House of the Dead II

House of the Dead II
DVD cover
Directed by Michael Hurst
Produced by
Screenplay by Mark A. Altman
Story by
Based on The House of the Dead
by Sega
Starring
Music by Joe Kraemer
Cinematography Raymond Stella
Edited by Joseph Gutowski
Distributed by Lionsgate
Release date
  • October 14, 2005 (2005-10-14) (Sitges Film Festival)
Running time
 96 minutes
Country United States
Language English

House of the Dead II (also known as House of the Dead 2 and alternately titled House of the Dead II: Dead Aim) is a 2005 film and a sequel to the 2003 horror film, House of the Dead. Based on the series of the same name, the film was 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 Syfy on February 11, 2006.

Plot

A few months after the events of the first film, Professor Roy Curien at the fictional Cuesta Verde University (CVU), has managed to subdue and contain a "Hyper sapiens" specimen, who is revealed to be his son, Rudy Curien, (a survivor of the Isla del Morte incident from the first film). Curien 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 has created 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, which is confirmed by AMC 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 or not. 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; both are executed by Ellis. The team continues forward into the university proper.

They proceed to 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 the deceased naked body of a zombie. Bart attempts to pose with the corpse and is bitten by a mosquito trapped in the room. Fearing contamination but unwilling to execute Bart, who is threatening them with a handgun, Henson handcuffs Bart to a radiator and the two soldiers exit the room, falling back to the van. Meanwhile, the second team, including Ellis and Nightingale, are attacked multiple times. Eventually, every soldier escorting them is killed, including the leader of the unit, Sergeant Griffin. They fight their way to the professor's laboratory and find the original specimen still imprisoned, as well as 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 Ellis and Nightingale escape while the zombies are feeding on the bodies.

Henson and Rodriguez make it to the extraction vehicle. There, they prepare to rescue Nightingale and Ellis, but Rodriguez is bitten by a zombie who was locked in the back of the van by the soldier assigned to guard it. Henson executes Rodriguez, and the duo arrive in front of the science building as Nightingale and Ellis fight their way through a horde of zombies. Ellis and Nightingale are saved by Henson, but the blood sample vial is destroyed in the process. 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 Nightingale and Ellis escape before the missile strikes the campus and only Ellis made it out but Nightingale trapped 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, Nightingale survives and kills Bart. His dying action is to pull the pin on a hand grenade, destroying the vial in the process. Nightingale is wounded but uncertain of whether she's infected. Ellis refuses to execute her, as the two leave together and headed to the city, finding that the infection has spread to the rest of the city.

Cast

Critical reaction

Ian Jane of DVD Talk rated it 1/5 stars and wrote, "Whereas [the first] film was so bad it was almost good (at least we could laugh at it), this straight-to-video sequel is just flat-out bad, and unfortunately, it's flat-out dull. ... House of the Dead II commits the ultimate celluloid sin – it's boring."[1] Beyond Hollywood wrote, "If you were looking for a movie to show you how generic and formulaic horror movies in America have become lately, you needn't look any further than [House of the Dead II]. ... [It is] indeed an improvement over Boll's original [but it] would have worked better had it stuck to camp and not taken the whole zombie thing too seriously."[2] Bloody Disgusting rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "Altman’s script skewers everything in its wake, poking fun at virtually anything it can gets its bloody hands on. But underneath all the pop culture banter lies an effective film, with some palpable tension and enough blood, grue and boobs to surprise even the most jaded zombie movie hater."[3] Jon Condit of Dread Central rated it 3/5 stars and wrote that it is deserving of a chance despite its flaws.[4] Reviewing the DVD, Steve Barton of Dread Central rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "It's semi-blood soaked, filled with zombies, open for business, and dare I say it, it's actually not a bad visit!"[5]

References

  1. ↑ Jane, Ian (2006-05-03). "House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on 2018-01-26. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  2. ↑ "House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim (2005) Movie Review". BeyondHollywood.com. 2006-02-05. Archived from the original on 2017-07-18. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  3. ↑ "House of the Dead 2 (V)". Bloody Disgusting. 2006-03-05. Archived from the original on 2012-06-07. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  4. ↑ Condit, Jon (2005-12-20). "House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim (2005)". Dread Central. Archived from the original on 2009-09-24. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  5. ↑ Barton, Steve (2006-03-06). "House of the Dead 2 (DVD)". Dread Central. Archived from the original on 2009-08-04. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
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