House of the Dead 2

That is saying a lot as the first House of the Dead was absolutely abysmal in every way. I was expecting the sequel to be even worse, but actually while not great it is much better. True it is not perfect, Sticky Fingaz never really convinced me often overplaying his part(though his death scene is hilarious), the story doesn't have any huge surprises and is lacking in scares and tension often coming across as overly-silly, the script while having the odd witty spot is banal, the characters are stereotypical and while nowhere near as annoying as those of the first one are still not very easy to warm to and Michael Hurst's direction while infinitely better than Uwe Boll's(then again any director is better than Boll) does have one too many moments where it is pedestrian. On the plus side, the scenery and lighting are much more atmospheric and this film is much better edited. The music doesn't have much standing out but is not as over-bearing and doesn't feel like an excuse to incorporate some scares into what feels like one rambling, long music video(the first film felt like that). The downbeat ending is a welcome touch and there are some witty quips in the script which brings some bright flashes amongst the general banality. The acting is also better than average generally, Emmanuelle Vaugher and Ed Quinn are likable leads and James Park is appropriately dignified. The zombies are a clear improvement also, actually showing some menace. All in all, a huge improvement on the first film even if it is still rather lacking. 5/10 Bethany Cox

My friends and I were in the mood for a really, really bad movie today. We weren't sure whether to rent 'Sasquatch' or 'Vampires vs. Zombies', but somewhere along the line we decided on 'House of the Dead II'. Obviously, we weren't expecting anything more than B-movie schlock we could point and laugh at, and that's exactly what we got. Better than the first one (as if that counts for anything!), House of the Dead II is an ultra-cheesy gorefest that will satisfy hardened zombie fans, but will turn off most mainstream movie watchers. However, the fact that you're actually on the internet, reading reviews for the movie 'House of the Dead II' means that, most likely, you are already a hardened horror/zombie fan, so you'll probably like this. It has all the 'zombie movie' goods: gore, decapitation scenes, naked chicks, gunfire, etc. Don't expect anything more than that and you'll have a decent time.

Didn't hope for much when I sat down to watch this but, as said, it was a better than expected.

Expect low budget, but not too bad - i've seen much worse in special effects and overall production.

Some of the scenes have been lifted completely from Resident Evil so on the whole its not too original -

And with both of those things in mind its okay - I jumped a few times and the build up of tension when trapped by hordes of the undead was pretty good (although very Res Evil).

There's some good humour too, with more than one nod to films it owes something to (which is good as opposed to just outright plagiarism), again particularly Res Evil.

I wouldn't run out and buy a copy, but I would watch it again sometime, there's worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

The original HOUSE OF THE DEAD was a joke! An insult to horror fans worldwide. Uwe Boll is and forever will be a hack in the Directors chair. There is no style or merit to his work. It is all plain, dull and over-the-top in a way that does not represent a keen and penetrating eye for Cinema.

With that said...HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 raises the bar...slightly. The story seemed to be put together better and had a focus in mind. Borrowing elements from previous zombie flicks like DAY OF THE DEAD, 28 DAYS LATER and countless others...HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 did not break any new ground. It did, however offer a story that was not painful to watch.

I'm a zombie-flick fan. =) I'll admit that readily, but it took me several months before I finally saw this movie because I was so utterly disappointed with the first one. In the first movie they had these incredibly annoying, flashing video game-sequences or something cut into the movie - probably to save money since that way they only had to make half a movie.

None of that crap here thank god! This was actually a pretty decent horror movie - with zombies! I say decent but for a zombie movie it was pretty darn good. The special effects were better than average for a zombie movie, so was actually everything about this movie. Even the zombies stagger better in this one than usual! The story has a good pace with plenty of "plot" and action through-out the movie, and the acting was surprisingly good. And with that I mean that some of the actors were actually really good and the others decent!

My verdict is that this movie is in no way a future classic by any means, but it is a decent horror movie and as far as zombie-movies are concerned - definitely a trend-breaker in the sense that it falls into the "decent"-category as a whole. Ususally zombie-flicks are either really good - or quite the opposite. So if you are looking for a decent horror movie or a good zombie-movie - see this one. But avoid the prequel at any cost...