House of the Dead (film)

Films
(Boll and Hearst universe)

House of the Dead
Release poster
Production Team
Directed by	Uwe Boll
Produced by	Uwe Boll Wolfgang Herold Shawn Williamson
Story by	Mark A. Altman Dave Parker Dan Bates
Starring	Jonathan Cherry Tyron Leitso Clint Howard Ona Grauer Enuka Okuma Will Sanderson Kira Clavell Michael Eklund Sonya Salomaa Ellie Cornell Jürgen Prochnow
Music by	Reinhard Besser Peter Ries
Cinematography	Matias Neumann
Editor	David M. Richardson
Production Information
Production Company	Boll KG Entertainment Mindfire Entertainment Brightlight Pictures Herold & Besser Studios
Distributor	Artisan Entertainment (United States) Alliance Atlantis Communications (Canada)
Release date(s)	February 15, 2003 (San Francisco) October 10, 2003 (United States) March 26, 2005 (Japan)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Canada Germany United States
Language	English
Budget	$12 million
Box office	$13.8 million

House of the Dead is a 2003 German-Canadian-American action horror film directed by Uwe Boll. It is loosely based on Sega's 1996 light gun arcade game of the same name.

The film follows a group of college students who attend an island rave party, only to discover that it is infested with zombies. As they fight for survival, the students uncover the island's dark past.

House of the Dead was panned by critics for its story, acting, cinematography, and unfaithfulness to the source material. It has been regarded as one of the worst video game film adaptations. The film was also a box office bomb, grossing $13.8 million against a budget of $12 million.

A sequel directed by Michael Hurst, House of the Dead 2, was released in 2005 without Boll's involvement.

Plot

College students Simon Cruz and Greg book a boat trip to an island rave party at Isla del Morte, an island located off the coast of Seattle, Washington. Joining them are Simon's crush Alicia, Karma (who has a crush on Simon), and Greg's girlfriend Cynthia. They discover that their boat has already left for the island; Simon bribes Captain Victor Kirk (Jürgen Prochnow) and his first mate Salish (Clint Howard) to transport them. Coast Guard officer Jordan Casper (Ellie Cornell), who is aware that Kirk is a smuggler, pursues the group after a failure to stop them from leaving.

The group arrive to find the island party site deserted and dilapidated. Alicia, Karma, and Simon search for other people, leaving Cynthia and Greg behind. The two make love in a tent, but Greg leaves to urinate. Left alone, Cynthia is killed by a group of zombies. Meanwhile, the others find an old house. Inside, they find Alicia's friend Rudy, rave dancer Liberty, and Hugh, who tell them zombies attacked the rave, killing everyone. The six go back to the rave site to get the others. Meanwhile, Salish is killed while walking through the forest.

Everyone else meets up at the rave site. A now-mutated Cynthia emerges from a tree and kills Hugh. Rudy grabs an axe to kill Cynthia, but she is killed by Casper. The group develop a plan to leave the island using Kirk's boat, but find it overrun by zombies. Casper and Greg leave the group to go find help, but Greg is killed.

As the group tries to formulate another plan, Kirk reveals the island's past: Isla del Morte was the home of Castillo Sermano, a Spanish priest from the 15th century who was banished by the Catholic Church for conducting evil experiments; one of said experiments was an immortality serum, in which he injected himself with before he created the first zombie. Casper returned to the group. She tells them that they can hide in the house until help arrives.

Kirk provides the group with weapons, and together they return to the house. Liberty and Casper are killed when the group fights through a horde to get inside.

Kirk hears Salish whistling outside and discovers that he is a zombie. Kirk commits suicide by blowing himself up with dynamite, opening the front of the house. The remaining four group members lock themselves in a lab, but the zombies break in. Karma, Alicia, and Rudy escape through a hatch in the floor while Simon shoots a barrel of gun powder, which destroys the house and the zombies but also kills himself. Karma is killed by zombies in the underground tunnels, but Rudy and Alicia escape.

A man wearing Greg's face as a mask helps Rudy and Alicia get out of the tunnels and bring them to his lab. Rudy realized that this isn't Greg, the man reveals himself to be Castillo himself. He attempts to use them as subjects for experiments, but they escape and Rudy throws a grenade into the house before locking the door. Castillo survives the explosion and engages with Alicia in a sword duel, stabbing her in the heart. Rudy decapitates Castillo, believing that the fight is over, only to be strangled by Castillo's headless body. Alicia crushes Castillo's head under her feet, mocking him with "Game over, fucker", before dying.

Later, Rudy and Alicia are seen being rescued by a team of federal agents. Rudy reveals that his last name is Curien. The ending narration reveals that Rudy gave Alicia the mutated blood and that is why she is alive, thinking to himself, "God, ain't love a bitch?" The agents take them to a helicopter and leave the island, Rudy goes home as he describes the events as a nightmare, and he wonders if the nightmare has ended.

Cast

• Rudolph "Rudy" Curien (Jonathan Cherry), the male protagonist who is on the island when the zombies attack.
• Alicia (Ona Grauer), the female protagonist and Rudy's ex-girlfriend.
• Karma (Enuka Okuma), Alicia's close friend, who has a crush on Simon.
• Simon Cruz (Tyron Leitso), friend of Alicia.
• Greg (Will Sanderson), Cynthia's boyfriend.
• Captain Victor Kirk (Jürgen Prochnow), ex-navy and a smuggler who helps Alicia's friends to get to the island.
• Salish (Clint Howard), is Kirk's first mate who always dresses in a yellow fisherman's coat and hat.
• Jordan Casper (Ellie Cornell), Kirk's nemesis. She dies when she loses her legs and bleeds to death.
• Hugh (Michael Eklund), a nerd who records the zombie attack on the rave on his camcorder.
• Liberty (Kira Clavell), an Asian-American rave-girl.
• Castillo Sermano (David Palffy), the creator of the zombies and the main antagonist of the film.
• Cynthia (Sonya Salomaa), Greg's girlfriend.
• Mark (Michael Melendez), a Puerto Rican pothead.
• Johanna (Erica Durance), a party girl who attends the island rave with her boyfriend.
• Matt (Steve Byers), Johanna's boyfriend.
• Thomas Rogan (Adam J. Harrington), one of the federal agents who rescued Rudy and Alicia.
• G (Colin Lawrence), Rogan's parther.

