Death House

After mob boss Vic Moretti (late great Anthony Franciosa) kills his lady whom has been cheating on him with Derek, their new chauffeur/ Vietnam vet, and blames it on the poor guy, Derek finds himself in jail where he has to contend with a corrupt warden, Vic's prisoner brother who runs the jail, and, oh yeah illegal experiments conducted by a shady CIA agent (great genre-mainstay and first time director John Saxon) to turn various prisoners into super-human invincible zombies. Of course things get out of hand and it's up to Derek, and the rest of the unchanged prisoners, to save the day after the infected ones take the jail over.

John Saxon is a great talented actor & as a director Saxon is a... great talented actor. To say this movie (John's sole directorial outing to date) lacks a certain visual flair would be a bit of an understatement. However, the film isn't totally without merit. The dialog, while idiotic, is just bad enough to be humorous sometimes. Sadly, this isn't really enough for the movie to coast by on that alone and it takes forever for the film to even start coming into it's own (which is fairly late in the movie). As such, the most I can recommend this film is to say that if you're a fan of Saxon (which I indeed am), it's worth one watch, just go in with low expectations and you should be fine.

Eye Candy: Dana Lis Mason and Tane McClure get topless

My Grade: D+

Directed by John Saxon "Zombie Death House", with zombie shoddily superimposed to make this 1980's cliché filled flick appear more like "Return of the Living Dead" rather than a episode of "Hunter", focuses too much on exposition of the characters than on what this film was meant to be. A zombie infestation set inside a corrupt prison has all the elements to be a cult classic but this movie takes far too much time establishing the plot and offers little in violent mayhem.

Former Vietnam vet Derek Keillor (the late Dennis Cole) takes a job as a driver for local mob gangster Vic Moretti (the late Anthony Franciosa - did anyone survive this?) and promptly begins driving Moretti's girlfriend Genelle with his penis. When the affair is discovered Moretti kills Genelle and frames Derek for her murder. He's convicted of the crime (must of had a bad lawyer) and sentenced to death at a prison that conducts medical experiments on the prisoners through a covert government operation led by Col. Gordon Burgess (Saxon). This takes up the first 20 minutes of the movie which is way too long of a setup to introduce the "innocent hero" in a prison setting. The prison that I speak of has a corrupt head guard, Raker, that works for Moretti and answers to Moretti's homosexual inmate brother Franco and his boytoy Sean whom Raker gets "intimate" with during the film. Anyway, a new serum that's supposed to give ordinary men super strength is injected into one of the inmates about to be executed (does anybody think that super strong convicts might cause a problem?) when he turns into a zombie-like monster a begins killing his captors. Turns out that this infliction acts as a virus and the first signs of infection are persistent nosebleeds before succumbing to it. Derek manages to escape his cell during the attack which he then frees the other prisoners, who are more than cooperative for death-row inmates mind you, and organizes a hostage exchange with Col. Burgess who is watching the whole mess unfold just outside the prison. With the prison quarantined along with a few new guests, a former co-worker of Burgess turned newswoman Tanya Karrington (Tane! McClure) her cameraman and Vic Moretti himself looking to free his brother Franco minus his boyfriend. Will anyone survive? How will they get out? Will Tane! McClure show off her wonderful breasts? Does she ever fail to?

I don't know where to categorize this one. Clearly this was meant to be more of an action film under the original title of "Death House" rather than horror. When the zombies finally figure into the story it's only sparingly with too much emphasis on Derek's vendetta against Moretti. The gore is okay, not anything special and downright silly in one scene when someone loses an arm, and there are a couple of topless scenes including the absurd daydream that Derek has of Tanya. Speaking of the lovely Tane! this movie supposedly introduces us to Ms. McClure meaning that this was her first film. Not true! While "Death House" came out in 1987 McClure starred in the 1986 Klaus Kinski slasher "Crawlspace" in 1986 billed only as Tane!. You can find this in the bargain bin DVD section for about $1 which is all I would pay to see this nothing more. Disappointing.

John Saxon. Why else wouldn't you watch it? Not only does he star, but also directs. "Zombie Death House" was a modest horror b-grade cheapie that I wanted to like more than I actually did. Sure it was amusing and rather oddball, but the threadbare execution doesn't gel with its cartoonish ideas and mangled plot involving many genres / themes. It starts off like a systematic crime joint (interesting montage in the opening credits), finds itself turning into a prison yarn and then hell breaks loose as a genetic virus (from an experimental drug) turns inmates into unstoppable zombies while innocent people find themselves under siege in the prison.

Sounds crazy as it throws in everything but the kitchen sink, however in the end it's rather monotone in its developments and a lack of directorial flair (although Saxon enjoyed using slow-motion) really does show it up. Little atmosphere or tension arises from the repetitive situations and the editing is clunky, but still there's a certain raw, brutal edge to it and some moments of pulsating graphic make-up FX offers creatively icky surprises. It's tacky and primitive, but Saxon does a decent job making it tight even though its slow to get going and with the dreary prison surroundings a suffocating strangle hold is constructed. Where it actually surprised though was the performances; mainly those playing the bad guys; John Saxon, Tony Franciosa and Howard George as the head guard. Saxon gives a typical conniving turn as some sort of ice-cold patriotic CIA agent who likes to preach, but it's Franciosa who's the life of the party as a mafia gangster. The rest are acceptable even with Dennis Cole's wooden persona in the lead and the ravishing Tane McClure looking professional. Also appearing is Alex Courtney, Michael Pataki and Ron O'Neal.

Formable, junky low-grade entertainment.

"Don't touch my twinkies"!

A zombie B-movie about an outbreak taking place in a prison where the authorities have been conducting illegal experiments on the inmates. This one feels like it was inspired by both RE-ANIMATOR and DAY OF THE DEAD yet proves to be a far cry from either; in fact, it's quite tedious. Early gangster material gives way to more horror focus in the second half, but apart from a bit of gore it doesn't really do much with the premise. John Saxon directs and has a smallish role.

I really wanted to like this movie. It has a nice prison setting, conspiracy theories, bloodthirsty zombies, a perfectly hideous 80s-touch and it is a directorial effort by actor John Saxon, who also plays a bad (you guessed it) a bad guy. It reminds me of some (beloved) Italian horror flicks. But the direction is very wooden and there is no nightmarish/frightening moment in there. It just goes on and on and on, and then it (logically) has to end. More suspense and more daring visuals and its destiny as a cult classic would have been sealed.