Save your money for something good and enjoyable

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Alright, well for a movie from 1987, this was surprisingly lame. I had expected somewhat more in the horror and perhaps even gore category.Now, the idea of having a zombie viral outbreak in a prison might have seemed good on script paper, but failed to shine through on the screen. Maybe that was because you never really buy into the prison atmosphere in this movie. Everything is just a little bit too cozy, and there are surprisingly few guards for a prison of this size.Anyway, the movie stands out from many other zombie movies, in an odd way, as the zombies here seem to be alive, but decomposing. They are capable of talking and acting fairly coherently. That sort of killed the mood for me. A zombie is not a dead person just behaving fairly much like when alive, except for having a hunger for flesh. No, a zombie is a shell of the former self, devoid of life and soul (if one believes in that). So I never really bought the zombie scenario presented here.As for the acting, well... Most of it was tolerable, but nothing astounding to be found here. Except for maybe the woman playing the lady they brought into the prison from the outside. Wow, it was physically painful to watch her performance.Moving on to the gore and effects. Well, given the movie is quite old by now, the effects are, of course, way out of date. But I am sure that by standards back in 1987, these were believable and scary to watch. Just keep that in mind, because today they are not really all that believable.The good part of the movie is that the story is fairly straight going, and keeps going at a good pace. It doesn't become overly dull so that you want to get up and leave.I had expected a tad more from this movie, despite it being old. I would have rated it as 2, but given it is a zombie movie, my heart gets all soft and mushy, so 3 out of 10. This is a movie that you sit down to watch if you are a hardcore zombie fan, like myself. Otherwise, you might be bored out of your mind sitting through this.

"Zombie Death House" is a superbly decent 80s cheese-fest zombie film.**SPOILERS**In the middle of a drug war, Derek Keillor, (Dennis Cole) is soon framed by his target, Vic Moretti, (Anthony Franciosa) a renown mob boss and is sent to death row in prison. While awaiting sentencing, he finds that Colonel Gordon Burgess, (John Saxon) is in league with Warden Hagan, (Alex Courtney) is testing a strange chemical on the prisoners inside, which no one knows anything about. When the experiment gets out of hand and starts producing invincible inmates that soon attack the guards, he forms an posse with the other unchanged inmates and decides to take over the prison, seeing it as a chance to escape. When that fails and are forced to stay inside the prison until they can figure out what to do, they realize that there was a whole host of experiments done on the prisoners and those are now roaming the prison halls as zombies, turning them on each other and making the situation even harder to grasp. With tensions high and time running out, they try several different methods to deal with the situation before the zombies take them all out.The Good News: This one here didn't have too much going for it. The fact that there's some really nice zombie action is one of the biggest ones, as there's just a ton of stuff in here that works wonderfully. The final escape from the prison is great, as there's the eventual escape from the zombies means that there's several encounters in here. The main one in the cells with them locked behind the walls and them moving along against the wall, all within arm-reach of their probing hands is intense, creepy and just incredible, due to the gore once they actually do get their hands on the humans and the long distance required to get across means that there's plenty of it to work. It's a fantastic scene and definitely is the best scene in here. The scene with the prisoners taking over the facility is quite impressive and action-packed as well, which is always a plus. The zombies themselves are quite impressive, with the wounds on the face and massive blood-splatter that covers the face. With the crazed look and decaying-style skin make for some really great creatures. The scene with the infected prisoner changing over into the creature through the execution is fantastic, and the bargaining scene in the courtyard works for it's great conclusion. The last part that works is the few moments of interest from the opening part of the film, as there's a really nice car chase, some decent-looking gore and the film's rather nice nudity. These here are the film's good parts.The Bad News: This one had a few problems to it. The opening mob war is one of them, as this is just plain dull and doesn't have much of anything to do that's all too interesting. Sure, it provides some nudity, a car chase and some gunshot wounds, but there's nothing else to this which has anything to do with later in the film at all. It's just way too long to spend on an angle that could've been done in less than half the time or as just a flashback during the prologue, but whatever happened to it certainly should've been toned down considerably. It's hard to imagine what the point of it was, since those other ways would've worked fine for this. Another flaw to this is the feeling from the film towards how the virus works. This one here never goes into detail about what it is, merely that there's several versions of it around and that the effects of it are different, but not what they do or how they work. It's a little worse for wear. The last flaw here is that the middle segment, when the taking over the prison has occurred, the film is a little toned down in what could've happened. This could've gone so much further with the plot it has, but instead, it wastes a lot of opportunities to be really great. This is the biggest problem facing the film, and combined with all the other stuff are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: This one wasn't that bad, but it's a giant missed opportunity for what could've been one of the best entries in the genre. See this one only if you've got a lot of love for the zombie genre or in the mood for some cheesy entertainment, otherwise there's a lot better ones out there.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Nudity

~Spoiler~ John Saxon: great actor, lousy director. Zombie Death House is one poor excuse for a horror movie. What he was thinking when he made this piece of trash I'll never know. And how he got some decent actors for this is another mystery. Anthony Franciosa, Michael Pataki, and Ron O'Neal all co-star in this thing. The long, incredibly dragged out plot follows a former Vietnam hero and mafia chauffeur who winds up in prison. While there, other death row inmates are subjected to experiments that zombify them for lack of a better word. John Saxon plays some government black-bag operative who quarantines the prison and our hero and a few others try to escape. It was a nice idea but poorly executed and, for the most part, boring. It takes a long time to get going and it's not worth your time when it does. Also, the lead actor is completely bland. For a better Zombie In Prison movie (or ZIP flicks as I like to call them) check out Beyond Re-animator.

Go John! John Saxon! Go John! We love you! John Saxon: star AND director of this surprisingly inventive and ambitious horror gem that somewhat feels like a successful crossover between cheesy American 80's horror and gore-drenched Italian cult. Saxon perfectly found the middle path between these two styles because he's familiar with both (the titles on his resume go from "Blood Beach" to "Cannibal Apocalypse") and he delivers a hugely enjoyable little film that deserves more attention from genre fans, if you ask me. Granted, it's quite a bizarre film and the first 30 minutes nearly make you fear you purchased an ordinary 80's action flick with dire car-chases and implausible mafia shootouts. But this opening is just a very extended introduction of the main character, Derek. He's a heroic Vietnam veteran, framed for murder by his mafia-employer and sent to the death row of a nasty prison. And his situation only gets worse, since this prison is chosen by the government as a place to experiment with new and highly dangerous types of drugs. The guinea pigs rapidly turn into ravenous zombies but the army puts the entire building under quarantine, so even the prisoners and guards that aren't infected can't escape! John Saxon rewarded himself with the role of the evil colonel who runs the whole operation. The script of "Zombie Death House" is often quite messy and incoherent, but it's full of action and ingenious little surprises that make you forget all the flaws easily. I know the zombies aren't actual "zombies". They're more like infected persons as in "Nightmare City" or "Hell of the Living Dead" but – seriously – who cares? Their flesh is rotting, they hunt and kill humans and they're damn difficult to destroy…that's good enough for me! The prison setting is excellent, with secret tunnels and freaky execution chambers all over the place, the make-up effects are effectively gruesome and the story even foresees a few genuine shock-moments (the rape-scene!!). Maybe my opinion shouldn't be trusted, since I'm John Saxon's greatest fan, but horror fans certainly won't regret giving this 80's gem a chance.