Death House

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.

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+

This film essentially begins with a Vietnam veteran named "Derek Keillor" (Dennis Cole) having been discharged from the Army and accepting a job working as a chauffeur to a mob boss by the name of "Vic Moretti" (Anthony Franciosa). Trouble begins, however, when Vic discovers that his mistress "Genelle Davis" (Dana Lis Mason) is having an affair with Derek. To remedy the situation, Vic kills Genelle and then frames Derek for the murder. To make matters even worse, it just so happens that Vic's brother "Franco Moretti" (Michael Pataki) is also a prisoner in the same facility and pretty much controls everything and everybody inside--and he is quite anxious to get his hands on Derek. But what he doesn't count on is the fact that a federal agent named "Colonel Gordon Burgess" (John Saxon) has decided to use some of the prisoners in that same facility as guinea pigs for a dangerous new drug which results in a contagious disease that begins to turn almost everyone inside the prison into raging zombies. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that the film started out well enough but then low-budget aspects soon became much too apparent, and things went downhill from there. Admittedly, having two attractive actresses like Dana Lis Mason and Tane McClure (as "Tanya Kerrington") certainly didn't hurt matters. Even so, it just wasn't enough for me to rate this film any higher than I have. Slightly below average.

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"!

John Saxon was a wonderful actor: he brought style and class to numerous cult classics, working for such film-makers as Mario Bava, Wes Craven, Dario Argento, Sergio Martino, Robert Rodriguez, John Sturges, and Robert Clouse. However, I think it's fair to say that, judging by Death House, Saxon wasn't that great behind the camera himself: his only gig as director, this film is a forgettable piece of trash that meanders aimlessly for an hour and a half, with pedestrian action, wooden performances, and very little in the way of originality or excitement.

Saxon also stars in the film, playing shady government operative Colonel Gordon Burgess, who uses the inmates at a penitentiary as guinea pigs for an experimental virus that turns people into superhuman zombies. Vietnam vet Derek Keillor (Dennis Cole), on death row after being framed for murder by mafia boss Moretti (Anthony Franciosa), attempts to lead the uninfected out of the prison, but finds that Burgess has placed the establishment in quarantine.

With a plot that goes nowhere for much of the time, Death House is an extremely tedious zombie film. The only times that the film displays any life is when Saxon sees fit to throw in some gratuitous nudity or gore. Sadly, there just isn't enough of either to compensate for the lack of genuine suspense or decent action. Cole is passable in the hero role, and Saxon and Franciosa (co-stars in Argento's Tenebre) are as solid as ever as the villains, but what this film sorely needed was much more splatter and T&A, because nothing succeeds like excess.