From discussing the chilling visuals to analyzing Snoop Dogg's supernatural powers, the conversation was nothing short of riveting. We shed light on the film's dramatic climax and explored Jimmy's profound revenge. The debate gets really interesting as we ponder if Bones deserves a place on the list of essential Black Horror films. Get ready to delve into the nostalgia, appreciate the practical effects, and decide for yourself about the movie's place in the Black Horror genre. Join us, won't you?
Join the Black Ass Movie Club
From discussing the chilling visuals to analyzing Snoop Dogg's supernatural powers, the conversation was nothing short of riveting. We shed light on the film's dramatic climax and explored Jimmy's profound revenge. The debate gets really interesting as we ponder if Bones deserves a place on the list of essential Black Horror films. Get ready to delve into the nostalgia, appreciate the practical effects, and decide for yourself about the movie's place in the Black Horror genre. Join us, won't you?
Join the Black Ass Movie Club
We also can't forget that Dominic can blow out. I'm not a snoop dog. Make him an oppressing girl.
Brooklyn:Welcome back to the Black Asks Movie podcast, where we are putting together the quintessential list of black ass movies that you must watch. I'm Brooklyn.
TJ:I'm TJ.
Brooklyn:And we have. We're welcoming back a guest host.
Micah:And Mike is back in the studio with us this evening. Welcome back to the pond. I came back, you're welcome.
TJ:We loved you so much, we brought you back.
Brooklyn:So today we are watching the 2001 film Bones, starring Pam Greer and Snoopdow. I love this movie. This is a film that I haven't watched in forever, oh really long time, probably since college, like 2010-ish kind of.
TJ:Yeah, I will say, within the first 15 minutes of this, I thought I had not seen it and then I started, I think, when we finally got to the house. I think I may have watched this on MTV. It's possible as a teenager.
Brooklyn:Yeah and not BET.
Micah:No Well, who knows, but either or it came on somewhere, yeah, yeah. I mean, you said 2010 and you were in college and I was definitely in high school.
Brooklyn:Oh, the terrible thing is that in 2010, I think, I was done with school.
TJ:We were here. We were here in 2010. That's disrespectful. Colin was born in 2010.
Micah:He was that he was my son All right.
Brooklyn:So the movie actually opened on two frat bro looking guys who have come down to the black part of the city to score some drugs. We are met with the two. I'm going to call them, just like, the goons of the movie like the minions. And they are told that the drugs are behind a brick of this really creepy looking building. We keep calling it a house in the movie, but I'm like it's definitely.
TJ:I mean it could be like a full on apartment building. It's a building and yeah, it could Like. I don't know if it was a hotel was it an apartment building?
Brooklyn:All to be up for this for debate?
TJ:But they get there.
Brooklyn:They are spotted by the cops and run inside the building to hide. Once inside, they're basically scared out of the building.
Micah:But they were subsequently killed because they don't go anywhere once they make it to the front.
Brooklyn:They literally crossed the threshold and go we're safe now.
TJ:Immediately dragged my concern.
Micah:Immediately dragged, killed, murdered. But then that happens.
Brooklyn:We're set up. This is what's happening. This is where we are. This house is haunted. People die here. We then immediately jump back to 1979 where we meet Jimmy Bones in his heyday. We find out that he's like the hero of the neighborhood and number runner and just respected, you know diamond in the back sunroof top digging the scene on the gangstalline.
Micah:Community guy. Yeah, I can't with you.
TJ:I cannot remind me to bring something up when he comes up the stairs later.
Brooklyn:Okay, yeah, that scene is maybe like three or four minutes and then we kind of meet the characters that we're going to meet again later on the movie and then we jump to quote quote present Presenting yeah.
Micah:Presenting is 30 years old, which is in 2001.
Brooklyn:Such a fantastic time when the core cast shows up for the first time and they are. What we find out very quickly is that they purchased this building and that they are planning to turn it into a club, and that is really where we begin our story.
Micah:But have we seen this movie before watching it today?
Brooklyn:I have seen it at least twice Once on bootleg, another time on TV and edited, so a lot of the things that we saw tonight were edited out of the version that I've seen before.
TJ:Yeah, yeah, I have seen bits and pieces Again. I don't know why all of these movies I've seen like parts but never the full thing. This was the first time that I saw it in its entirety and there's some shit in there that I didn't think existed that like, I guess, the edited TV like version.
Micah:Didn't have it in yeah. So I've seen this movie a couple of times because my mom had the DVD, the official DVD, the official and the cover is so scary. But one thing I want to point out about the DVD, though, is that, if you know anything about DVDs, it was one of those like fold kinds.
Micah:Like it wasn't the like the plastic snap latch where it opens up at the same time you have to like undo the like little fold and then open it Class, class. But so, yeah, I have seen this movie a bunch of times and it was kind of like nostalgic and like bringing back, like watching it with my sister memories, but also watching it now today as an adult, being like yo, what the fuck?
TJ:What? Yeah I? I will say that I was skeptical going into this one, but it warmed. What do you mean by that? Because of okay, I'm not trying to be mean, I promise, but you know, snoop Dogg is not an actor, and so in the first five minutes I'm like, oh great, here we go. You know, it's that era where everyone wanted to be in TV and film and wanted to be an actor and it was. I think it was the lines that he was saying in the car with the like dollar bill thing.
Brooklyn:Yeah, oh my.
TJ:God, this is terrible. He's like it sounds like he's reading.
Brooklyn:I think Snoop Dogg was used exactly where he needed to be. We had to, we had to establish the character.
TJ:He is much better once he gets to be scary and that's what I was going to say is that, like once we got over that initial hump of lines in the actual movie, I was fine because he didn't have to say much. There was an acting involved.
Brooklyn:Yeah. So I think I can't really move into this without first discussing the special effects in the movie, the practical effects, the practical effects in the movie. It's. One of the things that I really really loved about the movie is that in 2001, the Matrix was out, Like CGI was definitely in use at this point. And they at every turn use as many practical effects as possible, that when they didn't use them, it was like glaringly obvious that they were using CGI. At that point, the blood was not the best.
