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Title:
House Of The Dead
Region:
One
Genre:
Horror Action
Stars:
Jonathan Cherry, Tyron Leitso, Clint Howard, Ona Grauer, Ellie Cornell, and
Jurgen Prochnow
Writers:
Dave Parker and Mark Altman
Based
On A Story By: Mark Altman and Dan Bates
Based
On The SEGA Video Game Created By: Rikiya Nakagawa
Director:
Uwe Boll
Feature
length: 90 minutes
Extras:
Featurettes
Languages:
English Stereo Sound
Subtitles:
English and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 18
Sound:
Stereo Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2003/UMD Release: 2005
Theatrical
Distributor: Artisan Entertainment
Home
Video Distributor: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“House
Of The Dead” the movie is a prequel of sorts to the popular SEGA arcade game
created by Rikiya Nakagawa. The story is told as a flashback and deals with a
band of college co-eds who hire a fishing boat to take them to an island where a
rave party is being held. When they arrive at the island they find area where
the rave was to have occurred to be deserted, but they are not alone. Countless
numbers of flesh eating zombies come out from every direction around them and
what was supposed to be a party becomes a battle for survival. Seeking
sanctuary, the survivors make a break for a house on the island where they hope
they can fend off the creatures and get help. Of course the nightmare is just
only beginning once they get inside.
“House
Of The Dead” is one of the theatrically released “zombie flicks” to be
released since the combined box office success of “Resident Evil” and “28
Days Later.” While I understand that the intention of the filmmakers was to
make a “B-movie” of that type one might see as a double feature at some late
night theater, the reality is “House Of The Dead” never captures the feeling
of a good old “B-movie” because the tone of the film is never consistent.
Few if any films based on video games work because of the difference between the
mediums. There are things that you can get away with in a video game that just
doesn’t translate well to film. Often trying to make a film based on a game
conform to some sense of real world logic or coherence only makes the film worse
because it ends up alienating the audience familiar with the game while still
confusing the audience that is unfamiliar with the game. To be fair to the
filmmakers I think there are some great shots that capture the feeling of a
video game. In particular the device where the actor is standing at the center
while the camera strobes around him or her works well in “House Of The
Dead,” but some of the intercutting between actual images from the game and
the film will only remind some viewers just how much better the game is while
totally pulling those not familiar with the game out of the film completely.
I
understand that the filmmakers shot on a low budget and under extreme
conditions, but the truth is that’s no excuse for a bad movie. “House Of The
Dead” is neither scary nor particularly fun. Some of the zombie makeup looks
too fake to be taken seriously and the choreography of the action scenes is not
much better. The less realistic zombies should have been hidden in the
background to make the armies of ghouls that do look terrifying all the more
menacing. As it is it looks as if they just got a bunch of people in costumes
and makeup and just told them to run and act scary in front of the camera with
little to no guidance. What should have been eerie and disturbing comes off limp
and amateurish and what should have been exciting and even funny comes off lame
and confusing.
Overall
“House Of The Dead” is a disappointment as far as both zombie flicks and
movies based on video games go. It is not the worst film I’ve seen in either
genre, but I was really hoping for something a bit more entertaining. The fast
moving zombies add no thrills because there is no build up in tension. The
screenplay should have been completely rewritten by someone who was a bit less
attached to the game, but is skillful in writing horror scripts. This is made
all the more apparent in some ways because the Co-Screenwriter and Executive
Producer Mark Altman seems like a guy who knows his stuff when it comes to genre
films. I remember seeing him on a defunct sci-fi channel magazine show where
they would have a segment called “the war room” and Mr. Altman along with
other commentators would discuss genre films with great passion and insight. He
can be very tough on filmmakers and their movies too. So after watching the film
and the extra features I did not want to believe that he was partially
responsible for this mess of a movie. I would like to think he was too close to
the project to see the faults as they occurred, but as it is I think his
chickens have come home to roost on this one and I hope he and his colleagues
will be a little more merciful the next time they trash someone else’s genre
film especially when considering how bad “House Of The Dead” turned out.
Lions
Gate Home Entertainment presents “House Of The Dead” on UMD in an anamorphic
widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio that preserves the manner in which the film was
exhibited theatrically as close as possible for PSP users. The picture quality
is quite crisp throughout and while I hesitate to note that the transfer is
pristine, I have to say that it is pretty close to being pristine. The English
Stereo Soundtrack is very ambient with nice discrete separation between the
channels, especially when docked to Dream Gear’s “I Sound.” English and
Spanish Language Subtitles are also encoded onto the disc as options.
There
is a short featurette entitled “Stacked for Zom-bat: The Sexy Babes Of House
Of The Dead Prepare For Battle” where we see the actresses playing the game
and then going out to practice targeting with paintball guns on some production
assistants made up to be ghouls. The “Anatomy Of A Zombie” featurette
includes interviews with the creative team behind the film as well as some guest
interviews clips with none other than Writer/Director George A. Romero and
Makeup Effects Master Tom Savini.
The
interactive menus are fully animated with full motion scene selections that are
supposed to reflect the feel of the arcade game. “House Of The Dead” is
available on UMD-Video for PSP now from Lions Gate Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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