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I haven't seen a flick so indulgent in its particular genre in a while. The best thing about House of the Dead is that it doesn't try to be something else. ... 'HOtD' starts us out with sex, drugs and rock-n-roll in the form of a rave on a deserted island. Maybe a tad bit slow in the beginning, it eases us into the playful tone of the movie with unprovoked nudity and unflinching zombie impalement. We know we are in for a wild ride when Clint Howard walks in on a topless Sonya Salomaa and rather than notice her party hats, hands her a crucifix for protection. It's stunts like this that started the audience laughing early on and kept them cheering in the end. Another great thing about the flick is the intensity of the fight scenes.
For a low-budget movie, I was blown away by the Matrix-esque cinematography
and hard-core rock. I couldn't get enough of the slow motion/rotating
camera thing as the characters wound up for a kick or punch. Also, the
hapless heroes themselves invoke the excitement of the audience because
we can really root for the underdog. We can imagine ourselves walking
in slow-motion to guitar-heavy music with our guns aimed at disintegrating
corpses because these protagonists aren't much cooler than we are. There's
only so many times you can watch Tom Cruise do some amazing stunt before
it loses its effect. This movie returns to simple crunchy gore that's
believable because it's the girl-next-door simply stomping on a zombie's
gooey head with her foot. So, add a fierce beat and mean camera angles
and you've got a fun little flick. Find the complete review and comments on it on www.aintitcool.com.
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