TJ:The blood was you mean the paint?
Micah:Hey Vanessa, can you run over to bear really quick and give me candy apple, fire truck red paint we need to set.
Brooklyn:We're on set right now and it's. It's so obviously not blood and I get the aesthetic of it all. But the consistency was not right, but not even like, if you're going to do that, that consistency of blood, at least to the color, correct, we need it to be much darker. It was like the color of the. The color of the blood was like an orange red and it's like.
TJ:That's just not I was going to say it was giving me like Crayola red or candy, it was pasty, it was pasty. Like it looked chalky.
Micah:It did, it really did.
Brooklyn:And it would be one thing if it was the blood, that was the stuff seeping out the walls, because then you can explain the way it's. It's.
Micah:The way it's transmitted.
Brooklyn:Yeah, it's from the city of the dead is. This is that but it was like no, even when someone got their throat slit. And plenty of people get their throat slit in this movie it bled, that color which was just odd.
Micah:Yeah, pools of blood. You know when they show the scene of like blood trailing off somewhere it's like this is like chemical when he stabs the pool table.
TJ:Oh my God, it's like what did the pool table do to you? Also, how does the pool table have blood?
Micah:I kind of see it's gushing out to looks like rust water, Like so remember when they opened up the like chest finally from the Titanic and that water that came out was so like rusted.
Brooklyn:That's what it was giving. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. Sorry, this is really off topic. Not off topic, but shifting topics really quickly. I don't want to go into plot holes and things that might have been edited out, but I just had a question, because we meet this dog fairly early in the movie and we've watched the entire movie so we know what the flashbacks are. We saw the beginning of the movie. Where the fuck?
TJ:did this dog come from? Where did the dog come from? That was my first question when we watched this.
Brooklyn:All of the people involved in this situation seem to have like this fear, or like this knowing about the dog and don't feed the dog and all these things. Where did the dog come from? When did it enter the picture?
TJ:I have no fucking clue, because I was very confused once we like got further into the movie because the whole setup with, like the mom at the beginning, the guy with the gun in the window, like there is this whole conspiracy behind. Like don't touch this dog, don't feed this dog. But even in the flashbacks, in the very beginning, when we see the white kids with the dog, there's no explanation of how this dog came to be. And even in like the end of the movie they still don't explain it.
Brooklyn:Because we've gotten aside from the two guys at the very beginning. We haven't gotten any sense that when, after Jimmy died did all of this start, was it almost an immediate haunting and everyone who was there just leave at that point.
TJ:Like what happened.
Brooklyn:And I think that's the part of the story that's kind of like missing.
TJ:Yeah, like I was very confused. But once we get over that and he's alive, then it doesn't matter.
Micah:So we start with these kids who are giving, very like those white people you know spearheaded by a black person, though, which is kind of hurtful, honestly where he's the one going up like, yeah, I just got this building, Come on, guys, you're going to check it out. And one guy is like I'm not sure. And the first thing to happen when they get in there is he goes to like use the key to open the door. The door opens by itself. He's like yeah, let's go inside. And then the one girl that they're with, who happens to be white, steps on a little mandible of an unknown creature Is it human, Is it animal? And they're still like let's go explore.
Brooklyn:Let's not even think about it.
Micah:I'm going to go downstairs.
Brooklyn:In the course of this movie. Within the first two days of them being there, they discover a human jaw and a full skeleton buried in the basement, and they still move forward and this demon dog.
Micah:I was gonna say and the dog, and they just keep and like okay, and they still are like yes, let's sleep here.
Brooklyn:Right, so okay. So we're at this point, we're in the club, or the building which will become the club. These constant things are happening. Maybe it's just me, but these are my thoughts. So the four of you are going to fix up this entire building, with absolutely no help for many, because we never see anyone working on the crew Nothing.
Brooklyn:And this place has been vacant since the 70s, right, I'm like I'm sure all that wood is rotted, the pipes don't work, there's probably no water, no electricity and where we are it gets cold out, so the pipes have been freezing and thawing and freezing and things have exploded, things have rotted, but we can just walk into this place and it's okay.
Micah:Livable, it's livable, flipable, they're beds.
TJ:Yeah, they're beds. Also, speaking of beds, where did you get the sheets from?
Micah:Where did you get when they played things from the satin sheets? Where was anything from? Was there?
Brooklyn:indoor plumbing. Like was the plumbing working? How did you?
Micah:use the bathroom while you guys were staying there. Where was the laundry room?
Brooklyn:Where was the laundry room Wait?
Micah:Okay, okay, okay, hold on. All right, we're reading them for a feel-threat now. Hold on, the movie's good guys, we promise.
Brooklyn:The movie's incredible. These are just questions. I enjoy it but I have questions.
TJ:So many questions. I told you. I was like I have a lot of questions about this movie.
Brooklyn:Well, in that little bit of research that we've done since watching the movie like finding out that the film was taken away from the director and things were edited in a certain way- Like I wonder if there were fills for these holes that we're finding. Like did some other things, did things make more sense before the studio?
TJ:edit. I was gonna say I wonder if the dog wouldn't make more sense.
Brooklyn:I feel like it would have to yeah, Like. I feel like at some point in those scenes with Pam Grier and Snoot back in the day, he would have had a dog, or there would have been a dog there, or something that makes it make more sense.
Micah:But the, although it doesn't make sense, what I interpreted as is that the dog is just Jimmy Sol that took form in his afterlife, because you don't see them both at the same time.
Micah:And when, after the dog eats the Maurice, the DJ and that's so, all right. So cats out of the bag. When the dog starts eating humans, jimmy's skeleton that they found in the basement starts reincarnating with like flesh and tendons and ligaments and muscle, and then fully all the way when the dog eats humans. So the dog eats one of the core characters in the house for the opening night of their bar situation, and once the and this is after he's already eaten someone else. So once the eating is complete and Jimmy comes all the way back, the dog disappears and that spirit goes into Jimmy in the basement when he comes back, fully.
