Something strange is happening and I don’t know quite what it is. I sat down to watch Bones, featuring rapper Snoop Dogg, and – to my surprise – actually had some fun. Yes, this is the same Snoop Dogg who starred in the atrocious Hot Boyz, the annoying Whiteboyz and The Wrecking Crew, which was just plain awful. How can this be? Does Mr. Dogg actually have some acting talent that has finally been tapped for the first time? Not likely. Bones is simple cattle fodder made enjoyable through some genuine horror thrills, a distinct visual style and a playful and unpretentious plot.

Back in the late 1970s, Jimmy Bones (Dogg) is a much-loved ghetto hustler. A Robin Hood type, he rolls slowly down the street in his car handing out candy money to little kids and shooting suave smiles to the ladies. When his associates pressure for drugs to be added to the Bones merchandise list, Jimmy balks. Deception leads to murder and the story of Jimmy Bones becomes legend. Now some 20 years later, Jimmy Bones plays Lazarus and is brought back from the dead to exact revenge on his conspirators and their families.

In a time when the horror genre seems to be in a self-referential comedy rut, Bones sticks to the conventions of mystery, monsters and buckets of blood. The result is surprisingly scary. Director Ernest Dickerson (Juice) and cinematographer Flavio Labiano and the rest of the visual team deserve the majority of the credit. The always-dark sets set the mood, while the moderately utilized computer effects create the horror. Ghostly shadows drift in and out, causing tremendous tension. Thankfully, they’re not overblown to the point where they’re laughable. One of the hallmarks of a classic horror movie is a villain that’s grotesque, yet still human. There’s the hockey-mask wearing Jason, the scarred Freddy Krueger and the disfigured Nosferatu. While he might not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Nosferatu or Krueger, the ghostly remains of Bones are certainly memorable.

Although it focuses on horror first, there’s also a lot of campy fun in Bones. From Jimmy’s over-the-top pimp-daddy wardrobe to the corny college-minded sex humour to Pam Grier’s (Jackie Brown) over acting as a psychic ex-lover, it’s tough to take Bones too seriously. It hints at degrading itself into another comedy-horror flavour-of-the-month a la Scream or Bride of Chucky, but rebounds quickly with a fast bout of mayhem and mass murder monster-style.

Bones isn’t a perfect horror flick, but it’s a welcome return to goose bump fear rather than the comedic spoof and self-reference of too many other so-called horror movies. Above all, Bones proves that the genre still can scare and that Snoop Dogg doesn’t necessarily have to stick to his gangster rap day job.