Bones

Variety Joe Leydon

A sly mix of haunted house melodrama, slasher pic mayhem and retro-blaxploitation iconography, spiced with dollops of grisly, dark comedy.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Snoop invests snarling meanness with as much authority as Clint Eastwood used to. As an actor, does this Dogg know any more tricks? At this point, he may not have to.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

In exalting the very worst of humanity, Bones displays a special glee and an unusual density of scary imagery.

Miami Herald Chris Hewitt

Director Ernest Dickerson uses elegant visuals, suspenseful editing and lighting to give Bones its edge.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The rapper-ever-increasingly-turned actor -- is having the time of his life, big pimp styling in a flashy wardrobe as he guts and struts.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

With his spidery fingers and his velvet eyes, the lean, languid Snoop Dogg was born to be an undead player, and clearly relishes the role of Jimmy Bones.

Washington Post Richard Harrington

Too much of Bones feels transplanted from genre staples like "Hellraiser," "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Evil Dead."

Boston Globe Jay Carr

You'll laugh at Bones a lot more often than you'll be scared by it, assuming you'll be scared at all.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A ghetto horror movie that sets up some decent scares before becoming so amused with itself, it's a wonder we don't hear the crew laughing.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Dogg has the makings of a genuinely great actor. When he's on screen the film crackles, and even when he's not it's a trippy, funhouse ride.

USA Today Mike Clark

If grossness gives you the giggles, at least a couple of the movie's effects indeed put a little "wow" in this cinematic bowwow.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The tectonic shifts in this camp-horror extravaganza are unsettling.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

Director Ernest -- doesn't skimp on style in a film that bluntly exploits social conscience to pump up its taste for gore.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

Full of fits and starts, it never really gets going, stalling at every turn without even giving us enough of what we paid to see -- Snoop Dogg and gore.

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

The movie is over the top and garish. Its transitions often are sloppy and crude. But it brandishes its excesses like a loud, retro suit.

Village Voice Ed Park

Bones splits the difference between horror and social commentary, with pallid returns.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Too jumbled to become the major pop hit it wants to be. But it's not an entirely bad film despite its lack of coherence. Horror aficionados and other midnight-movie fans shouldn't miss it.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Regrettably, Bones is what passes for horror these days: Throw a lot of graphic, gore-filled, darkly lit stuff on the screen, and see what sticks. Discerning moviegoers should pass on the opportunity.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A silly, boring supernatural thriller that squanders a potentially interesting premise and the rapper Snoop Dogg in his ostensible starring debut.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

Nothing sums up Bones better than its parting shot, in which maggots are projectile vomited directly toward the audience. How so very appropriate.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Doesn't work at all. Even the structure is off.