Brooklyn:Yeah, so that's, that's true yeah.
Micah:So and then we? I don't think we see the dog again, unless it's in a flashback. It could be wrong, but I don't think so. So that is the only thing that's tying us to where the dog comes into play, but we never know how that transition happens.
Brooklyn:And I think that that's the question is how did? How did the dog form?
TJ:Yeah.
Brooklyn:Even if it is Jimmy's soul. There's definitely some film on the cutting room floor that explains why that happened.
TJ:Yeah, because even in the, when we go back to the flashback to find out how Jimmy dies with everyone stabbing him, there's a moment, there's a flash that happens right after he thrust the knife into himself, and then everything goes red and the camera is panned from a POV shot of him laying on the floor and then out looking at everyone, which I assume is meant to be his soul, but I'm like we never get any type of there's no wrap up to it.
TJ:Yeah, like we just leave it there and we don't really transform that into what I assume is the dog. Yeah, I would have liked to have seen that.
Micah:I'm glad you mentioned the red filter, because I wrote that down that, yes, we are assuming as the watcher that that is Jimmy behind the astral plane in some kind of way, Because I feel like we're glazing over a lot of a why we're not glazing over, we're just trail-blazing forward of the key setting elements in the beginning, Like once the kids, finally the kids once the core actors finally find the basement where Jimmy the skeleton is situated, via the dog clawing at the door to go down there, goes down there immediately, starts digging him up.
Micah:They smell this horrible stench flies everywhere. They get down there and we see this red filter. But even before that, when they first first get there and they split up and the Patrick, the main character, says I'm gonna go downstairs, it's cold, I'm gonna turn the furnace on. Turn to the furnace on and it's insinuating that someone or something is being burned by the fire that travels through there. And that's the first time we see that red filter and it shows that door that they just opened, like something like bamming, and they're like the fire is burning me, so red filter, fire door, fast forward door down there, dog digging up Jimmy.
Micah:Red filter. Jimmy, is there? The daughter of the psychic mom which we'll get into sees Jimmy like actually sees him and then when they show that point of view, seeing her back is red again. I mean mountainous way to explain it.
Brooklyn:Do we think that there is another entity involved in this, or is it all, jimmy?
Micah:I wonder. I feel like we don't really go too much into Jimmy's life before we see those two scenes of him in 1979. Because he seems heavily connected with everything.
Brooklyn:There is a lot of subtext in this movie as well. Do you think that kind of showing the decline of the good guy, bad guy, like the hood hero, like the decline of that in the uptick in drug correlation do you think that that was does illustrate it well that when you got away from the what we would call a criminal now, but it was more about the neighborhood kind of got kind of disappeared. We started sending more people to prison, those kind of people got killed off and drugs entered the urban landscape. That was the decline. Like before Jimmy's demise the neighborhood was thriving.
TJ:Might not have been like you know, like he was helping with the local economy essentially, and when he went away that those things came in Everything was desolate.
Brooklyn:Now, yeah, do you think that that was a good, simplistic way of illustrating that within the real world of how that happened? I think so.
TJ:I mean, I think it was a good depiction of the unfortunate truth with the fact that the unfortunate truth with so many of our black neighborhoods, especially during our childhood, where we grew up in the late 80s, early 90s, where all of that was kind of happening in real time, yeah, in so many of, but I mean, you know, like I can't relate.
TJ:But like at that, like late 80s, early 90s was when all of that was kind of running full force, like that change was happening, compared to like when my mother was a teenager, you know, and going into her twenties.
TJ:Yeah, I think they did a good job of depicting that change and I think it was a good, simple way to do it, like it wasn't over complicated, because I felt like a lot of movies over complicated and they try to make it this big, grandiose, you know theatrical gesture, and it was as simple as it needed to be.
Brooklyn:I don't know why this made me think of this. It was just really funny to me After. Like when we get to present day, we never see anyone else in that neighborhood except for those like five people.
TJ:I mean, that's it.
Brooklyn:I'm like are they the only people who still live there?
Micah:Because, like Pam Greer, our daughter, was it shotgun.
Brooklyn:Yeah, shotgun and the cop.
TJ:Yeah.
Brooklyn:Like those, the and the pimp guy Like that's the only people who still live in that neighborhood to this day.
TJ:You know what, now that you say that I'm like there are no extras.
Brooklyn:No, there were none. Which is so weird?
Micah:There's never anyone just walking down the street. It's so weird. They said we're getting straight to the point, Right?
TJ:They said we ain't got the budget for extras, we don't need those. We put it on the practical fact. They did.
Micah:And speaking of so horror, horror, you know for spooky month, let's talk about the horror aspects of some of the things now because well, again, when I first saw this movie I was like a kid, so certain imagery just really stuck with me. Yeah, that black like blackest night dog red eyes.
Brooklyn:The red eyes, yeah, the little child red Vomiting maggots.
Brooklyn:That was always something that made me itch. Yeah, I will say this in regarding like the spooky, like horror part of this is that of the movies we've watched this month, I actually feel like this one is the one that leans the most into horror. The comedy is kind of kept at a minimum. It's like maybe one or two characters that you get a comic relief from, and most of it happens in the third act. But like we really lean into the horror side of it, which is one of the things that I really enjoy.
Micah:I also like how, even though it is old or as a movie, as a movie and kind of at the pivotal moment of CGI, it's still so good. Yeah, it aged really well.
Brooklyn:Yeah.
Micah:The CGI. Well, the practical effects it's still like eye-popping.
Brooklyn:Like you can't replace it. It's like CGI is great and it can do those fantastical things, but having something in the space with the actor and you know that they're reacting to it, you can't beat that. The fact that he's looking at a wall of people reaching for him, you can react to that so much differently than if you're just looking at a green screen and nothing's in front of you. You can seeing that.
