House of the Dead (film)
House of the Dead is a film adaptation of a popular light-gun game of the same name directed by the infamous Uwe Boll in 2003. It flung his name into video game movie infamy.
A Prequel movie to the video games, the movie follows a group of people going to a daylight rave held in ominiously named Isla Del Muerte [1] (no, not that one), who are then attacked by hordes of zombies. Gun smugglers, cops, and a hundreds-of-years-old undead Mad Scientist ex-priest are also involved. A "captain Kirk" joke early on and an explicit reference to George Romero indicate that the film may actually be a subtle and deliberate Self-Parody. Later a "Funny Version" of the film was released, which is a Recut consisting of goofy outtakes and sarcastic pop-up commentary.
In 2005, a Made for TV Movie sequel entitled House of the Dead II: Dead Aim was released on Sci Fi Channel, which was closer to the original game plotwise. But this being a sequel to an Uwe Boll movie, it's not saying much.
Tropes used in House of the Dead (film) include:
- An Arm and a Leg: Casper gets her legs chopped off before dying.
- An Axe to Grind: Rudy's melee weapon of choice. Some zombies also carry axes.
- Attack Of The Rave Held On A Seemingly Deserted Island
- Bald of Evil: Castillo.
- Bare Your Midriff: Alicia.
- Big Damn Heroes: Casper appears to blow away zombified Cynthia when she is attacking our protagonists.
- Black Best Friend: Karma.
- Bling Bling Bang: Karma arms herself with a gold plated pistol from Kirk's stash.
- Blood From the Mouth
- Blown Across the Room: Happens to one zombie during the graveyard fight.
- Bottomless Magazines: Runs rampant during the graveyard fight until our protagonists reach the house, and then they run out of bullets.
- Captain Obvious: When the main cast realizes that they missed the boat to the rave, the narrator notes immediatly that they, in fact, missed the boat.
- Chekhov's Skill: Alicia's fencing studies.
- Closed Circle: The island.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The flashback scenes around Castillo.
- Developing Doomed Characters
- Double Tap: Casper is savvy enough to do it.
- Drop the Hammer: One of the zombies carry a mallet.
- Dumb Blonde: Cynthia.
- Exploding Barrels: Gunpowder barrels in mint condition from the XIV century.
- Fan Service: Some nudity is shown, as usual with these kind of movies. But notably from Erica Durance, who'd later play Lois Lane in Smallville.
- Foreshadowing: "They missed the boat to the rave. If they only decided to stay back at Seattle, they'd all be alive today." Subtle.
- Gainaxing: Alicia does it while she's running away from the exploding house. In slow motion.
- Genre Savvy: When Kirk encounter zombies, he simply starts shooting them without further questions. He doesn't look even mildly surprised.
- Girlish Pigtails: Liberty.
- A God Am I: Said by Castillo in a flashback.
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"There is no God. Only me." |
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- Grievous Bottley Harm: When our cast accidentally revives the dead in the lab, Rudy starts throwing bottles and containers at them.
- Guns Akimbo: Kirk with two Desert Eagles during the The War Sequence.
- Hazardous Water: These zombies can swim.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kirk and later Simon make one.
- How We Got Here: The film starts with Rudy sitting on the island graveyard and recounting the events that lead him there.
- Idiosyncratic Wipes: Footage from the actual game is used for transfers. It's as awkward as it sounds like.
- Idiot Ball: When the cast reaches the rave area, only Alicia is bothered by the fact it's deserted and has bloody rags throughout it. But even she is later convinced that there is just an elaborate stunt going on.
- Immortality: Castillo has found it. Now he is searching for fresh body parts to keep himself that way.
- Impaled Palm: When our protagonists are attacked on a walkway over a swamp, Rudy manages to impale his hand on the sole huge nail on it.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Despite most of the characters not having any experience with the guns before, they manage to score plenty of headshots.
- Informed Ability: According to the opening narration, Karma thinks she's Foxy Brown, Simon is Brainless Beauty, and there's a Love Triangle between Karma, Simon, and Alicia. Evidence on any of these descriptions isn't really shown.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kirk.
- Jump Scare: The thing in the blood tank.
- Latex Perfection: Castillo wearing Greg's face.
- Lock and Load Montage: Before the The War Sequence.
- Losing Your Head: After Rudy cuts off Castillo's head, he still has life in it to operate his body in an attempt to kill Rudy.
