House of the Dead 2 (2005) Reviews

• For Hardened Zombie Fans

  coldstick2006-05-22

  My friends and I were in the mood for a really, really bad movie today. We weren't sure whether to rent 'Sasquatch' or 'Vampires vs. Zombies', but somewhere along the line we decided on 'House of the Dead II'. Obviously, we weren't expecting anything more than B-movie schlock we could point and laugh at, and that's exactly what we got. Better than the first one (as if that counts for anything!), House of the Dead II is an ultra-cheesy gorefest that will satisfy hardened zombie fans, but will turn off most mainstream movie watchers. However, the fact that you're actually on the internet, reading reviews for the movie 'House of the Dead II' means that, most likely, you are already a hardened horror/zombie fan, so you'll probably like this. It has all the 'zombie movie' goods: gore, decapitation scenes, naked chicks, gunfire, etc. Don't expect anything more than that and you'll have a decent time.

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• Much Better than the First & A Decent Zombie Flick Too!

  dementa422006-01-29

  Lemme first start off by saying that the first House Of The Dead movie was a huge disappointment and a horrible film! This one i believe is a MUCH better film than the first one. One major thing that helped this film over the first one, was the lack of "Matrix-esque" Fight scenes and effects. This movie had NONE of that. Not even one shot as i recall. The film is about a pair of scientists/zombie killers (i know, weird combo) who team up with a military task force and go to a local college in order to try to find an original zombie (hypersapiens as they call them) that they can take a blood sample from that could help cure the disease. Pretty much the entire movie is on the campus with them killing zombies. 99.9% of the action is using guns on the zombies, so it was nice to see a sequence at the end with 2 characters warding off the zombies with an ax and a knife for a change. This film was quite cheesy, but many horror lovers know the difference between good fun b-movie cheesy and just plain horrible and not funny cheesy. This was the tolerable kind of cheesy. I saw that this is premiering on Sci-Fi channel, which will not help it's cause any, as the movie is quite gory (blood, dismemberment's & intestines galore. Not to mention a decent amount of nudity and swearing. It's kind of hard to show all that on TV as we all know. If you like low budget zombie movies this one is worth checking out! No where near the best, but not the worst either.

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• Better Than Expected

  anthonyscullion2006-06-04

  Didn't hope for much when I sat down to watch this but, as said, it was a better than expected. Expect low budget, but not too bad - i've seen much worse in special effects and overall production. Some of the scenes have been lifted completely from Resident Evil so on the whole its not too original - And with both of those things in mind its okay - I jumped a few times and the build up of tension when trapped by hordes of the undead was pretty good (although very Res Evil). There's some good humour too, with more than one nod to films it owes something to (which is good as opposed to just outright plagiarism), again particularly Res Evil. I wouldn't run out and buy a copy, but I would watch it again sometime, there's worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

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• Solid B-movie

  gridoon2007-07-24

  Having never seen the original, I found this sequel to be a competent little B-movie in its own right. Of course it has its flaws: it doesn't really bring anything new to the zombie sub-genre, there is a lack of genuine scares, and the script screws up the timeline near the end (before going to the university for the second time, the three leads say they only have 10 minutes before the government blasts the whole place with missiles, but they take A LOT more time to go in there and get the blood sample they need). But it still has enough suspense, humor and gore to please those who know what they're getting into. The casting is solid: I particularly liked Emmanuelle Vaugier, who not only looks like a perfect video game heroine in her uniform and ponytail, but also handles her guns in a very confident, no-nonsense manner - like an extension of herself. And Victoria Pratt is certainly one of the most convincing actresses you can cast as a female soldier, body-wise at least. The film is made with a certain wit (the "Shhhhhh" in the library, Sticky Fingaz's death scene - "No, no, I'm not infected - growl!"), and the downbeat ending cleverly piques the curiosity (even of people who may not have liked this movie) for a possible third chapter. (**)

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• A badass sequel superior to the original(That I didn't see)

  jrmoviemaniac2013-01-30

  First of all,I didn't see the first film cuz I saw a review of it and it looks completely awful.I saw the sequel and man I was very surprised:I liked it.Tons of action with no BS like slow mo,shaky cam,or jump cuts(Yes I'm looking at u Taken 2).I liked the two leads Ed Quinn and the always gorgeous Emmanuelle Vaugier.They kicked a$$ and they were likable.It does have some problems:Some characters are disposable and there are some stupid moments(no spoilers here).Anyway,its not as bad as some people say and it should've been in theatres unlike the first one.A $6 million production?The money is on the screen.It looks a lot better than a lot of films with 10 times that budget.It was entertaining!

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