TJ:So that was a great segue into what I was gonna talk about. So now seeing it in its entirety, that was one of the images that stuck out that I remember as a child watching this. And I will tell you the reason that it freaked me out, because there is a I think you've gone to this there's a museum in Memphis called Civilized Museum and in the main entrance there's this giant carving or like stone sculpture of all of these people and it reminded me of that. That freaked me out as a child, because when you walk into the museum it's very in your face. So, like me as a kid watching that and saying it, I was like, oh my God.
TJ:I hadn't seen this before, then it's gonna happen to us.
Micah:I call those the wallpaper people the wallpaper people.
Brooklyn:Jesus Right, I wonder, in the production design if somebody used that as a reference, maybe, cause I'm sure that sculpture was around long before 2001.
TJ:But that was quite terrifying as a child for me.
Brooklyn:Something funny about this. It is a horror movie and trying not to jump to the end, but, like not, a lot of people die in this movie.
Micah:They well.
TJ:The right people die in this movie, not a lot of people die quickly.
Brooklyn:Not a lot of people die quickly. A lot of people's souls are taken.
Micah:A lot of people's souls were taken.
Brooklyn:But like just legitimately like killed, like murdered.
Micah:Yeah.
Brooklyn:It's really only two people.
TJ:Three people the Pimps Girlfriend.
Brooklyn:Pimps Girlfriend and the brother and the DJ guy yeah.
TJ:That is like technically had nothing to do.
Brooklyn:Yeah, cause everyone else just kind of gets like pushed into the city of the dead.
Micah:Well Cause, that's the way she says it Well.
Brooklyn:The city of the dead, the city of the dead.
Micah:The cop dies, the other guy dies, shotgun dies, but they're they're murdered by Jimmy Right, that's what I'm saying.
Brooklyn:It's like the difference between someone who is just murdered and they're dead forever, and someone who's taken to the wall to be given to, as I was saying, like the people who were, like they just killed for no, not revenge.
TJ:Just like the people who actually killed. I was gonna say I've told you you were talking about people who had a hand in his death. No, no, I'm saying.
Micah:There was only one person who was fully given to the wall, and that was Cliff and Powell. The other people already, they were just heads.
Brooklyn:But that's what, that's what I'm saying. Like the people whose souls were taken to the wall Cause even though they were heads that's the reason he kept them was to take them there and he brought, he kept him alive, but then still sacrificed them to the wall.
TJ:Like I was agreeing with you in saying that those people had a hand in his death, versus the civilians that got killed.
Brooklyn:Just for the sake of being killed Like the white girl, the brother and the.
TJ:DJ Snowflake yes, Like they didn't have a hand in killing Jimmy.
Micah:Maurice got himself into trouble by stealing Jimmy Bones' diamond ring off of his skeleton.
TJ:That's why he died.
Micah:He was taking his finger off and the brother was just stupid and the brother was stupid because they go to the city of the dead and he sees Maurice and he's legitimately like Maurice.
Brooklyn:And he knows Maurice is dead at this point.
Micah:He knows he's dead. He's like Maurice where'd you go?
TJ:Speaking of the deaths, I was very for this movie to be what it is. I was very impressed by the deaths in this movie when, like I feel like some of the other movies we've watched thus far I don't know when this is coming out, but the Dracula movie I mean Blackula movie the deaths in that were a little questionable. How?
Micah:dare you again, how dare you it?
TJ:is a classic. I wasn't there for that, but the deaths in this movie were actually quite in like in, not in a terrible way. Full disclosure. We're enjoyable to watch visually and I don't.
Micah:yeah see, Do you need to unpack that?
TJ:No, no, I'm trying to figure out a way to say it.
Micah:But that is sounding crazy. They were beautiful, they were magnificent.
TJ:They were cinematic. They were cinematic, that's the best way I could describe it.
Brooklyn:I mean, I guess, I have to be okay with that.
Micah:I would say that appreciate, like greatly the way the movie progressed, like Sans plot holes, it really does have a beautiful through line, like I think it's tastefully curated and when I think back of it and like the imagery is something that really sticks with me, like the red, you know, screen cap or title picture.
Micah:DVD cover of, you know, close up of Snoop Dogg looking extremely frightening the trench coat, black hat, look that we all know. Shadow, look the red eyes. The demon looking dog, the really dark looking, desolate mansion castle. Like everything was really like you know. I feel like they really took all the extreme measures to make us believe.
Brooklyn:Yeah, we also can't forget that Dominic can blow out.
Micah:We also can't forget not Snoop Dogg, make him an oppressing girl.
TJ:I was gonna say between him and the pimp with these right yes, these relaxed hair styles. I was here for it.
Brooklyn:Which is odd to me, because I feel like that aesthetic is very West Coast. I feel like it's very West Coast, it's very LA, it's very Bay Area, which is confusing to me because we're somewhere where it is very cold at this time of year. It was nondescript but it was freezing. But yet the sister in the beginning was in a crop top and a small jacket.
TJ:You know, maybe they had the chance to schedule. She was white though. You know what she was probably from.
Micah:Massachusetts. Fair that's fair, where they do stuff like that on the regular. If you're in New York City and you see a white person running outside when it's raining and or snowing, they most definitely grew up in Massachusetts.
Brooklyn:Just really quickly. You were talking about the movie and how it progressed, and that's one to say. This is that when watching this film and you will watch it go in knowing that it is definitely a story told in three acts.
TJ:Yes, yeah, it was giving me play vibes.
Brooklyn:It's like when you think the story has concluded, there is another act and I think knowing that going in helps you watch the movie over kind of going. I feel like this should have been the end of the movie. It is truly a. This is the reason this happened. This is what is happening. This is the repercussions of this happening. Beautifully said.
Micah:Thank you.
TJ:With that in mind, this is a question for the group. Do you feel like you wanted more out of a certain act, like do you wish that one or two or more could have been expounded upon?
