House of the Dead (1978/1980) really isn't that bad

• May 3, 2006
• James Skemp
• dvd / movie, review

One of the most commonly used hooks in scary stories is the idea that the main character is deceased, but doesn't know it. As soon as I read the description for the movie The House of the Dead, I pictured the three young boys from Tales from the Hood (1995) and Clarence Williams III (all-around great actor for this genre - see also his role in Miami Vice (in season one or two)).

Anyways, if you look at the IMDB, this movie sucks. And, if you go by the alternate title of Alien Zone, you'd be right. However, while this movie uses core elements, found in many other movies and stories, this movie is nonetheless pretty darn good.

For this and other B-movies, Mill Creek Entertainment offers a 50 Movie Pack, containing 12 DVDs (almost 74 hours). You can pick up the collection for around $20 at ShopKo. By the way, the Horror and Sci-Fi collections are true B-movies. Most of the ones I watched were semi-poor quality black and white. However, Carnival of Souls was in the former collection, which was actually quite good.

Anyways, the point of the story is; people who leave comments on the IMDB don't always know what they're talking about.