Sid Haig Week: House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim

Welcome back for Day 4 of Sid Haig Week and I thought we might skip ahead into Haig's current body of work.  So what is more fun than watching a video game themed movie?  Well reading a book, working out, going out with a member of the opposite or same sex. Yeah loads of things are vastly better than a video game based movie.  Watch yourself, get an ax because it is bound to be a trick.  This is House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim

The Betty Ford Clinic gone dark.

Spoilers make no noise.










Writer Mark A. Altman (Free Enterprise, House of the Dead, All Souls Day: Dia de lost Muertos and Room 6) Director Michael Hurst (New Blood, The Baby Juice Express, The Darkroom and Room 6) have collaborated in TV as well as film many a time decided to drive us to drink with this demented little soap opera of a horror movie.  A demented professor (Sid Haig of Koffy, House of 1000 Corpses and Devil’s Rejects) has been experimenting with the dead by killing students that no one will immediately miss and attempting to re-animate them.  Must be the Herbert West guide to immortality he was reading from.   So the prof’s creature is loose and we go through a flash sequence of screen shots, credits that look made of a MAC, stills and a quick story telling idea to establish the campus has clearly been overrun with the undead.  Hey photophobic folks, you may want to fast forward a bit. Zombie U!  The curricular is murder.

Doctors with guns.  Yeah that can only end well.

Lieutenant Ellis (Ed Quinn of Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, Eureka, True Blood and Behemoth) and his A.M.S. team are prepping from a previous mission and a little dialogue hints to a poorly planned mission. Alexandra ’Nightingale’ Morgan (Emmanuelle Vaugier of Saw II, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Supernatural and Far Cry) is called in from a lesser date to a possible outbreak of zombie infection at an alarming rate and will be escorted by Special Forces leader Sgt. Major Dalton (Sticky ‘Kirk Jones’Fingers of Blade the Series, Flight of the Phoenix, Once Fallen and Burn Notice) and he is channeling his inner Apone.  His team is the atypical Colonial Marine archetypes filled with sexist and racist morons, dumb rookies, seasoned jerks and at least one resident psycho that can allegedly shoot.

Dalton’s second-in-command Lieutenant Henson (Victoria Pratt of Mutant X, Cleopatra 2525, Brotherhood of Blood and Journey to the Center of the Earth) keeps the boys and girls playing nice. They need a blood sample of a first generation zombie in order to create a proper vaccine and a missile strike is due in 12 hours.  Her character was at least feasible but only because she has actually gone through weapons training.

I think the biggest complaint I have overall were the film flubs and the inconsistency.   Ellis loses and gains blood on his face during a poorly edited chit-chat with Morgan.  Continuity director fell asleep there.  Zombies are either moving at a fast clip or they travel at the speed of curdled milk.  They sneak about or they bum rush.  Pick something and stick with it.  The power is supposed to be out and all but some areas are too well lit and others almost pitch black.

The elite special ops team is co-ed for some reason but my biggest issue is the overweight or more specifically out of shape comic relief O' Conner (Steve Monroe of Austing Powers: International Man of Mystery, Cast Away and Miss Congeniality) whose weight limit is barely allowed for basic infantry but special forces?  Sticky's character whips around with his flashlight to check on O' Conner but the flashlight is still attached to his weapon... with live ammo... and his safety was off.  Big tactical no no that any armed forces member is screaming foul.  My other pet peeve is Sid's screen time or lack there of it dammit.

Guess Sci-Fi Channel (I refuse to type it the current spelling) didn’t bother with a weapons and tactics trainer because the Special Forces team look as threatening as a group playing paintball.   No direct correlation with the previous film so this is sequel in name only.  Save yourselves!... from wasting any time devoted to this "movie".

Zombification is now classified as Beiber Fever.