Micah:I only am disappointed in the ending. I feel like every act gave me essentially everything and set up so many possible scenarios and then we ended kind of like on a like what? Was that and like everything that you set up.
Brooklyn:like we didn't get any, I would love closure we didn't get any closure at all, Cause once we fade to black what happened yeah.
Micah:Like she found this maggots. What does that mean?
Brooklyn:Is she possesses Jimmy now walking around in the body of his daughter, Right, right because, oh, my God the mom, yeah, cause we kind of we set it up and we said that these are the rules of this world. The reason that Jimmy can come back is because his blood is still here. His blood is still here because it's on the dress. We've now burned the dress, so be damned with those rules and anything you just you know you, I'm sorry, we need to unpack that you just glazed over that so much and that is like a key element to the whole shebang, because you actually are.
Micah:You just hit a gold mine by giving us the three X and I feel like so far we've talked greatly about act one and now we need to get into act two so we can properly, like, get into act three.
Brooklyn:So where do we say act two starts Act two.
Micah:I feel like give me a moment, definitely with the house close up.
TJ:Well no cause.
Micah:I.
Brooklyn:I feel like that's the end of act two.
Micah:No absolutely no. That is definitely the end of act two.
TJ:I wouldn't, I wouldn't kind of correct the fact.
Brooklyn:So where would you, where would you say that act two, if act two begins at the house blowing up, where does act three start?
TJ:Act three starts once they are in the. I keep calling it the underground in my head, but that's not the city of the dead or whatever it's called.
Brooklyn:Okay.
TJ:That would be act three for me, cause that's the final line I okay, cause I would say act two is him being like materialized again.
Brooklyn:You know what I could? I'm going to kill everybody there there are. Sometimes you say things and I go absolutely not. I can see how you got there. I, if you, if you can make it make sense to me, I can go Okay.
TJ:Cause I'm like I again I said this earlier where, like it was giving me play vibes, like it felt like if I were watching a play on stage it was giving me. We're getting to know who this character is, with the flashbacks, with the dog hints of who he is, what he is, what he can do, what he's capable of. And then act two would be what he can actually do in the physical world, and then act three would be him and the city of the dead.
Micah:I've got it. Act two starts. Opening night when we get to the club is now open. Coming to like this, is it?
Brooklyn:Okay.
Micah:Because I mean, it could potentially start slightly before that, because what happens, setting the scene? We get to the past, we see the past characters in the future and they are all interacting with each other now and they are aware that activity is in the house and every character reacts a different way when they find out that activity is happening in the house. And then we get to the night where everything goes down. That's when the party comes in, people are coming in, maurice gets the can, and this is when we see the dog killing in public, like you know, not in secret, I guess and then this is when the maggots first come in. They throw up the maggots on Patrick.
Micah:The maggots start raining from the ceiling, everyone comes out, jimmy Bones finally has enough flesh and bones to come back to life and explodes. The house Comes up, everyone runs out it's the scariest like literally ascending from hell Imagery you could imagine and throws the iconic switchblade at Patrick and Cynthia. It spirals and they get out in the nick of time and then everyone's outside where the house burns, and then that's. This is why this feels like the end of act too, because you're like Well, the house exploded.
Brooklyn:That should be the end of it.
Micah:That should be the end of it.
Brooklyn:I think that I'm not saying that you're wrong. Dj they there, or am I? I think that I'm.
TJ:I think that because it was my.
Brooklyn:I think that I'm right, it was my, because it was my initial thought that that was the end of act two. I would say, with what you just said, Micah, I would and you did say this and I started a little bit before I would probably go two clicks back. I think the end of act one for me is the dropping of the photograph, because that's the moment we really see Jimmy re-entering our world. So it was before, right before the seance, and I think that we that's because that's us getting all of the history and where we are in this world, building the world. That's act one. We now see the metaphysical happening, which is the beginning of act two. I would say the rise in action is right at the start of the opening of the club. We get a nice climactic end point with the explosion of the club and Jimmy being in physical form, and then all of act three is everything that happens after the club is destroyed. Yeah, Interesting.
Micah:I agree. I kind of wanted to say act two starts or act one ends, two starts, when she's in the, when the seance is happening and we see like that feels like the beginning, ending of something.
Brooklyn:Yeah.
Micah:Like the and to talk about the picture that you mentioned earlier. So Jimmy Bones, up until now, aside from the flashbacks, has only existed in the flashbacks. But the mom, the psychic, the aura, whatever we're gonna call her she looks at this photo of them from the past you know they were sweethearts and his face in the photo moves and looks at her and she drops and she's like oh, my God.
Micah:So that's the first time any like present day Jimmy activity has happened other than a dog. And then we go into the seance where there's like supernatural activity happening at the house and the aura's daughter slash Jimmy's daughter, spoiler alert, spoiler alert. Now there's like correlation.
Brooklyn:And I think that that's why I would say that was the end of act ones, because it's if I was watching it on stage. That's the moment that Jimmy enters the present.
Micah:Yep.
Brooklyn:Yep.
TJ:See, that's weird, cause I would say I would say the opposite. Because he's finally physically there, because it feels like referencing theater, it feels like a button, like that, feels like when the house blows up. It feels like a button, but honestly.
Brooklyn:I will say this like I can follow what you're saying as well, like I could. I won't. That's why I say I won't say you're wrong. I won't disagree with you. I think that the way I watched it splits it up differently for me, but I can also see how, watching it with your perspective, that could be. It could be different. Yeah.
Micah:All right, so the house has blown up. Now what?
Brooklyn:The house has blown up and now we go into Jimmy's revenge pretty much.
TJ:That's going to be the chapter marker for this.
Micah:Yes, so be okay. Let's get into the murder, the murders Of why Jimmy has revenge, because, picture it, so we set it up 1979.
Brooklyn:Picture this Nondescript city 1979.
