton Willbury, a loony far-right wing white supremacist who is obsessed with the poster of a swimsuit model he has and tries (and fails) to have sex with his numerous blow-up dolls. It's revealed at the end that he's stuck in an enclosure at a futuristic zoo, where he's on display as an endangered "American Racist". He dies after trying to shoot some visitors, when the bullet he fires ricochets off the force field barrier and hits him in the head.
- Toilet Humor: Percy's curse starts with him pissing and crapping his pants simultaneously.
- Would Hurt a Child: William is a serial child murderer.
- You Have Failed Me: Burr shoots Mickey dead for accidentally killing the Bradfords with the fire he started, due to it attracting police attention.
