House of the Dead 2 sees a group of Special Forces peeps sent to a University campus when infection breaks out. They are to take a blood sample from the original zombie to create a cure. It soon transpires that Rudy and Alicia (from the first film) had returned home after the events on the island only to discover that they were, in fact, infected. Alicia is the one who started the plague on campus after Rudy’s dad Dr. Curien began experimenting in his quest for eternal life.
The film is as cheesy as they come, but surprisingly isn’t as laugh-out-loud funny as the first. The film is full of unintentional mistakes, such as characters being covered in blood from one angle, and clean as a whistle from another during the same scene, and Sid Haig attempting to cut a girl’s clothes off with a dull implement. As if these aren’t bad enough, Ellie Cornell reprises her role of Jordan Casper, despite dying in the first film. By far the biggest gaffe however is having Sid Haig play Rudy’s father. Black dad, white son? Am I the only one who sees the problem with that? Then there’s a different actress made up to look like Ona Grauer, a character who appears to be lesbian throughout, suddenly announcing she fancies a bit of the male lead, and all kinds of terrible moments to look forward to.
OVERALL SUMMARY
The film’s saving graces are the good solid effects work and its cast, particularly Emmanuelle Vaugier and Victoria Pratt. Without them, this could have been even worse than the original…at least that was technically competent.