“This here is the story of Jimmy Bones / Black as night, and hard as stone / Gold plated deuce like the King of Siam / Got a switchblade loose and a diamond on his hand”
If I asked you to name an iconic black horror villain, who might you say? Would you go with Candyman? Maybe you’d mention Blacula? Max, from Vampire in Brooklyn? Queen of the Damned’s Akasha, as played by the late Aaliyah? Or, going with a more recent film, how about Lupita Nyong’o’s terrifying Red from Jordan Peele’s Us?
The sad truth is, there are far too few choices when it comes to people of color playing horror villains on par with such icons as Dracula or Frankenstein, Leatherface or The Shape, Freddy or Jason. But back in 2001, an earnest attempt at creating a new black horror icon was crafted by a smart filmmaking team and a solid cast of actors attempting to tell a modern horror tale with an EC Comics sensibility. Sadly, the film went unembraced by both mainstream audiences and horror fans alike, relegating this underloved gem to relative obscurity for nearly two decades. Now, with the release of Scream Factory’s impressive new Blu-ray, here’s hoping that fright aficionados will finally give a much deserved first look (or second chance) to Ernest Dickerson’s Bones.
When a group of young adults purchase a condemned building in a rundown neighborhood in order to turn it into a nightclub, they unwittingly awaken the spirit of Jimmy Bones (Snoop Dogg), a long-dead local gangster. A criminal with a heart of gold, Bones watched out for his neighborhood and only indulged in running numbers while protecting his people from the dangers that plagued the rest of his city. When his own right hand man Jeremiah (Clifton Powell) and corrupt cop Lupovich (Michael T. Weiss) attempted to flood his neighborhood with drugs, Bones resisted, leading to his murder. In the present, Bones is resurrected as a vengeful spirit who lays waste to those who wronged him, as well as those who have destroyed his neighborhood and prey upon its residents.
While the film is never terribly scary, Bones is nevertheless a grim, gritty, wickedly funny tale of supernatural revenge. As the title character, Snoop Dogg delivers a double-edged performance, giving us a character who’s genuinely sympathetic in the past, while presenting a darkly humorous yet utterly lethal version of the same character in the present. He has a real presence in the film, and it makes one wish that he’d been afforded the opportunity to play this character in further installments.
The rest of the cast is quite good as well, featuring such thesps as Buffy’s Bianca Lawson, rapper Khalil Kain, comedian Ricky Harris, and Ginger Snaps’ Katharine Isabelle. But the standout performer here is Jackie Brown’s Pam Grier, playing Jimmy’s lost love Pearl. Grier gives a tortured performance as her character in the present day, playing a woman who is still in love with a dead man, while being terribly afraid of what his return might mean for herself and her daughter.
Following up his previous horror film Demon Knight, director Dickerson displays a true love of the genre with Bones, giving us a fright flick which pays homage to numerous scary subgenres. From the spraying, raining maggots of Italian cinema to the bright red Kensington gore of Hammer, the director manages to weave in numerous influences into his film, even throwing in a fun nod to Hellraiser while he’s at it. It’s an excellent effort, even if the impressive practical effects and fantastic set-pieces awash in nightmarish imagery are occasionally undermined by some dodgy CG and ineffective jump scares.
Scream Factory’s new Blu-ray does the film justice, presenting the film with a sharp, impressive transfer which retains the film’s bruised beauty and grainy, gorgeous imagery. The film’s DTS-HD Master Audio (available in 5.1 and 2.0) is suitably punchy, giving viewers an immersive soundscape that will get under your skin before rattling you to bits from time to time. But the real eye-openers on the disc are surely found in the bonus features section…
In addition to the audio commentary (featuring Dickerson, Snoop Dogg and co-writer Adam Simon), deleted scenes, and vintage featurettes (covering the making of the film and its influences) ported over from the original New Line Platinum Series DVD, this Blu-ray edition also features a number of new interviews with the principal creatives: Building Bones features a fun talk with Dickerson, who provides some fun anecdotes while detailing his work on the film; Bringing Out the Dead, with co-screenwriter Adam Simon chatting about the genesis of the project and Dickerson’s work on the film; Urban Underworld, with Director of Photography Flavio Labiano discussing his approach to achieving the film’s look; and Blood ’N’ Bones, an interview with makeup effects creator Tony Gardner, who talks about his and Dickerson’s intent to keep the film’s effects practical and reminiscent of the types of effects one might see in 80s genre films (all set to some great VHS behind the scenes footage). Topping this package off is a theatrical press kit, a couple of Bones-related music videos, and the film’s teaser and theatrical trailers.
All in all, it’s a fantastic release that acts as the perfect way to discover (or rediscover) a movie that really deserves its day in the sun.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary with Actor Snoop Dogg, Director Ernest Dickerson and Screenwriter Adam Simon
- Building Bones: Interview With Director Ernest Dickerson – (20:21)
- Bringing Out the Dead: Interview With Co-Screenwriter Adam Simon – (17:18)
- Urban Underworld: Interview with Director of Photography Flavio Labiano – (11:42)
- Blood ’N’ Bones: Interview With Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tony Gardner – (15:19)
- Digging up Bones – (23:48)
- Urban Gothic – Bones And Its Influences – (18:57)
- Deleted Scenes – (24:35)
- Dogg Named Snoop Music Videos – (7:24)
- Theatrical Press Kit With Behind-the-Scenes Footage – (10:45)
- Theatrical Trailer – (2:08)
- Teaser Trailer – (00:31)
Scream Factory will release Bones on March 31st, 2020.
