Best movie of this year hands down!

Don't Believe the Hype

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

House of the Dead AKA Alien Zone (1978). I think House of the Dead is definitely the better title for this one -- Alien Zone doesn't fit it too well at all that sounds like a sci-fi film and this one has no Aliens in it (well maybe those creepy kids in the first story).I really enjoyed all of the stories in this anthology. I think the 1st story, Mrs. Sibiler, and the 3rd story, The Investigator and The Detective, are my favorites - tied for first place. Then I would say the 2nd story and last but not least the 4th story. Of course the story that starts and ends the anthology is the best off all (Talmudge and The Mortician)... The Mortician tells Talmudge and the viewers the 4 stories plus they have a tale of their own.Worth watching if you like horror anthologies.8/10

Throughout the mid 60s and early 70s Amicus Productions churned out a series of wonderful little horror anthologies. TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972) is my all-time favorite horror anthology! Watching THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD, definitely took me back to my "horror roots." It is included in the 50 Movie Pack, Chilling Classics, DVD collection.I enjoyed all of the stories, although none of the plots were very compelling. I enjoyed the acting, even though none of the performances really stood out; and, some were quite over-the-top. I even enjoyed the locations and settings. The score was fine, if forgettable, except for the one annoying song in the last story.Amicus really defined the horror anthology form for me. But, this was a good effort by an American production company and director. It was a lot of fun to watch while traveling. As such, I gave it a very high rating, even more than it deserved."A" for effort, on this one.

An adulterer, Talmudge(John Ericson) attempting to find his hotel, instead is left by his taxi driver in the rain nearby a mortuary, it's mortician offering him refuge from the storm. While inside, our mortician relates the fates of four customers to him and we are all witnesses to what happened to them.Low budget anthology, perhaps too cheap to really be that effective. Most of the tales presented lack strong story-telling and end way too abruptly. Clearly modeled after the Amicus chillers. I have no idea why this was called "Alien Zone." The first and second tales really leave much to be desired. A school teacher who hates children(!)finds herself besieged within her very home by those very ones she so despises. The kids(..at first wearing clown masks, evoking Michael Myers from Halloween, later carrying the appearance of possible vampiric ghouls) as they close in on their prey, cornering her as the camera distorts the frame, colors out of control, is quite thrilling, even if what leads up to it isn't. The second tale consists of a psychotic photographer who records women he kills on a movie camera. The fourth tale, which doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, displays an office employee being subjected to torture within a building complex, rooms with trap doors and walls of spikes. The wraparound story between the mortician and Talmudge won't fool anybody. Talmudge, at the beginning, is shown in bed with an unhappily married woman and inside the mortuary, he follows the mortician as he opens the coffin lids exposing the victims of the tales we watch to him(..their bodies are not shown to the viewer, but Talmudge's facial mannerisms express enough through perplexity and disgust to lend us a helping hand in how they look).The third, and in my opinion easily far-and-away the best, is what I call, The Case of the Duelling Detectives featuring Scotland Yard's finest detective, Inspector McDowal(Bernard Fox)tagging along with New York's finest Private Investigator, Malcolm Toliver(Charles Aidman)as he pursues the identity of a specific criminal who is threatening to kill someone he knows with only a note consisting of letters cut from magazine articles as the means for solving the mystery. The two actors, Fox and Aidman, turn in delightful performances as foes, quite the egomaniacs often sparring intellectually with each other, who hurl gentlemanly insults at each other regarding which detective indeed is the very best of his profession and the result of the mystery(..although I'm sure many will know the answer)is most appropriate considering their vanity.

A mortician explains to a man seeking shelter from the rain how the corpses in his mortuary came to be there. There are 4 coffins and as he opens the lid of each one the movie cuts to a short story about how that person died. The first is about a teacher who hates kids. The second about a man who lures women into his home and murders them while capturing it all on film. The second has two top shelf detectives in a battle of wits to see who is the worlds leading criminologist. The fourth is about a man how doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself and is tortured by unseen forces. The man seeking shelter has unknowingly been lured to this place by his own indiscretions. Quite good though the title Alien Zone is somewhat confusing. I bought this movie under the title of House of the Dead which is much more appropriate.