New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

House of the Dead
Artisan Entertainment

1.7 based on 15 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 60 votes Read user comments Rate this movie

FILM:

• Alone in the Dark
• Blackwoods
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
• Postal

GAMES:

• XBox: House of the Dead III

• Internet Movie Database
• View The Trailer
• Official Studio Site
• Alternate Official Site

MPAA RATING: R for pervasive strong violence/gore, language and some nudity

Starring Jonathan Cherry, Tyron Leitso, Clint Howard, Ona Grauer, Ellie Cornell, Will Sanderson, Enuka Okuma, and Kira Clavell

Based on the best selling video game from Sega, House of the Dead tells the story of a group of college students who go to a rave on a mysterious island and get more than they bargained for when they find themselves stalked by killer zombies and terrifying creatures intent on feasting on the flesh of the living. (Artisan Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Action  |  Horror  |  Mystery  |  Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Mark A. Altman Dave Parker
DIRECTED BY:	Uwe Boll
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 27, 2004  Video: January 27, 2004  Theatrical: October 10, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / Germany / Canada

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

50

Variety Dennis Harvey

Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on just how much 14-year-old boy you've got in ya.

40

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

There's scarcely a whiff of originality in the zombie horror picture House of the Dead, but Uwe Boll has directed it with enough energy and style that it adds up to passably mindless if grisly fun.

38

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Director Uwe Boll wholeheartedly embraces the film's concept, and with some fancy editing and a pulsing soundtrack, the effect really is like watching a video game.

30

TV Guide Ken Fox

Dull and unimaginative.

25

Chicago Tribune Loren King

Unimaginatively recycles all the teens-in-the-woods gorefest conventions.

25

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Somewhere between cartoonishly bad for comic effect and bad because the filmmakers didn't really give a damn, The House of the Dead is, at least, unpretentiously dumb.

25

Boston Globe Ty Burr

House of the Dead, sadly, is so bad it's bad.

20

The New York Times Dave Kehr

Does little more than add another title to the very long list of movies influenced by George Romero's 1968 horror classic, "Night of the Living Dead."

20

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Much poorly choreographed gunplay, many lovingly rendered head explosions, and some half-assed exposition about centuries-old, immortality-seeking pirates follow, with nothing to recommend House Of The Dead to anyone but the most undiscriminating zombie-movie fans.

20

Film Threat David Grove

Here’s a would-be horror film that contains not one ounce of professional pride in its making, not one shred of technical competence. This is one of the worst films of recent times.

20

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Laughable performances.

20

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Prochnow rocks; nothing else does.

0

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It’s cheese of the purest stripe, bafflingly bad to the point of being oddly charming in its brain dead naïveté.

0

Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown

To properly convey the jaw-dropping shoddiness of this videogame-based ''horror'' ''movie,'' one must approach what scientists call Absolute Stupid, a state previously thought to exist only under highly controlled laboratory conditions or at the highest levels of government.

0

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Based on a video game, far exceeds expectations -- in negative ways that inspire thoughts of less than zero stars.

The average user rating for this movie is 1.7 (out of 10) based on 60 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Marcus A. gave it a0:
Uwe Boll got paid to spin the camera in a circle. I passed kidney stones with more enjoyment. I think I am going to go watch the grass grow. If Boll wants to fight everyone who hates his movies he'll have to Fight the World. After seeing Uwe Boll number three you should expect worse every time. Never hire him to direct again.

Alan B. gave it a6:
You people are ridiculous. I can't believe you are taking the time to analyze this movie as if it were actually supposed to be a scary survival horror movie. Yea it was bad, it was an awful movie, but it was funnier than most of the comedies pumped out nowadays. I only watched the last hour and I laughed constantly. You really could not have expected a serious horror movie based on... a video game.

Mike K. gave it a0:
i hated this movie from beginning to end. the only thing i found hilarious about it was before they met that cop on the cliff with all the guns the teens were all helpless nd jus trying to stay alive but as soon as they pick up a rifle and some grenades they learn kung fu nd suddenly decide to fight.

Late gave it a0:
Man, this movie was the worst i've ever seen. It wasn't even the tiniest bit scary. Whole movie was just shooting zombies and blowing them up with grenades and then shooting them some more. Don't waste your time here or you will regret it.

Gerrick C. gave it a0:
Quite possibly the most un-scary movie I have ever seen. I watched how they shot the undead and how the blood splattered and how numerous body parts were severed which, by the way, was annoyingly unrealistic. The sense of horror a horror-survival movie should inflict on the viewer should be that of horror-survival. The survival element was there, but dilluted, and there was a very vague sense of horror in that the zombies acted like a bunch of mindless morons. An interesting thing that was incorporated into the movie were scenes from the actual House of the Dead video game. This novelty, though a good idea, failed to be the movie's saving grace. In the end we have a complete waste of time and money, and unless you are a die-hard (no pun intended) fan of House of the Dead, and I mean die-hard fan, you should stay as far away as you can from this movie.

Chris K. gave it a0:
Honestly, this is the worst movie that I have ever seen. The game I thought was rediculous enough without a good story, which had awesome and intense players wanting to just shoot something up. However, it all falls down to the game movie trying to make something of itself. Being a gamer enough as it is, I was looking foward to the movie simply because of the title. No where in the genre that was said about the movie was meant for comedy. It's worth a nickel to see if you want, better for free. I may have enjoyed this movie if I was ever into pointless events, a crappy story, zombie killing mayhem without me doing the killing, and sex in the middle of all things. I give some points on how good looking the stars are... I take some points based on how their performance took place in the movie. Honestly, they were all pretty stupid.

Brian gave it a3:
Hliarously bad, Ona Grauers had a great performance though. Her breasts performed great.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums