As of late, director Ernest Dickerson has worked on plenty of TV, like The Walking Dead, Dexter, The Man in the High Castle and The Wire. But around here, he's better known for his movies Juice and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight. He also worked on the first two seasons of Tales from the Dark Side, giving him a great eye for horror. Throw in Snoop Dogg as a demon from the past of a neighborhood and it looks like we have a movie!

Way back in 1979, Jimmy Bones (Snoop Dogg) was a numbers runner, but also a respected and loved protector of his community. That all changes when he's betrayed by drug dealer Eddie Mack (Ricky Harris, who was many of the skit voices on Snoop's albums) and bad cop Lupovich, who also forced Jimmy's friends Jeremiah and Shotgun - as well as his girl Pearl (Pam Grier!) - to be complicit in his death by stabbing him and burying him inside a building. Soon, the neighborhood dies around Jimmy Bones.

In 2001, four enterprising teens - some of them the children of the people who killed Jimmy - open a hip hop club in the building where Jimmy's body rests. Well, rest isn't the right term. Soon, he's back, bringing Hell with him as he takes the lives of each of the men who destroyed everything he held dear.

The best parts of this movie are the talking heads of the people Bones has killed, as well as Pam Grier. She's always dependable and pretty fun here, both in her 1979 role and the 2001 version, who has become a fortune teller.

There are some great shots of Snoop slowly walking his way out of Hell to come back to our reality. As long as you aren't expecting anything, then you'll probably enjoy this. Snoop's exactly the kind of actor you'd expect him to be - he's having fun making his own version of J.D.'s Revenge and getting to make out with Pam Grier. We should all be so lucky.

BONES is an attempt at a black, urban horror film starring the rapper Snoop Dogg. In fact, I think Dogg's presence is one of the biggest detractions of the whole film; his acting simply isn't up to much, considering the decent performances that the likes of Ice Cube have done in the past. Dogg is a distraction here, his delivery stilted, and I think the film would have been better off without him.

Not that the script is very good. Ernest Dickerson - who helmed TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS DEMON KNIGHT and some WALKING DEAD episodes - does an adequate job as director, but the script is sub-par and pretty low brow, it has to be said. The set-up of the cursed mythical figure returning to right some wrongs is fine, but the execution isn't great and all of the characters are badly written. This feels like a cheesy NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET sequel more than anything else.

Still, there are reasons to watch BONES, and those increase if you're a fan of cheesy horror. There's plentiful gore and some stand-out sequences involving the likes of maggot storms which would have made Lucio Fulci proud. The emphasis on prosthetic effects for the most part is a good one. Pam Grier is always a pleasure to see in the cinema, and there's a minor part for GINGER SNAPS starlet Katharine Isabelle too. But overall, too many scenes in BONES are stilted with hollow-sound dialogue, particularly those set in the past, which end up feeling like the cast are just playing dress up.

Any film with a rap artist as its star should be approached with caution: for every '8-Mile' (Eminem),there are a dozen 'Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent's (DMX). Not that the failure of Bones is the sole fault of its legendary hip-hop star Snoop Dogg (AKA Snoop Doggy Dogg, Snoop Lion, DJ Snoopadelic, Snoopzilla)—even the most talented of thespians couldn't prevent this predictable vengeful ghost story from being a total mess.

In addition to a tired and muddled plot that leaves too many questions unanswered (what did that dog have to do with things? why didn't Bones's spirit kill the kids as soon as they entered the house? why wasn't that building demolished like the others?),this film suffers from an irritatingly 'trendy' directorial style and gimmicky editing, awkward humour (were those talking severed heads really necessary?) and totally wastes the talents of both Pam 'Coffy' Grier and horror hottie Katherine Isabelle (in the role of token white girl).

Working slightly in the film's favour are its impressive production design, the half-decent gore (the red paint for blood notwithstanding),a few neat visual references to cult horror classics, and some surprisingly good visual effects, but make no bones about it, this is a desperately uneven and not in the least bit scary effort that even avid Snoop fans might want to give a miss.