House of the Dead (1978)

[quabrot]

I had the day off, so after getting my fat ass up to go for a walk and enjoy the wonderful weather, I parked it right back doen on my sofa to watch random crap.   After watching all three It's Alive movies, Stanley, and God Told Me To, I decided to turn to my Mill Creek 50-packs for something to finish the night with.  I found House of the Dead (aka Alien Zone, as IMDb informs me).

When it started, I was pretty interested.  A man stranded in the wrong neighborhood looking for his hotel is taken in by a mortician, who proceeds to tell the stories of the most recent people to come into his hands.  Cool, I thought, it's an anthology movie.  They're usually good (even Night Train to Terror has its high points)

The first story, which tends to be the weakest in an anthology.  This one was just a waste of 10-15 minutes of film It's about a teacher who I guess is supposed to be kind of a a b***h, who is being stalked by someone in her big empty house.  I guess she's supposed to deserve what happens to her, but she doesn't seem like a malicious person at all. 

The second story sets itself up to be so much better.  It starts with a man being arrested and police finding a running camera in his apartment.  The we start to see some of the films he made of himself murdering women.  It built up a nice bit of tension, occasionally cross-cutting between his films and him being dragged away from the scene by police, but then it ended.  I felt like I was cheated out of the second half of a story.  Maybe where the killer became more irrational or what led to his arrest.  But that's just me wanting it to be predictable, and I guess being different is good too.

I actually liked the second two stories.  The third was a predictable dark comedy about two rival detectives trying to prove who is the world's best.  I don't know how to describe the last story.  It's about a man being held captive by unknown people for unknown reasons, but it's really more of an absurdist joke.

[Scott]

 

Well, I thought the complete oposite of about the first story. It was short, but scary in my opinion. It was my favorite story except for the kids in masks at the end.

http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,113216.0.html

By the way I have STANLEY waiting on the shelve from my Horrible Horror Collection. What did you think of that one?

Had a chance to pick up GOD TOLD ME TO a few years back and now I can't find a copy of it. Did you like that film?

ITS ALIVE (1974) is a pretty good one. If you ever get a chance check out THE BABY (1973) which is really bizarre.

[quabrot]

I'm sorry... I had no idea there was another thread about it already.

Stanley is pretty bad, so I definitely recommend it.  The copy that I have is a $1 Family Value DVD with The Snake People on the other side.  I don't know if it's the same one they have on the Horrible Horrors DVD, but if at one point the movie goes off and shows you a blue screen with "PLAY" in the top corner, let me know. 

Overall, I liked God Told Me To.  It had a really good, intense first two-thirds.  Then they explained what was going on and left me feeling cheated.  I can't think of any other movie that failed itself so much by not having a more open ending.

[Menard]

Had a chance to pick up GOD TOLD ME TO a few years back and now I can't find a copy of it.

God Told Me To is on several public domain collections, including Brentwood (or whatever it is called now).

You can get it in a collection of three movies here.


I liked House of the Dead as a whole. My favorite of the stories was the detective story. I did not care for the strangler story as it was just repetitive, to me anyway, and I couldn't wait for it to end.