- Love Makes You Evil: According to the ending, Curien will cause the zombie outbreak because he tried to bring back Alicia.
- Lowered Monster Difficulty: The zombies suddenly become very easy to kill when the remaining protagonists are nearing Castillo's secret lair.
- Machete Mayhem: Kirk's melee weapon.
- Mad Scientist: Castillo.
- The Man They Couldn't Hang: One of the flashbacks shows Castillo surviving a hanging.
- Mix-and-Match Man: Castillo.
- The Narrator: Rudy.
- Neck Snap: Zombified Cynthia kills Hugh by snapping his neck.
- Never Heard That One Before: "I don't like no Captain Kirk jokes."
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When infected Kirk blows himself up, the following explosion lets the zombies inside refuge that our main characters fought for in the big zombie battle.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: ZOMBIE CONQUISTADORS!
- Not Using the Z Word: When the cast wonder about the things that are attacking them, Alicia points out that they are zombies and they better accept it.
- Now or Never Kiss: Alicia gives one to Rudy.
- Opening Monologue: Narration is used early on to tell us that things has went to hell and to introduce Alicia and her friends.
- Orbital Shot: Used when a character dies with a fade-to-red effect and during the big zombie battle.
- Our Zombies Are Different: These zombies are a combination of types C and F.
- Outrun the Fireball: Rudy and Alicia do it when they blow up Castillo's lair.
- The Power of Blood: Corpses are revived instantly on contact with chemically altered blood.
- Protective Charm: Salish gives Cynthia a crucifix necklace for protection. She never wears it.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Zombies are shown to have red eyes early in the film when they kill Matt and Johanna.
- The Reveal: In the ending, Rudy's last name is revealed to be Curien, the same as the villain of the first and the third game.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money: How Greg manages to pay off Kirk.
- See You in Hell: Said by Kirk when blows himself up.
- Sinister Minister: Castillo was one when he was alive.
- Swamps Are Evil: There's a foggy swamp in the middle of the island and it has zombies hiding in it.
- Sword Fight: A climactic one between Castillo and Alicia. Rudy attempts join in too with his axe, but mostly only gets in the way.
- Team Dad: Kirk.
- Title of the Dead
- Too Dumb to Live: Applies to everyone who consciously decided to go to a rave in a secluded swampy island with no power that happens to be named "Island of the Dead".
- Use Your Head: Liberty headbutts a zombie that is attacking her in the water.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Greg throwing up on Cynthia on the boat.
- The War Sequence: There's a 10 minute sequence where our protagonists try to reach the title house and have to fight hordes of zombies to get there. It's filled with Egregious usage of Bullet Time and loose grasp of continuity.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Liberty wears stars and stripes themed outfit.
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The trailer, with its 360-degree rotational roundtables of the characters firing guns in Bullet Time and labelling them such things as "The Weapons Expert".
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Liberty is caught by zombies, Rudy and everyone else just stare at them from a short distance and don't move a muscle to help her.
- Your Cheating Heart: Before they get killed, Johanna attempts to cheat on her boyfriend with Matt.
- Zombie Gait: Both running and walking zombies are present. And many stand around simply waiting to be shot.
The Funny Version provides the examples of:
- Do Not Explain the Joke
- DVD Commentary: It's mostly Boll droning on about how awesome he is, blaming other people for certain parts sucking, and chatting on the phone.
- Hilarious Outtakes
- Negative Continuity
- Non-Indicative Name: It's not funny.
- Parody Retcon / Parody Failure
- Rule of Funny
- Throw It In
- Toilet Humor
The sequel provides the examples of:
- Back from the Dead: Despite having her legs chopped off and being in the center of the explosion in the first movie, Casper is alive and well.
- Downer Ending: After failing to get the sample twice, the zombie outbreak engulfs the city. Though the last remaining heroes do survive the events.
- Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo
- Here We Go Again: After losing the first sample in escaping the mass of zombies, they now must fight back and get it again. After this succeeds, they lose it for good.
- Similarly Named Works: Dead Aim is also the name of a Resident Evil game.
- Your Head Asplode: Several times. One moment toward the beginning, actually funnily, a now infected waiter from a restaurant gets his head blown off nonchalantly by the male lead in the back of an ambulance. So nonchalantly in fact that neither of two in the back even blink when blood splatters all over them.