Bones (2001)

(In French, On Cable TV, October 2021) Good or bad, what you will remember about Bones is this: Snoopy Dogg, playing a pimp who comes back from the dead and reunites with his wife as played by Pam Grier. Doesn’t this sound like something worth watching despite the quality of the result? Clearly hailing from the early 2000s with its terrible cinematography, Bones does have slightly more ambition than most low-budget films in taking place both in the present, and in a yellow-tinged 1970s filled with afro hairstyles and period clothes. Dogg is killed and buried in the basement of a strange skull-shaped building, but the fun begins thirty years later as blood sacrifices resurrect him and he goes on a rampage of revenge. Some decent practical special effects are undone by a misguided directing style that puts clumsy digital effects where they have no business. The attraction here is Dogg trying an acting role, clearly enjoying the pimp aesthetics of his pre-mortem character and then the vengeful aspect of his resurrection. Besides him, Grier is never less than splendid. The rest of the film, unfortunately, pales in comparison: the young people supposed to be the protagonists are rather dull compared to Dogg and Grier, while the narrative can’t quite do justice to the other ambitions of the film. As a low-budget horror film, Bones is better than most, but not good enough to be considered a success beyond its novelty value. It’s worth a look if you’re partial to Dogg or Grier, otherwise not so much. As a side note, I was amused to hear the French dubbed version try to replicate Dogg’s distinctive soft-spoken vocal cadence: it’s no replacement for the original, but it’s certainly evocative of it.