This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Blistering performances.

Let me start by saying that I'm a huge fan of fun, bad cheezy movies, and I'm a HUGE fan of zombie movies. This movie was neither fun or a zombie movie. "Zombie Death House" is a completely inaccurate name. This is definitely NOT a zombie movie. It's a really bad mob/CIA/Vietnam movie, but zombies don't even show until about 40min in, no gore until about 45min, and even then it's over quick. At the start we have a bit of TnA, there' some weak Mafia undertones, we have a VERY weak Vietnam veteran flashback type of thing, and it takes place in a prison. This is REALLY a bad movie. There's a bit of homosexual "I was a Mafia big-shot, but I'm in prison so I'm gay now, and this guy is my lover and he can't die" nonsense; I'm not homophobic at all, but this is just stupid. Out of no-where, there's our "hero" trying to figure out who has the zombie virus, and this is like the first time that ANY type of virus has entered the story. By far, this is one of the WORST FILMS EVER! If it had not been labeled as a zombie movie, the movie would still be REALLY bad, but not THIS bad. This is NOT a zombie movie, it's NOT even a bad prison movie, it's NOT a bad mafia movie... it is just a really bad movie. Oh - right near the end, a kid shows up on a skateboard that we've never seen before and he goes skating thru the scene, and suddenly he's there and he's presented like we're supposed to care about him.. lame. Avoid this movie - even if it's free, AVOID IT!!! It is a study in bad movie making.

"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

When I heard about Zombie Death House I was intrigued about it, the one thing that interested me was that John Saxton had not only stared in this but also directed this, he's a great actor that's been in some classic movies like Enter the Dragon, Black Christmas, A Nightmare on Elm Street. So I decided to order it because I'm a fan of Zombie movies like the Dead Trilogy, After Death, Zombi 2, Zombi 3 etc, also being a fan of John Saxton was another reason I ordered this film. This film came with a $1000 dollar shock insurance, I thought that was kind of interesting since the box said that this film has been chosen to have this shock insurance since the movie is supposed to contain some really shocking scenes, I've seen Zombi 2 and that movie was extreme with the graphic violence so I thought that this movie must be like that but a little bit more extreme. When I was watching it I didn't find anything that shocking, it was entertaining but not shocking like that DVD said. One thing I found about this movie was, it's called Zombie Death House but there's hardly any zombies in it. There's hardly any screen time where you see loads of zombies, only a few and the scenes are quick. The film manly focus on the main characters in the prison, the film does have gore but it feels tame compared to the George A Romero movies and the Italian Zombie Movie. Zombie Death House actually felt more like a prison movie than a zombie movie, remove the zombie plot and this film could easily work as a prison movie. Maybe that's why it was just called Death House in some places so people didn't think the main focus was the zombies.Zombie Death House was entertaining though, the acting was fine but nothing amazing. John Saxton did a great performance, it was interesting to see him to handle the film has a director and actor. The gore was okay but it wasn't has graphic as the other zombie movies out there.The film sees a man named Derek Keillor who works has a driver for a mob boss named Vic being wrongly accused of murder after being found sleeping with the boss's wife. Derek is sent to Death row for what he's done, meanwhile a government agent is testing an experimental drug on the inmates to see the effects. One of the Inmates starts acting crazy and is sent to the medical bay to see what's happened to him. They find that his skin is starting to fall off, they then inject another inmate with it to see the effect of the drug. During the infected prisoner's execution he breaks out and beings to attack the security guards and soon the infection spreads. The inmates break out and start a riot holding the Warden, his family and a few officers hostage so they can escape, outside the army have the place surrounded so they can contain the infection before it spreads outside the walls of the prison since anyone who has contact with someone infected can catch it. The prisoners try to find a way out since the military won't allow anyone out. With the help of a woman who helped create the virus Derek tries to escape from the prison and clear his name.Zombie Death House is an entertaining zombie movie that may disappoint some who was expecting this to something be like Dawn of the Dead or Zombi 2. Fans of low budget zombie flicks, prison movies and John Saxton may want to check this out. It is a gem of an 80's horror flick. Check this out.

Why watch this? There is only one reason and that is for the greatness of John Saxon. I love his acting. My most favorite appearances by him are in Nightmare On Elm Street 1,3, and 7 as Nancy's father a cop, Black Christmas as a cop, and From Dusk Till Dawn again as a cop. When I was rummaging through my local mall video outlet I came across the film Zombie Death House and I quickly tossed it back but before moving on I noticed that John Saxon was not only an actor in this film but for the first time that I have ever heard of a director. This intrigued me (Also the cheap $9.00 price tag) and I and I had to have it. Upon coming home I realized that this film did not live up to Saxon's other work even his acting, which may have been muddled by the added pressures of directing. But it was not just him the other actors sucked too. It seemed as if they had all been pulled out of a recent porno shoot and told now guys you really have to act. The film even looks of 80's porn quality. I cannot in good faith recommend this film to casual viewers, but if you are an obsessed fan of the 80's who missed out on the culture that came from that era by being born to late, or a fan of crap films than this one is for. Also if you dig John Saxon as I do.