The House Of The Dead

House of the Dead is also known as “Alien Zone” even though it has nothing to do with aliens (perhaps a case can be made that the “zones” we visit are alien as in “strange” rather than “extra-terrestrial”). “House of the Dead” is a better title for it, just don't confuse it with the video game adaptation by Uwe Boll. This one is essentially a collection of short stories within a frame although the shorts aren’t presented as individual titles like they are in some similar anthologies.

The frame story revolves around a man who gets stranded on an unfamiliar street in a rain storm. No, he’s not a bright fellow. He’s having trouble finding help until a kindly mortician invites him into his mortuary (thus the new title). The mortician shows him 5 coffins and tells him 4 tales about their occupants. The man’s story goes on at the end to reveal the significance of the 5th coffin. I didn’t expect much out of this frame story as usually they stink even when the short stories may be good. It actually comes to a pretty satisfying conclusion this time, though.

Story 1 is about an old bat of a teacher. She lives alone (probably because no one can stand being around her). Strange things begin happening one night. What's that noise?? This is classic someone’s-in-the-house material and is mostly quite well done. I could easily see some people getting disturbed by it. Unfortunately it takes a nose-dive at the end with awful costuming, effects, and sound. With an ending that went for scary instead of annoying this could have been a really great, creepy story.

Story 2 is about a photographer who is a serial killer. We watch through the lens of his video camera as he lures women in and murders them. There isn’t much of a story here. We see a few scenes of him killing and get a bland explanation of what happened to him which is far from being any kind of clever twist.

Story 3 is about 2 detectives. One is essentially Sherlock Holmes (right down to the expertise in tobacco) except for his nationality; the other is his rival as they vie for recognition as the top investigator in the world. The Holmes-like detective gets a cryptic message that he must attempt to decipher as his rival stares over his shoulder.

This is the best story of the group hands down. It’s interesting and well executed. It also has the only actors I recognized in the whole movie, though they are faces most people might recognize on sight without necessarily being familiar with the names.

Story 4 is about a jerk of a guy who is lured into some kind of twisted funhouse and tortured. It’s interesting and features perhaps the best acting in the movie, but like the serial killer there isn’t a whole lot of plot. It’s little more than a few torture scenes and some basic character setup. If not for the commendable acting it would be forgettable. With some better setup and followup it could have really been good.

Not all of the acting is necessarily great but most of it is far better than I expected, and some of it, such as what's in story 4, is actually impressive. The Stan Worth soundtrack songs are surprisingly good as well (OK not all THAT surprising since I've liked other Stan Worth music over the years, it's just that flicks like this rarely have notable music).

The editing could be a lot better, and some of the other technical aspects aren’t as good as they could be. It’s not so bad that it just screams low budget, at least not all the time, but it definitely lacks polish. In essence it comes across as a B movie with a touch of A-list level talent creeping in.

MORALITY:

There is some violence, blood, and even a bit of torture. It’s pretty mild stuff by average modern standards.

There’s some mild sexuality but being that this is a PG movie it’s not bad.

Likewise is a bit of mild strong language.

SPIRITUALITY:

There seems to be a hint of supernatural involvement here and there. The mortician comes across like a pleasant Grim Reaper, and the teacher-terrorizing imp kids feel demonic.

The lost man has gotten himself into trouble thanks to infidelity. In an odd sort of way this is an illustration of secret sins catching up to a person.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

My biggest gripe is that there is some real potential here that most of the stories fail to live up to. With a few tweaks it might have been a truly good movie. I still enjoy it, though.

#TheHouseOfTheDead #AlienZone