The Movie
OK, they've done it again. Another perfectly good video game franchise has had its name sullied by a rotten movie. This time the victim is "House of the Dead", a video game in which the player uses a hand-held gun to shoot on-screen zombies and other beasties. (The game originated in arcades and then migrated to home systems.) And while, "House of the Dead" doesn't have the narrative structure of the "Resident Evil" games, or the back-story of the "Tomb Raider" saga (two other games which yielded awful movies), the games does have a plot-line, which was thrown out the window for the movie, House of the Dead.
House of the Dead opens with five twenty-somethings — Greg (Will Sanderson), Simon (Tyron Leitso), Alicia (Ona Grauer), Cynthia (Sonya Salomaa), and Karma (Enuka Okuma) — attempting to reach a rave which is taking place on a small island off the coast of Seattle. They have missed their boat and are desperate to get to "the party of the year". (When we see the rave, there are about 30 people there.) So, they hire a local captain named Kirk (Jurgen Prochnow) (?!?!) and his first-mate, Salish (Clint Howard), to take them to the party. Once they reach the island, they find that the rave has been demolished and the only survivor is Rudy (Jonathan Cherry), who just happens to be Alicia's ex-boyfriend. Rudy explains that zombies attacked the party and that there's no way off the island. Now, this group, along with Coast Guard rep Casper (Ellie Cornell of Halloween 4 and 5), must find a way to survive the night as they are attacked by thousands of re-animated corpses.
My big problem with zombie movies is that they often mimic the monsters in the film and have very slow pacing. House of the Dead breaks this mold by being a fairly fast-paced movie. And, I'm no gun advocate, but I always think that many horror films would be much shorter if someone would just grab a gun and shoot the villain. In this movie, Captain Kirk (groan!) is a gun-smuggler, so there are plenty of weapons to go around. That's where the original thinking in House of the Dead ends.
This plotless, pointless exercise in cinema steals ideas from every horror movie (and several other genres) and the result is a goopy mess. The story in the game deals with secret agents who are tracking a mad scientist who has created a group of monsters. The "going to the rave" scenario in the film is lazy and dumb, and once the group reaches the island, the entire film becomes one long chase scene. Once an explanation for the zombies is given, it makes little sense and adds nothing to the film. The film's denouement makes a nod to the game, but it's too little, too late. And the game features many other monsters besides zombies, but we get none of that here.
Director Uwe Boll may not be able to tell a story, but he does attempt to give the movie an interesting look. Unfortunately, this look is stolen from other films. The restless Steadicam is reminiscent of Carpenter or Raimi. And, of course, there's the much maligned "Bullet-time" shot. (In the making of featurette, Boll points out his "Matrix camera".) During the big battle scene, each character gets a shot in which the camera rotates around them. This may look original to some, but it was taken directly from Wilson Yip's 1998 film Bio Zombie. Boll must have fallen in love with the Canadian scenery, as there are countless shots of the water and the island, lest we forget where the film is happening. Also, this is one of those movies where the night-time scenes which take place in the woods are lit as if it's mid-day. (I don't know about you, but the woods near my house are dark!) One of the most controversial parts of the film are the shots from the video game which are inserted into the film. Personally, I don't mind the idea, but for me, it just reminded me that the games are much, much better than the movie.
House of the Dead isn't the worst movie ever made, as it's saved by it's technical competence. And, if you're in the mood for a gore-fest in which NO thought is required, then you may enjoy the film. But, that doesn't change the fact that House of the Dead is a shockingly unoriginal movie which wastes a perfectly good video game idea.