Then-CEO of Sega of America Peter Moore and then-president of Wow Entertainment Rikiya Nakagawa make cameo appearances as zombies.

Production

Development

DreamWorks bought the rights to The House of the Dead from Sega in 1998. The project was to be the directorial debut of Jesse Dylan, the son of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The story, penned by Dylan and writer Mark Verheiden, took place in a small college town where zombies are "the hippest and most popular kids in school". After the deaths of their friends, a woman named Jenny and "a group of nerdy 'necro-warriors'" seek revenge. The project never materialized and DreamWorks lost the rights.

Production company Mindfire Entertainment bought the option from DreamWorks. They were inspired by Dan Kletzky, President of Entertainment Licensing Associates, to produce video game film adaptations. Producer and writer Mark Altman admired the House of the Dead series' "cinematic" nature and simple narrative, which allowed more creative freedom. The goal was to make a "scary" zombie movie with marquee value, using new elements in addition to some from the video games.

According to Altman, Sega was "really excited" by Mindfire's previous work and their approach to the source material, and arranged for Japanese representatives to meet the team and contribute ideas.

German filmmaker Uwe Boll was attached as director, with House of the Dead ultimately convincing him to make more video game film adaptations. He considered the film a prequel to the House of the Dead video game series because "it shows how Curien is developing into a bad guy".

Casting

Jürgen Prochnow, Will Sanderson, and Clint Howard were cast as Boll had known them for "a long time". Prochnow played Captain Victor Kirk as a homage to his role as the U-boat commander in Das Boot. Boll complimented Prochnow for "[playing] a scene 10 times perfect, always [being] on his marks". Howard had roles in Boll's previous films Backwoods and Heart of America, while Jonathan Cherry had acted in the then-recent film Final Destination 2.

Ellie Cornell, who plays Jordan Casper, was friends with Mark Altman. Boll remarked "She is so great, perfect timing, very disciplined and great with guns". Cornell, who had to be trained to perform stunts, liked her character: "She was tough, she was a fighter." The role of Cynthia was then-beginning actress Sonya Salomaa's first lead in a feature. She enjoyed becoming close friends with the other actors and stated that Boll "was definitely a man of very few words, but you certainly knew if he wasn't happy with a take!"

Filming

Filming in Vancouver commenced on May 8, 2002. The shoot was marred by rain, freezing water temperatures, and a burn injury Cherry sustained on the second day, which required the bridge scene (where his character hurts his hand) to be shot later in order to explain the bandage he had to wear. A bullet also smashed the middle of a camera lens; the team liked the shot and kept it in the film.

Marketing

Reportedly, Sega planned to develop a light gun video game adaptation of the film. The Hollywood Reporter described it as separate from the then-upcoming The House of the Dead III, developed "in close cooperation with the filmmakers", and possibly using the voices and likenesses of the film's actors. The House of the Dead development team WOW Entertainment visited the island set to take photos for reference in development. The game was never released, though the film was still promoted in III's Xbox port and Japanese guidebook.

An official website, HouseoftheDeadMovie.com, was launched to promote the film. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ordered Artisan Entertainment and the filmmakers to take it down due to the "extremely gory" stills.

Release

Critical reception

House of the Dead was panned by critics. On Metacritic, the film holds a 15/100, meaning “overwhelming dislike”. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 3% based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 2.55/10. The site's consensus reads, "A grungy, disjointed, mostly brainless mess of a film, House of the Dead is nonetheless loaded with unintentional laughs." As of December 12, 2023, the film ranks #66 among the site's worst rated films of all time.

IGN Movies, however, gave the film three out of five stars, citing it as "an unabashed B-movie that does an incredibly decent job with a limited budget, unknown cast, and routine storyline."

In 2009, Time Magazine listed the film on their list of top ten worst video game movies.

Box office

Despite House of the Dead being one of few Uwe Boll films that made a profit, it was nonetheless a box office bomb. It fared better with DVD sales and rentals.

Comic

A tie-in comic serving as a prequel to the film was written and illustrated by Eli 5 Stone and published by Artisan Comics Group.

Director's Cut

A director's cut of the film was released on DVD on 9 September 2008. The new version "features new dialogue, alternative takes, pop up commentary and animation from the original video game."

Trivia

• According to scriptwriter Mark Altman, the original script had numerous elements that were not featured in the movie due to budget and time constraints:
  • Various creatures and boss characters were to be featured, such as a "tongue beast", flying creatures known as "Hanged Men" , and a spider-like creature derived from Casper's corpse (similar to the Hermit boss from the original House of the Dead game).
  • Many plot elements were also scrapped, including Castillo's backstory.
• This film featured Erica Durance in one of her earliest roles before she became known for playing Lois Lane on Smallville.

Gallery

Development sketches

Storyboards

Behind the scenes

Videos

House of the Dead (2003) - Official Trailer HD

Trailer.

External links

• House of the Dead.com (archived)
• Lorraine Carson's official website