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For the video game, see The House of the Dead 2.


House of the Dead 2 (alternately titled House of the Dead II: Dead Aim) is the 2005 sequel to Brightlight Pictures' 2003 film House of the Dead. The movie is directed by Michael Hurst and premiered at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain on October 14, 2005 and premiered in the United States on the SciFi Channel on February 11, 2006.

Plot[]

A few months after the first film's events, Dr. Roy Curien at Cuesta Verde University (CVU) in Seattle has managed to subdue and contain a "Hyper sapiens" specimen, who is revealed to be his son, Rudy. Roy experiments on another survivor (Alicia), trying to determine the source of her immortality, with apparent disregard for the rotted state of Alicia's body. When Curien creates a serum that he believes will bring back the dead and grant immortality, Curien murders one of his students and injects her with the serum. She returns to life, infects Curien, and breaks out of the building.

A month later, the university has a full-fledged outbreak, confirmed by AMS reconnaissance teams. Jake Ellis, an agent for AMS, goes in search of fellow agent Alexandra "Nightingale" Morgan. He finds her on a date at a restaurant, where she must execute several infected people before she returns to base with Ellis. After being ordered to retrieve a blood sample from the originally infected specimen on campus, they are warned that missiles will level the campus at midnight, regardless of whether the agents are still present. She assigns a gender-mixed Special Forces team of U.S. Marines to provide them with backup. Ellis openly questions the competence of the soldiers, leading to friction between the two units. Upon arrival at CVU, the soldiers encounter zombies. One soldier panics, and another becomes infected after his gun jams. When the others discover his injury, they sever his infected arm, but he turns and infects the team medic; Ellis executes both. The team continues forward into the university proper.

They battle through the hordes of infected, splitting into two teams. Two female soldiers, Lieutenant Alison Henson and Private Maria Rodriguez, and a male soldier, Bart, investigate the dorms. They break into a female dormitory, where they find a naked zombie body. A mosquito trapped in the room bites Bart, who attempts to pose with the corpse. Fearing contamination but unwilling to execute Bart, Henson handcuffs Bart to a radiator, and the two soldiers exit the room, falling back to the van.

Meanwhile, the second team, including Alex and Ellis, are attacked multiple times. Eventually, every soldier escorting them is killed, including the unit's leader, Sergeant Griffin. They fight their way to the professor's laboratory, finding the original specimen still imprisoned and a pair of students, Lonny and Sarah, who had survived. They enter the confinement room and extract blood from the zombie but are forced to kill it when it breaks free. Lonny and Sarah, who had allowed them into the confinement room, are overrun and torn apart by zombies, and Alex and Ellis escape while the zombies feed on the bodies.

Henson and Rodriguez make it to the extraction vehicle. There, they prepare to rescue Alex and Ellis, but a zombie who was locked in the back of the van by the soldier assigned to guard it bites Rodriguez. Henson executes Rodriguez, and the duo arrives in front of the science building as Alex and Ellis fight their way through a zombies horde. Henson saves Alex and Ellis but destroys the blood vial sample. They are forced to turn back, with ten minutes before the military releases the missile level the campus, and fight their way back to the confinement room. They retrieve a second vial, but Henson is bitten on the ankle. She remains behind and commits suicide as Alex and Ellis escape before the missile strikes the campus. Only Ellis makes it out before the missile hits, with Alex surrounded by zombies. Bart breaks free from the dormitory by amputating his hand and forces Ellis to hand over the vial. Bart decides to kill Ellis anyway, but Alex, having survived, kills Bart. His dying action is to pull the pin on a hand grenade, destroying the vial. Alex is wounded but uncertain of her condition. Ellis refuses to execute her. The two leave together as they head to Seattle, finding that the infection has spread to the rest of the city.

In a post-credits scene, the infected professor from the school breathes heavily and looks frantically around.

Taking place shortly after the original, government operatives under the command of one of the survivors of the first film, Colonel Jordan Casper (Ellie Cornell), are sent to investigate a new infection that has rapidly spread across fictional Cuesta Verde University. The operatives must bring back a first-generation blood sample from a zombie in order to create a vaccine against the virus, which is spread through biting; however, tensions between AMS and special forces, stemming from the apparent inexperience of the latter, create conflict within the team. Outside parties, interested in financially exploiting the zombies, also cause, second-hand, further conflict.

The parties now face an army of highly evolved zombies that can easily chew through their body armor. Battles rage from the library, to the dorm rooms, to the football fields. Eventually the operatives discover that the original hypersapien is Alicia (Ona Grauer), from the previous House of the Dead film. Despite her survival, it is indicated she transformed and murdered Rudy Curien (Jonathan Cherry), her ex-boyfriend and another survivor from the first movie.

The operatives are unsuccessful in the initial attempt to gain a sample. The second time around works, leaving only two of them alive. After returning to their armored car, the blood sample is destroyed when one of the soldiers detonates a hand grenade. The survivors return to the city to find it burning: it is assumed that the city is engulfed with zombies.