Micah:Right, jimmy Bones, as you guys were mentioning earlier. You know this is like right before the crack epidemic in the black community and what we see is Jimmy, who is an upstanding community man and is trying to just, you know, be straightforward with his business practices. There's some guy who's trying to introduce crack into the community, into the neighborhoods, like no man. I ain't with that.
Brooklyn:And it's so interesting that it's the pimp and it's the police officer, other people who are trying to bring crack into the community.
Micah:Interesting. And the police officer is the only white one. Yeah, go figure. So Jimmy, of course, is like, no, like, no, I don't not up in here and essentially it all doesn't go well. They're like do it, and the, the pimp forces Jimmy Bones to smoke the crack. Essentially it affects him greatly. And then his sweetheart comes in, the mom who we've before mentioned, and now everything turns sideways where the cop and the pimp or the aggressor and they get out their guns and they're like you better do what we say now. And then shoots him essentially like seven times in the body. He's not dead miraculously, but now that everybody's in the room, the cop is like I'm not going to be the only person with this. Oh beep, yeah, he said that he's not going to be the only one with this.
Micah:Hardy Blood on my hand. So he makes everyone in the room which is the mom shotgun. Clifton Powell was his name, I don't remember.
Brooklyn:The main character's dad.
Micah:Yeah, and well, the cop doesn't have to stab him, but he's also there too. So in the third act, after he dies from that, basically and they try to frame it they put his own, you know they. He stabs himself one last time with his own switchblade and they bury him like that, making it look like, oh, and when he comes back for the third act to invoke his revenge, it's on these people.
Brooklyn:Do you think, do you think, that Jimmy's revenge and his rage against those people who stabbed him is justified? Do you think it was? Do you think it was fair, in the predicament that they were put in, that they should have sacrificed their lives for Jimmy, being that Jimmy was going to die anywhere?
Micah:Excellent question. I don't think that they were necessarily in the wrong, but Jimmy does say something interesting was like you should have died alongside me, and honestly, for everyone except his sweetheart. I'm like, were they really that close? Like should I really die alongside?
Brooklyn:you? Are we that? Because I'm like the shotgun, I'm your driver and your bodyguard.
TJ:So maybe to be here.
Brooklyn:So to say that I owe you my life in this moment, is that? Well, that's different.
Micah:My bodyguard, I feel like, is dying to protect me.
Brooklyn:But if you're my bodyguard and I'm on the ground and someone has a gun to your head and says, stab him, is it?
TJ:I mean it's too late.
Brooklyn:I'm like is that? Is that covered?
TJ:in my bill of law worse to be murdered.
Micah:I would have to pull up the contract.
TJ:Yeah, that's a hard question to answer because I feel like you could justify either way. You could preach loyalty to the person who has stimulated your community and potentially put food on your table and put money in your pocket and all of those things. But, at the same time we're talking about life. So, personally, if I were in that situation and I was the bodyguard, or if I was anyone outside of the lover, I don't think I would have.
Brooklyn:In that moment I was just thinking about something, because I was going to say that Eddie Mack the pimp guy, he deserved it. Jeremiah the father he deserved it.
Brooklyn:But shotgun, that was a difficult choice to put him in because he wasn't a long term like a longtime friend of Jimmy. He was hired help, to say the least, and you could tell that it hurt him more than anything to do that in that moment and I feel like, even though Jimmy came back to get revenge on all of them with shotgun specifically he's the one he didn't take him to the wall. He killed him.
Brooklyn:And I for an eye kind of moment, which I can understand because you did contribute to my death, but I feel like the people that needed to suffer, so to speak they got what they deserved, but I feel like he came back and he took out shotgun, more merciful than with the other two.
Micah:That was a sympathy kill, which is funny because he did, but he also it's interesting that he was tortured in a different way than the other two. They were actually tortured, but I feel like he toyed with shotgun before he actually killed him Like shotgun had the opportunity to really be like.
Brooklyn:I'm sorry, man.
Micah:And he was like nah, he really egged it on a little bit and then killed him Like he did that. This is when the movie really started to get scary, because now that Snoop Dogg is alive and now has supernatural powers, where did those come from? Undefined supernatural powers. Undefined supernatural powers, because he can't be just another dead guy.
Brooklyn:No, no.
Micah:No, no. He has to be able to teleport and manipulate things. So he like does the classic, like I'm over here, but I'm over here and everybody I mean I don't know if this is really just American movies or who knows, but everyone is always like I'm gonna get my gun and I'm gonna shoot this entity 17 times and that oughta do it. Why do we always do that? People are shooting Godzilla.
Brooklyn:Yeah, wow, what do you think that's gonna?
TJ:do Tom? What do you?
Micah:think that's gonna do, Tom.
Brooklyn:With your little revolver, with your little revolver, go home.
Micah:So he shoots him and it goes all through a minute and it's nothing. But then he kills the other people fairly swiftly but beheads them and takes them to the city of the dead.
TJ:Yeah, I wanted to circle back to. You said something and I was like that's a really interesting point of view. Why do they deserve it? Why do you think they deserve it, Eddie Mack?
Brooklyn:Eddie Mack and Jimmy knew each other. They weren't associates because Jimmy didn't associate with him. Because he cared about the community, eddie Mack did. Eddie Mack was just trying to get his. He deserved it because he took pleasure in ending. Jimmy I think that Jeremiah is Judas. You brought the snakes into the inner sanctum and then, when things went left, you decided that you could give my life and I think in the cop he deserved it, but it's like the two of them.
Brooklyn:It was like. You two are from this community. You both know what this is gonna do. You know that the moral high ground is what I'm saying to you. But out of the, out of nothing, but the want for money and greed, and be damned with everyone else's well-being, you'll kill me, you'll let me die for this.
Micah:So for that you deserve it Also Eddie Mack was the aggressor. He was the one who forced Jimmy to smoke crack and said once Jimmy was like no, I don't want to do business with you. He got upset, it was like you will. And then, because that escalated and then the lady came in, that was when, you know, Blupovic shot him. No one would have been on edge if Eddie Mack didn't start yelling and getting everyone riled up. And he took pleasure in killing him.
