Sick Product of a Sick System

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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"!

"Zombie Death House" is a superbly decent 80s cheese-fest zombie film.**SPOILERS**In the middle of a drug war, Derek Keillor, (Dennis Cole) is soon framed by his target, Vic Moretti, (Anthony Franciosa) a renown mob boss and is sent to death row in prison. While awaiting sentencing, he finds that Colonel Gordon Burgess, (John Saxon) is in league with Warden Hagan, (Alex Courtney) is testing a strange chemical on the prisoners inside, which no one knows anything about. When the experiment gets out of hand and starts producing invincible inmates that soon attack the guards, he forms an posse with the other unchanged inmates and decides to take over the prison, seeing it as a chance to escape. When that fails and are forced to stay inside the prison until they can figure out what to do, they realize that there was a whole host of experiments done on the prisoners and those are now roaming the prison halls as zombies, turning them on each other and making the situation even harder to grasp. With tensions high and time running out, they try several different methods to deal with the situation before the zombies take them all out.The Good News: This one here didn't have too much going for it. The fact that there's some really nice zombie action is one of the biggest ones, as there's just a ton of stuff in here that works wonderfully. The final escape from the prison is great, as there's the eventual escape from the zombies means that there's several encounters in here. The main one in the cells with them locked behind the walls and them moving along against the wall, all within arm-reach of their probing hands is intense, creepy and just incredible, due to the gore once they actually do get their hands on the humans and the long distance required to get across means that there's plenty of it to work. It's a fantastic scene and definitely is the best scene in here. The scene with the prisoners taking over the facility is quite impressive and action-packed as well, which is always a plus. The zombies themselves are quite impressive, with the wounds on the face and massive blood-splatter that covers the face. With the crazed look and decaying-style skin make for some really great creatures. The scene with the infected prisoner changing over into the creature through the execution is fantastic, and the bargaining scene in the courtyard works for it's great conclusion. The last part that works is the few moments of interest from the opening part of the film, as there's a really nice car chase, some decent-looking gore and the film's rather nice nudity. These here are the film's good parts.The Bad News: This one had a few problems to it. The opening mob war is one of them, as this is just plain dull and doesn't have much of anything to do that's all too interesting. Sure, it provides some nudity, a car chase and some gunshot wounds, but there's nothing else to this which has anything to do with later in the film at all. It's just way too long to spend on an angle that could've been done in less than half the time or as just a flashback during the prologue, but whatever happened to it certainly should've been toned down considerably. It's hard to imagine what the point of it was, since those other ways would've worked fine for this. Another flaw to this is the feeling from the film towards how the virus works. This one here never goes into detail about what it is, merely that there's several versions of it around and that the effects of it are different, but not what they do or how they work. It's a little worse for wear. The last flaw here is that the middle segment, when the taking over the prison has occurred, the film is a little toned down in what could've happened. This could've gone so much further with the plot it has, but instead, it wastes a lot of opportunities to be really great. This is the biggest problem facing the film, and combined with all the other stuff are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: This one wasn't that bad, but it's a giant missed opportunity for what could've been one of the best entries in the genre. See this one only if you've got a lot of love for the zombie genre or in the mood for some cheesy entertainment, otherwise there's a lot better ones out there.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Nudity

To many, John Saxon has become a living cult-legend And I myself quite like seeing the man doing his acting-thing on screen. DEATH HOUSE (aka ZOMBIE DEATH HOUSE), his co-directorial debut, perfectly summarizes what the man has been up to until 1987, DEATH HOUSE's year of release. From cheesy American crime movies to gore-drenched Italian flicks. So Saxon-fans should love this one. However, to casual viewers DEATH HOUSE probably will come across as pretty bad. And even if I enjoyed it a bit more than my rating suggests, I cannot deny the many bad aspects this movie has. The plot itself, though containing many implausible acts, wasn't the main problem. It develops at a steady pace, resulting in a decent, though clumsy staged pay-off. The first 20 minutes however kept me wondering what the hell kind of movie I was actually watching. I felt like a soft-erotic gangster-movie, the bad B-movie kind, complete with dire car-cases, a badly performed mafia shoot-out scene and even Vietnam flash-backs. It seemed like typical B-movie rubbish, but I soon learned that all this was one of the most elaborate ways to sketch and introduce the protagonist: Derek Keillor, an ex-Vietnam veteran, who finds out his new job is being a chauffeur for the local mob-boss. He then gets framed for the murder of his boss's girlfriend and ends up on death row. Enter John Saxon, a soldier/scientist who's illegally testing a new virus on the inmates. Given the movie's title it's needless to say what happens next...Good thing about this movie is that it contains a fair amount of sleaze & gore and still manages to tell a story that hums along nicely. The acting maybe isn't the worst I've ever seen, but it certainly isn't top-notch either. And now for the bad things: John Saxon, regardless his on-screen charisma, isn't exactly giving it his best shot in the acting department. He comes off as routineous and wooden. The small scene where he speaks the line "I am a soldier..." over the telephone even caused me to chuckle. It was the one moment he briefly seemed to go for it. The cinematography is pretty awful and the editing is rudimentary. The sound-editing and sound-effects are atrocious and the musical score is simply bad and cheap. But somehow I managed to look beyond all that and found myself amused by this flick. The ravingly mad zombie-like infected persons of course added to the fun, as well as the occasional gore-effects. One shock-scene (though not really shown) concerning the sodomizing of an inmate by a guard left me a bit baffled. And there was even one jump-moment involving a meat-cleaver that actually worked. The final freeze-frame end-shot worked very well for me. And then came the final pleasant surprise for me: when the end credits started to roll, the song "Chemical Warfare" by DEAD KENNEDYS came on. How cool's that? It left me wondering if it was John Saxon or co-director Nick Marino who picked out that song for the soundtrack.So in the end we have sort of a bad B-movie that is actually rather good because of some very enjoyable elements with a pretty eccentric look & feel to it. It actually feels a bit like an Italian Zombie-movie, even though it's an American production. And because of the involvement of John Saxon this flick very well deserves an underground cult-status. While watching this movie, I thought of another one (well, a few actually), and I never thought I would actually give the following recommendation: People who like this one, might wanna check out SHADOW: DEAD RIOT, starring Tony Todd. It's a pretty insane and rather very bad flick also dealing with zombies in prison: I describe it as a cross between BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR and LIK WONG: THE STORY OF RICKY, mixed with a solid portion of women-in-prison sleaze. But mind you, it's a tad bit worse than all the above mentioned movies.

Why watch this? There is only one reason and that is for the greatness of John Saxon. I love his acting. My most favorite appearances by him are in Nightmare On Elm Street 1,3, and 7 as Nancy's father a cop, Black Christmas as a cop, and From Dusk Till Dawn again as a cop. When I was rummaging through my local mall video outlet I came across the film Zombie Death House and I quickly tossed it back but before moving on I noticed that John Saxon was not only an actor in this film but for the first time that I have ever heard of a director. This intrigued me (Also the cheap $9.00 price tag) and I and I had to have it. Upon coming home I realized that this film did not live up to Saxon's other work even his acting, which may have been muddled by the added pressures of directing. But it was not just him the other actors sucked too. It seemed as if they had all been pulled out of a recent porno shoot and told now guys you really have to act. The film even looks of 80's porn quality. I cannot in good faith recommend this film to casual viewers, but if you are an obsessed fan of the 80's who missed out on the culture that came from that era by being born to late, or a fan of crap films than this one is for. Also if you dig John Saxon as I do.