Sexylocher Masterful Movie

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Rainey Dawn House of the Dead AKA Alien Zone (1978). I think House of the Dead is definitely the better title for this one -- Alien Zone doesn't fit it too well at all that sounds like a sci-fi film and this one has no Aliens in it (well maybe those creepy kids in the first story).I really enjoyed all of the stories in this anthology. I think the 1st story, Mrs. Sibiler, and the 3rd story, The Investigator and The Detective, are my favorites - tied for first place. Then I would say the 2nd story and last but not least the 4th story. Of course the story that starts and ends the anthology is the best off all (Talmudge and The Mortician)... The Mortician tells Talmudge and the viewers the 4 stories plus they have a tale of their own.Worth watching if you like horror anthologies.8/10

Red-Barracuda I do like anthology films. I mean they aren't usually too great but the important thing is that they are very rarely ever boring. The format ensures that if one story isn't working another one will be coming along soon enough to take us in another direction. Which brings us to The House of the Dead. This low budget portmanteau film displays all the usual pluses and minuses of this sub-genre. Its framing story has a man wind up at a mortician's house in the middle of a stormy night. The embalmer shows him some recently dead bodies left in his care and tells the morbid stories that led them to him.Story 1 – Tells the story of a school teacher who dislikes children. One night she is terrorised by an unseen presence in her house. It turns out to ultimately be a group of children in Halloween masks. Although not ordinary children, these are mini monsters. The finale to this one is pretty good and unexpected. The kids make for quite sinister villains.Story 2 – This one is about a photographer who surreptitiously films young women in his studio who he then kills. This segment is the poorest of the four. Its subject has potential interest but it's just so badly put together with a total lack of suspense and no pay off. You are left wondering why they bothered with this one.Story 3 – This tale has two arrogant criminologists mentally jousting with each other to see who is the greater of the two. This is the strongest episode with two decent performances and a compelling – if predictable – plot line.Story 4 – This story has an unfeeling businessman being trapped in a room in an abandoned building where he is tortured mentally. The idea of this one is interesting but the brief running time effects how much could be done with it. It's quite odd and mysterious though.The framing story is good and bad. The good concerns the mortician and his house of the dead. The bad concerns the adultery angle which is not done with much effort and could have been better thought out to round off the story in a more satisfying way.Overall, this is a film that is a fun little anthology. Oh and the original title Alien Zone is incredibly stupid.

Hitchcoc This is just an excuse to present some badly produced mini-films. The vehicle is an undertaker who is setting a guy up. This guy has been cheating on his wife and deserves anything he gets. Unfortunately, we are the victims, having to endure these stories. These channel to hell things are so silly. The dramatic sense of them is so obvious. It makes one appreciate things like "The Twilight Zone" and its ilk because the lame stories and unsatisfying presentations show why Serling was so successful. We can see the end coming from the outset. The only episode that passed a little bit of muster was the battle of the two crime experts and even that one falls a little flat. Poe would have done it a lot better.Finally, there has to be a reason that guy is where he is. The undertaker was just doing the devil's work, I guess.

Coventry Whenever the title "House of the Dead" is mentioned nowadays, people – and horror fanatics in particular – automatically link it to that hag Uwe Boll's AWFUL video game horror adaptation about UN-frightening looking CGI zombies on an island. Another movie with the same title existed already since the late 1970's, though it's also known under the completely irrelevant title "Alien Zone", and that one is a lot better! It's a low-budget exploitation attempt to create a horror anthology similar to the contemporary successful British films, like "Tales that Witness Madness" or "Asylum", complete with a detailed wraparound story and a sinister host. Whilst on a business trip in an unknown city, a guy named Talmudge cheats on his wife and gets lost on his way back to the hotel. Since there's a heavy thunderstorm going on, a seemly friendly mortician invites him in and informs him abut the background stories of four "clients" of his. None of these horror mini-tales is groundbreaking or particularly shocking, but they all feature an admirably dark atmosphere and revolve on rather inventive topics. The first story is extremely short and introduces a lonely female schoolteacher with a clear aversion towards children. When she goes home one night, she senses a strange presence in her house and subsequently gets attacked by a large collection of eerily deformed and mask-wearing children. I'm not quite sure what the deeper meaning of this short story was, but those kids sure looked creepy! The second story is – once again – a very short reworking of the classic film "Peeping Tom", with a perverted man inviting girls to his apartment and murdering them for the eye of the camera. The tone of this segment is definitely disturbing, but it has no satisfying ending, since it just cuts back to the mortician who explains the culprit got executed for his crimes. Huh? What's the point? Then comes the third and unquestionably best chapter of "House of the Dead", about an intellectual criminologist competing with his overseas colleague of Scotland Yard for the honor of most deductive police investigator in the world. This segment has an incredibly predictable climax, but it's very enjoyable thanks to the wit dialogs and convincing on screen chemistry between actors Charles Aidman and Bernard Fox. The fourth and final segment hints at some really horrific themes, but unfortunately the elaboration is poor. It's about an egocentric man who gets terrorized by unseen forces and eventually becomes everything he detests himself. Namely a needy and filthy individual who blindly gets passed by on the streets. It's a curious little tale that definitely deserved some more plotting and perhaps a slightly longer playtime. Naturally the film ends with an unmerciful fate for Talmudge (adultery, remember…). The late 70's definitely brought forward better horror films than this, but "House of the Dead" is nonetheless a worthwhile and entertaining little chiller that offers a handful of frights and delightful genre clichés. It's a film for undemanding trash-fans.