Brooklyn:And I feel like Jimmy was. I mean, there are only eight people that live on this block, we know that now. But he was very much like I'm not knocking your hustle, you can sell it, just don't sell it around here. That's it. Yeah, honorable man. He was like people can make two more dollars to play another number, but you sell them this for five dollars. It ruins their lives, it breaks up families. He saw what was coming and it's just a Right $20 a bag.
Micah:But at what cost?
Brooklyn:But at what cost. The screenwriter of this movie is not a black man. Oh, it's actually like. What Interesting. So this movie is another one of those films that has a predominantly black cast. But in discussions in the past we've had, does that necessarily mean that this is a black movie?
Micah:Feel like there are a few ways you can be a black movie, like are you a black movie Because it's a black film? Director, film writer, screenplay, blah blah. Are you a black movie Because the cast is black and it's a black point of view? I feel like it's a black movie because the cast is black and it's a black point of view, but I mean prior to today, I didn't know who wrote this.
Micah:Or directed it. So I never had the opportunity to think about does that make it a black movie also? But I vote that it's a black movie Also because the two people to die in the beginning were white. I mean, where else can you do that?
Brooklyn:Ah, and we never saw them again. We never saw them again. They were throwaway characters, glorious.
Micah:Just kidding.
Brooklyn:All right, so we get to the end of the film. The dress has been burned.
Micah:Oh no. Thank you for bringing that up. I just have to say one more thing, then.
Brooklyn:We're holding.
Micah:We're holding this dress that we're throwing about. So, when they find Jimmy's bones in the basement of this building.
Micah:There is nothing there other than what we mentioned the switchblade in his sternum and the diamond ring on his skeletal finger and a piece of cloth. That is the only thing that the dog was safeguarding. Someone tried to grab the cloth and he like growled and would have attacked if necessary. Meanwhile everyone's just dancing on literal Jimmy bones as grave and he's like whatever. And then we fast forward to the part where the mom says there's three parts of someone like body, soul and spirit, and the spirit is made of blood.
Micah:So he was like oh so you know, the blood is probably what's keeping Jimmy's tethered Tethered, yes alive. And then we were like he was wrapped in his lady's dirty rags where his blood was. So he finds that dress when he comes back to life and it's like you know, hey, baby, I got something for you. No, I always loved doing this dress. It's like thanks.
Micah:Cool and so while after now we're in the city of the dead and this is like the real, getting to the climax of the movie, where Patrick and Cynthia come in there to see bones and the mom, patrick sees his dad in the wallpaper. People almost gets murdered because he lures them over there. He has this light bulb moment. He goes like I'm gonna go and stab Jimmy Bones. Jimmy Bones pulls his mother supernatural move comes on behind and is about to kill him.
Micah:And this is where we find out that Cynthia is his daughter. She's like, dad, stop. And the mom is like what am I gonna do? I must set myself on fire. I'm wearing this dress of his blood, so I'm not gonna take it off. That would be too much. I'm simply gonna burn myself inside of it as well. Leave my daughter alone if him for herself, because both parents are about to die now.
Brooklyn:God, hoping that the apartments were in control and her name is on the lease.
Micah:But it doesn't matter because it's somehow collapsing. It collapse Again after it exploded and we're in the city of the dead, which is somehow we tied to Jimmy Bones, tied to Jimmy Bones, tied to this house and tied to his blood being here. And this is why I was upset about the ending, because, after all of that happens, it fades away and ends.
Brooklyn:I just had an epiphany moment. Yes, ok, jimmy's dead. He's a spirit. We're in the city of the dead. She burns herself alive. Where are they going? Because we're already in the city of the dead. So she burns herself alive in the dress. Where are they going from here? Because we're already in the city of the dead.
Micah:Part of me was also like, maybe miraculously, she didn't die for those exact reasons, because shortly before she burned herself, there was a mirror, and the mirror of her was her in the real time, but the person she burned was the one from the night that he was murdered.
Brooklyn:That's it.
TJ:I never thought of that.
Micah:Yeah, because I'm just like if you die where the dead are, where do you go? Where do you?
Brooklyn:go Because I'm like, if we're burning the dress, is that killing? Jimmy how do you kill someone who's dead? Or is that breaking his tether to the living world? Is that repairing the rip that happened when that happened? I?
TJ:think that's what it is is that she's cutting the tether.
Brooklyn:So is Jimmy hitchhiking in his daughter out of the afterlife.
TJ:Maybe that's what it is.
Brooklyn:Because the guy, the main character, he jumps, she disappears for a couple of seconds and then jumps down after him and I don't think I really noticed how long she was up there until watching it now, but now seeing like, oh no, she did not jump with him, she stayed back. She disappeared for five, 10 seconds and then she jumps down after him and then they go outside. She never speaks until they're back outside and then that's when that moment happened, so it's like.
Brooklyn:Is that what's happening? Did he basically piggyback on her out of there? And if that's the case, are both their souls there? Did he literally leave his daughter in the afterlife?
TJ:To get out.
Brooklyn:So is Jimmy Bones a terrible person. I mean I think.
Micah:Is he a woman scorned?
TJ:It's interesting, though, because I feel like there was so much undertone of love, for what is her name.
Micah:Right Pam Grier's characters.
Brooklyn:Yeah.
TJ:Pam Grier's character that I feel like he would want to spend eternity with her, so I wouldn't imagine that he would willingly leave her behind if she's also still there.
Brooklyn:But is she still there? Because having that little epiphany here of the mirror is was all of this happening while she was still physically standing in the living world? But her spirit? Or because, being that they're both psychic? It's like can they live in both spaces at once.
Micah:There's so many questions, but keep in mind that they all did cross over to the city of the dead.
Brooklyn:So they were all there technically.
Micah:Physically. Physically Because after the mom sacrificed herself and that happened, they're running to escape because it's crumbling down. So they go back through the real world plane.
