HOUSE OF THE DEAD

Five friends decide to celebrate the end of their studies by going to a rave party on the mysterious Isla de la Muerte. Upon arriving at the pier, they realize they have lost the boat and, determined to reach the island, they pay Captain Kirk to take them to their destination. But there is no rave party waiting for the boys on the island, or rather, not anymore. All the rave participants have indeed been devoured by bloodthirsty zombies, and now, the five boys are forced to take refuge inside a decaying mansion in order to defend their lives. After the success achieved in theaters by the not-so-successful "Resident Evil" (cinematic adaptation of the famous and eponymous Capcom video game) directed by P. Anderson, Uwe Boll decides to make the cinematic adaptation of another horror video game, "House of the Dead," a shoot 'em up (born on the wave of the Capcom game) released for arcades and Sega Dreamcast at the end of the '90s. With "House of the Dead," we are dealing with a film that, if considered in a humorous key, might provoke some laughter in the viewer; but if taken seriously, it can only make the viewer who has come across the viewing of such a film turn up their nose. As often happens in a horror film based on a video game, the thing that will cause the most annoyance to the viewer is the tendency to want to mix too much two distinct genres, horror and action, often making the latter prevail. This "problem" is found in almost all adaptations of famous horror video games, but in this "House of the Dead," the thing becomes far too relevant to the point of being able to irritate the viewer who does not like films that combine these two genres. In "House of the Dead," in fact, action is present in a massive way from the first to the last scene, in a crescendo of shootouts and martial arts that will reach their climax in the sequence in which our "heroes" will have to reach the inside of the house, but to do so they will have to face a horde of ferocious zombies, and how will they face them? They will do so with kicks, punches, throwing bombs, and firing bursts with machine guns. It is also worth noting the senseless use, in some scenes, even of the bullet time, which, as in this case, is out of place. We continue to list the defects. Boll's definitely wrong idea to make the film as close as possible to a video game by inserting intrusive (and little fascinating) scenes from the video game between one sequence and another and even the insertion (without any logic criterion) of camera pans around some character after their respective death; as if it were a contestant eliminated. The gore/splatter level is only barely sufficient, limited to some severed heads and detached limbs (mostly concentrated in the finale) when, given the material available, it could have exceeded in purer splatter, thus gaining considerable points. A poor job is also done on the psychology of the characters, who, more than ever, appear terribly stereotypical and lacking in any personality, something to envy the teenagers of any "Friday the 13th." The makeup of the zombies is also unconvincing. In "House of the Dead" there are two categories of the undead: the monstrous, decayed, slow, and puppety ones, which, in their naivety, are sympathetic and can be appreciated; but then there are the athletic ones who run through the woods, with poor makeup, done just for the sake of it, which does not convince and fascinate at all. The only seriously positive aspect of the film is found in the look of the final villain, the priest Castillo (played by David Plaffy), who boasts an intriguing and captivating look and can even be original; it's a shame that in the film he does very little! As for the cast, it is better to draw a veil of pity; the actors, mostly unknown, turn out to be decidedly incompetent and particularly unpleasant. Among the many unknown faces, the only known ones are those of Jurgen Prochnow (the Sutter Kane of "The Seed of Madness," here in the role of Captain Victor Kirk) and Clint Howard (the psychotic ice cream man of "I Scream for Ice Cream," here playing Salish, Kirk's rough helper). Even the director of this film, the now infamous Uwe Boll (who in his career will continue to churn out indecent works always drawn from video games like the terrible "Alone in the Dark"), does not do a good job in directing, carrying out the work in a passive manner without giving any hint of personality. In conclusion, "House of the Dead" is a product simply to forget and that adds to the many embarrassing films inspired by a video game but that, if looked at with a humorous and carefree perspective, still manages to entertain and perhaps (in a more than positive case) to entertain. It would deserve half a vote more for the "trash" component.