Cinema Sunday: House of the Dead (2003)

Its not often that a film based on a video game is very good, and this week’s pick is no exception. This week’s Cinema Sunday pick is House of the Dead, a film that I like to pretend I didn’t buy from a Blockbuster closing sale, and also spawned a made for TV sequel two years after the release of the first film.

Sinopsis

For those of you who are unaware, “House of the Dead” is a first person shooter game originally release in 1996 in arcade style (See kids, thats where people used to go to play video games, sort of like xbox without a yelling German kid), and then was internationally released by Sega the following year. I highly doubt the creators of the game intended to have the film made into a cheesy horror film to later be reviewed by little ol’ me, but hey it happened. So deal with it.
Basically, a group of party loving students head over to an island for a rave, but soon discover they aren’t alone. The film features terribly cheesy deaths, barely dressed females, and incredibly subpar acting. Its hilarious, which probably wasn’t the intention.
It does however star at least one sort of well known actor Johnathan Cherry, known for Final Destination 2 and Goon.

Review

This is a b-movie in its most prime state with all the essentials:

college students: CHECK
a party/rave: CHECK
a location that prevents people from leaving: CHECK
zombies: CHECK

In an attempt to avoid angry gamer fans, the film is set as a prequel to the actual video game. Which doesn’t really help the film in all honesty, but makes it a perfect b-movie for your collection, and Sunday movie viewing.

Rating

4 zombie island ravers out of 10
Who should watch this?
zombies
Probably not video game fans
you

Stay tuned next week for another installment of #CinemaSunday ! For more from me check out my twitter @thenikkisin