House of the Dead 2

The Details:
Director: Michael Hurst
Runtime: 95 minutes
Country: USA
Color: Color
Audio: 5.1 and 2.0 surround
Studio: Lions Gate
Certification: R

The Review:
Myself and corporatedemon have both passed on (the very idea of) House of the Dead 2 a minimum of 15 times. We passed on the sequel for fear of an overdose of nonsense, monotony, homemade bullet-time, and of course, video-game footage. Instead, HotD2 delivers a multitude of cleverly misleading character introductions/zombie scenarios, loads of uncompromising gore, and even a zombie football team (complete with flesh-hungry cheerleaders)!

The story revolves around a college campus that has been overrun by the newer and highly popular breakneck speed zombies (which in the film are referred to as hyper-sapiens). Influenced heavily by James Cameron's Aliens (from the very first frame), the story revolves around a squad of marines who are recruited to follow the orders of our main characters Ellis and Alexandra, played by Ed Quinn and Emmanuelle Vaugier, respectively. Their mission is to locate the Queen zombie... er... patient "0" zombie, who's blood hopefully contains the original, unaltered virus responsible for the now numerous, bite-happy corpses.


Our actors all do a decent job, but it's the story-telling that really make us cheer/boo/fall in love with the characters. Yes, a crappy low-budget zombie flick following up one of the agreed-upon worst Z-movies ever made (not that it isn't endlessly entertaining) has characters that you actually give a rat's ass about. Weird, I know. For that, you can blame writers Mark Altman and Michael Roesch, a couple of film geeks. Also a producer, Altman is essentially given a second chance after having to allow Uwe Boll to completely trivialize his first attempt at a live-action House.

On it's surface, HotD2 is very well put together. The editing is unnoticeable, which should be the goal of all editors, the gore is top-notch, and the sets are perfectly chosen/constructed. The zombies are hidious, original, and extremely memorable. The bare chests clock in at just under 2 and a half minutes, and full frontal show up in about 4 and a half. Commentaries galore, HotD2 is filled with references to legendary zombie, action, and spy flicks. For this reason, multiple sequences/characters/shots/lines throughout the flick seem vaguely familiar (as do a good deal of the musical cues). House of the Dead 2's DVD release is a decent disc containing both a making-of and a wonderfully real and informative commentary by director Michael Hurst and writer Mark Altman.

Unfortunately, the pacing begins to suffer towards the end of the movie, and we're made to sit through several pointless sequences that are only "intense" because of the music and quick editing (which, sadly, is enough to fool most audience members into thinking they're being entertained). Then again, there are wonderful little moments tossed in that keep you smiling. Specifically, in order to pass through a locker room packed with undead, our lead character absolutely drenches himself in entrails to mask his scent. Reminiscent of the elbow-deep dissection scene from Starship Troopers, it's hard to keep yourself from howling out loud whilst curling your toes.

I would also like to point out that the opening credits are simple and highly entertaining, and the DVD menu is creepy, original, and sounds simply incredible. I highly recommend House of the Dead 2 as it is both unorthodox and extremely fun.





TITLE RELEVANCE: May as well be Fried Green Tomatoes 2.
FRENCH CHEF: Post z-bite: "...nobody like French people!!"
NUMBER ONE PAYOFF: Uwe is nowhere in site.