House of the Dead 2 Review

Title: House of the Dead II (2005)

Rating: 2 out of 5

Tagline: “Lock All The Doors.”

My Tagline: “Put a Bullet in Your Brain.”

Favorite Quote: “Oh man, they got the Sarge. They killed the Sarge man!”

Plot Synopsis: A viral infection sweeps a University forcing a team of scientists and soldiers to invade on a research mission. Along the way things prove more hairy then anticipated, a problem exacerbated by treachery, greed, and isolation.

Review: For the most part this film isn’t worth the time but I do appreciate the invention of the term “hyper-sapien.” First for its brilliance and second because I do not feel that House of the Dead zombies deserve to be called “zombies.” There is no mystery or supernatural element to humans turning from healthy, ordered beings into ravenous flesh-eaters and they are even easier to kill then a Romero zombie. They do not return from the dead, they simply get sick and once you shoot them they are dead. What’s more in this particular film the idea of mutation is explored. The longer the hyper-sapiens remain alive the more vehement and grotesque they become and the scientists seem to believe that they can even cure “first generation” hyper-sapiens. Hence the research focus rather then a search-and-destroy focus. This kind of monster-style mutation and perversion of zombie mythos deserves to be relegated to a different sub-genre within horror besides zombie. All that aside and with an examination of the film itself I would say that despite a few fun moments this movie leaves you pining for Mr. Boll and his brilliant artistic vision and amounts to nothing more then every other SciFi Channel bad movie. There are plenty of technical and logistics problems but no classic characters or dialogue. Ironically, the most enjoyable part of the film is actually the beginning leading up to the time they enter the university which gets your expectations just high enough to be disappointed as the film progresses. It has no real repeated viewing value but if you see it on TV one day and truly have nothing better to do then go ahead and watch. Just don’t make a big effort to see it and bear in mind that it is nothing compared to the first film.

Trivia: Contributing writer Mark A. Altman is featured in this film during the relatively enjoyable and legitimately funny first twenty minutes.