Day 10: House of the Dead an Uwe Boll Film

Back in 2003, things were pretty good. I was in my formative years of college, those lovable losers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won their first Superbowl, and a little gem of a film named House of the Dead was released.

I can remember my excitement in learning that a film would be based upon one of my favorite arcade shooters, the aptly titled House of the Dead. A game with little to no story line aside from vaguely police like people shooting zombies through the skull with high caliber bullets. It was being brought to life by director Uwe Boll whose list of accomplishments simply distort space-time with their greatness. Who can’t remember the first time they enjoyed German Fried Movie? I for one cannot. But, of course, we are talking about me and my perverted movie going pleasures. So this whole genocide of celluloid was something I would have to watch (and later own on DVD).

In the theater with me were two of my good friends and one lone child with his mother. It was the films opening day. Popcorn, nachos, and large cups full of blue colored (and flavored) ice were in our hands dripping with glistening condensation. This movie was going to be enjoyed, swallowed, and ingested. The lights dimmed and we fell silent. What transpired over the next 90 minutes was absolutely inspired.

Teen party seekers/adventurers bribe a shady tugboat captain to take them to a haunted island where the “Rave of the Century” is being thrown by Sega (the videogame developer). The one girl with a nice rack decides to get the party started early and takes her top off on the boat. So far, so good.

When they arrive on the island the supposed greatest party ever turns out to be massively underwhelming, as in there’s nobody there. What could have happened to them? Where are these supposed hundreds of party goers? Who cares, its time to skinny dip!

So we skip ahead over some boring and incoherent scenes featuring our rag tag group and end up in zombie heaven. The captain turns out to be an illegal arms smuggler and has a crate full of automatic weapons and shotguns that never need reloading. So our heroes each pick up their weapon of choice and master it in the very next scene.

The next scene, which is my favorite scene, features our heroes slaughtering zombies while trying to get to a house (presumably of the dead). This takes roughly 10 minutes. Every shot fired is a head shot. Every intense face is in slow motion. There is even a high-speed 360° shot of every character doing their best Matrix impression. On the DVD commentary, Uwe Boll informs us that this effect was achieved by having a camera spun around the actors at really high speeds. So dangerous was this technique that it’s never been used again. Boll used it nearly at least 8 times. All of those times, are in this one scene.

Now they make it to the house, but not without casualties. They figure out what pesky experiments have caused this outbreak and attempt to set them right. Now I won’t spoil the end for you, but if you were hoping for a zombie sword fight you’ll be extremely happy.

So should you see this film? Well there’s a lot of gore, that’s cool. The zombie makeup is decent, but nothing spectacular. Gun’s? Check. Swords? Check. Boobs? Check. Plot? Not so much. Did I mention they cut together action scenes with actual game play footage? Awesome.

It’s tough to sit through alone. This is an experience to share with someone you love. Or someone you hate. Or maybe your infant cousin. Either way, you should be in for a decent time provided you have enough snacks (and a board game for the boring parts). Just remember that this is a video game based zombie movie directed by an amateur German boxer.

1 out of 5 squib explosions.

(5 out of 5 awesomely bad squib explosions)