Brooklyn:But I think that that's my question about the mirror, because she doesn't see her current self until she looks in that mirror. So I'm asking if, in that moment in the basement where the elevator shows up, does her physical body get onto the elevator and go up, or is that her spirit being taken to that place?
Micah:I think she turned into that person when she got the dress. So she arrived as her regular self and then, I guess through memorabilia, he brought her back to that time.
Brooklyn:I don't know why, but the word memorabilia just tickled me.
Micah:And so from arriving down there then to putting the dress on, yes, when she looks in the mirror is the first time she sees herself as her current self again, but then she still burns herself to smithereens. So it is still confusing.
Brooklyn:So I do think and this is my personal opinion, I think that this conversation could probably go on for another three hours, and I think it's because there are I won't call them holes, but there's a lot of questions that can be asked about this film, and I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily. I think that it starts a conversation, so I think that we should give it a. We have questions? Let's put a button on it and like ask you guys. Like, if you have questions, leave them in the comments. We wanna know DMS.
Brooklyn:What are you thinking? We wanna know what you're thinking. We wanna know that, after you watch this movie, what are the questions that you have? Do you have answers to some of the questions that we've asked here?
TJ:I guess it's something that you saw, that we didn't see.
Micah:Let us know when do you think Act One and Act.
Brooklyn:Two begins. I would give, I would give this movie seven out of 10 buckets of cherry red paint.
Micah:What could it have done to merit at least one to three more points?
Brooklyn:One to three more points. It would definitely have to be filling in some of the holes. I think I wanna go back and look at some of the deleted scenes just to see if I can make some sense of some of the things that are missing, that maybe there's something out there, maybe there's an interview somewhere that I can get a little more of a full picture of what the story was supposed to be. There's just there's things missing. There are too many questions. Okay, all right.
TJ:I would give this. I think I also live in the seven world, but with caveats Always a catch, I know Aha. I give it a seven. I think my biggest qualms with this movie is the unknown stuff and I would have loved to gotten to know Jimmy before everything happened Like. I'm very curious to know his world in his life, like before he dies. Like I know that's the premise of the movie but.
Brooklyn:But apparently there was more that was shot and it was cut out before the theatrical release, like there's a lot more of Jimmy and Pam Griggs characters story prior to us coming to present day.
Micah:Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause we only see him in 1979.
TJ:For a blip yeah.
Micah:And one other blip is him being brutally murdered. I would give this movie in probably 8.5 out of 10.
Brooklyn:Just because and so you came for my points.
Micah:Like you were gonna give this like a 10 out of 10.
Brooklyn:You gave it a point and a half more.
Micah:Well, I mean, you were totally spot on with the holes Okay, plot holes. The extra points is nostalgic value for me, just growing up watching this and remembering it as I watched it again and being like, oh yes, these things that I have in my brain that I'm like this is where they come from. But I still, I rest assured, I rest easy on the fact that I still think it's a well put together movie, just with a lot of conversation starters, yeah, and I think that's fair. Mm-hmm All right. Yeah.
Brooklyn:Well, your points mean nothing because, Well shit. Ultimately, it boils down to whether or not this movie goes on the list. Remember, it is majority rules. There are three of us here, so if two people say yes, it goes on the list. If two people say no, it doesn't go on the list. If I say yes, it goes on the list. Mm-hmm.
Micah:I don't think this other works. It's on the list for sure.
Brooklyn:So that's one on the list, Tijer.
TJ:Surprisingly, I went into the list, mainly because it's one of the few black movies from the 90s that is classified as a horror film that I feel like actually delivered on the horror.
Micah:Yes, from the 90s of 2001. In 2001. Well, you know what I?
Brooklyn:mean Thank you. Thank you for being on that.
TJ:It lives in that 90s aesthetic.
Brooklyn:Except it's in 2001. Oddly, I'm going to say that I would not put it on the list.
TJ:Oh God the first one.
Brooklyn:I know what did you mean I know and I would like to be really clear when I say this is that I'm not going to. I would never say this movie is unwatchable. I will never say that it's a bad film. I will say that it is. I don't think it's necessary. I think you will enjoy it if you watch it. I think that if you want to see it, watch it. I do not think that you need this film for your black horror education. I feel like it lives in a space of point blank period is that it is a movie that is cast with a bunch of black people. That added the seasoning, but I can tell that it was not written by a black person. I can tell that a lot of the decisions that were made in the film were not made by black people. It feels very much like a story that's told from the outside, looking in.
Micah:I think the only thing that's upsetting about that is that you said you would add the people under the stairs to the list and not this I was going to say this feels like you're getting back at us because you didn't want to put that on the list, but I understand what you're coming from. I understand what you're coming from.
Brooklyn:I made my point Also can I just point out that Michael's mouth was a game for the entire time it really was Was looking at me an utter disbelief.
Micah:He explained all of that and he had to deal with a straight face. That's how you know he's a serial.
Brooklyn:I prefer sociopathic. Oh, thank you, he has the other question Anyways.
Micah:So it's going on the list because majority rules like to say that is true.
Brooklyn:You did not need my vote. You didn't need my vote, but I'm still devastated Nonetheless.
Micah:so where do we go?
TJ:And all I will say is that this was better than people understand, bivari.
Micah:Okay, and thank you so much. I'm not going to.
Brooklyn:I'm not gonna say you're wrong in that.
TJ:I do believe it is.
Brooklyn:I do believe it is a better film.
Micah:But no, your point exactly about, like your black horror film, education it firmly I can stand behind that, if it's on, watch it Like look at us.
Brooklyn:We decided to watch it on YouTube because 299 was too much for this movie.
TJ:I wouldn't have paid 299.
Brooklyn:So that's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying I get that.
TJ:That's a wrap. Thanks for listening to the black ass movie podcast. You can find us on Instagram at blackpodcast, and we'll see you next week.
Micah:Bye.