Zombie Death House (1987)

Since our recent move, we lost Comcast's pretty sweet On Demand selection, the bread and butter of budget late night cinema choices after the missus goes to bed. So we took the plunge and got Netflix and this may be one million times better. When I took a sick day last week, one of the first orders of business was to get comfy in bed with a laptop and decide on what awesome movie would make me feel better. Zombie Death House it was.

Now, this movie is tricky. I liked it for a number of reasons, but would hesitate to call it a "zombie" death house. The "zombies" don't really eat people, they're just pissed infected people with super powers. So I looked it up and, yep, it was originally released as simply Death House. And the trailer doesn't even mention the "zombies!" Anyways, this movie is total awesome with a ridiculous first act, ridiculous editing and ridiculous characters. We have Derek (Dennis Cole) who is wrongly imprisoned by his mob boss because he was banging his girl. In prison, we find rogue FBI agent Colonel Burgess (John Saxon) has released some secret government viral weaponry into the population. All hell breaks loose, Derek has random sexy daydream about hot doctor lady, and they save the warden's kids. Saxon (most recognizably from Nightmare on Elm Street) also directs and I can't say I understand his vision, but i totally love it. You'd think he'd be a better director after having starred in 326784590 b-type horror films, but it's just nutty is all.





I also think it's really weird that Dennis Cole's web site hasn't been updated with the news of his death last November. It hasn't been updated since 2005 actually. Who is paying the hosting bills and not updating it?? It's just a little creepy to get to the site and see "Thanks for coming to my site! - Dennis." And what's sadder, he has a tribute page up for his dead son, but no one has done the same for him! Seriously! I know he's had a bad couple of years and all, but not even a mention of his passing? Just weird.

In honor of Dennis, Zombie Death House from Amazon!