Cast[]

  • Emmanuelle Vaugier as Alexandra 'Nightingale' Morgan
  • Ed Quinn as Ellis
  • Sticky Fingaz as Dalton
  • Steve Monroe as O'Conner
  • Victoria Pratt as Henson
  • James Parks as Bart
  • Billy Brown as Griffin
  • Nadine Velazquez as Rodriguez
  • Mircea Monroe as Sarah Curtis
  • Ellie Cornell as Jordan Casper
  • Jonathan Cherry as Rudy Curien (archives)
  • Ona Grauer as Alicia (archives)
  • Sid Haig as Professor Curien
  • Daniel Southworth as Soldier

Production[]

Development[]

In 2003, House of the Dead director Uwe Boll stated that a sequel was possible and revealed that a script for it existed.[1] The script was written prior to House of the Dead's release by Michael Roesch and Peter Scheerer.[2][3] Boll, producer Mark Altman, and others involved were reportedly unsatisfied with the film. Roesch and Scheerer wanted the sequel to avoid the first film's mistakes and be more faithful to the House of the Dead video games.[2][3][4]

The story was made "darker" and limited to one location — a college campus — and focused on the AMS organization.[2][3][4] The script originally had no connections to the first film; Altman later added Ellie Cornell's character, Jordan Casper, along with Rudy Curien's father, who is played by Sid Haig. Despite this, Scheerer has stated that House of the Dead 2 is not a direct sequel to the first film.[2][4]

Altman confirmed that Boll would not be involved with the film, and that Michael Hurst would be directing instead.[5] Boll later stated that he "gave away" House of the Dead 2.[6]

Casting[]

In December 2004, it was announced that Sid Haig, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Sticky Fingaz, James Parks, and Victoria Pratt had joined the cast.[7] Haig and Vaugier admitted that they disliked the original film and hoped that Hurst's direction would be an improvement over Boll's.[8][9] Vaugier told Sci-Fi Wire "We're trying to erase the first [film] from people's memories".[10]

Filming[]

House of the Dead 2 was filmed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. It was the last film shot in the building before its demolition in early 2006.[11]

Cancelled sequel[]

In a 2006 interview, Mark Altman revealed that House of the Dead 3 was in development, with Mindfire hoping to start filming later that year. He stated, "It's a completely different approach to the material than the first two films and I doubt it will even be called House of the Dead 3."[12]

The film was ultimately never made. However, the majority of the cast appeared in the 2006 zombie-comedy film Dead and Deader, with fans stating it to be a spiritual successor to this film.

Trivia[]

  • Its alternative title, House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim, is similar to Resident Evil: Dead Aim (known in Japan as Gun Survivor 4: Biohazard: Heroes Never Die), an entry in Capcom's Gun Survivor series of PlayStation light-gun games.

Gallery[]

Storyboards[]

References[]

  1. "Boll Talks Of Possible HOTD2" (English). Horror Asylum (December 6, 2003). Retrieved on August 26, 2020.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Condit, John (2006). "Roesch, Michael & Scheerer, Peter (House of the Dead 2)" (English). Dread Central. Retrieved on August 25, 2020.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Brown, Phil (March 23, 2006). "Michael Roesch & Peter Scheerer Interview" (English). Horror Asylum. Archived from the original on September 7, 2017. Retrieved on August 25, 2020.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 simeon (June 21, 2008). "House of the Dead 2 Interview with the films Writers." (English). Skewed 'n Reviewed. Retrieved on August 25, 2020.
  5. "Altman Speaks On HOD2 & Beyond". Horror Asylum (December 10, 2004). Retrieved on August 26, 2020. “What I can tell you definitively is that Uwe Boll is not involved with production of the sequel although we wish him the best on all his upcoming projects. We have a great director in Mike Hurst whose helming it and it’s a completely separate story with a differenet cast and a story that is more faithful to that of the video game.”
  6. Franklin, Garth (January 3, 2006). "Uwe Boll for 'Bloodrayne'" (English). Dark Horizons. Retrieved on August 26, 2020.
  7. "House Of The Dead 2 Gets Cast" (English). Horror Asylum (December 10, 2004). Retrieved on August 27, 2020.
  8. "Sid Haig Talks House Of The Dead 2" (English). Horror Asylum (May 23, 2005).
  9. Brown, Phil (October 31, 2005). "Emmanuelle Vaugier Interview" (English). Horror Asylum. Archived from the original on August 27, 2020.
  10. Klepek, Patrick (September 14, 2005). "House of the Dead 2 Filming Completed" (English). 1UP.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016.
  11. "Dead Is Ambassador's Last Shot" (English). Sci-Fi Wire (February 8, 2006). Archived from the original on May 28, 2008. Retrieved on August 5, 2023.
  12. Callaham, John (June 15, 2006). "Mindfire Entertainment Interview" (English). FiringSquad. Archived from the original on June 17, 2006. Retrieved on September 1, 2020.
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