lost-in-limbo John Saxon. Why else wouldn't you watch it? Not only does he star, but also directs. "Zombie Death House" was a modest horror b-grade cheapie that I wanted to like more than I actually did. Sure it was amusing and rather oddball, but the threadbare execution doesn't gel with its cartoonish ideas and mangled plot involving many genres / themes. It starts off like a systematic crime joint (interesting montage in the opening credits), finds itself turning into a prison yarn and then hell breaks loose as a genetic virus (from an experimental drug) turns inmates into unstoppable zombies while innocent people find themselves under siege in the prison. Sounds crazy as it throws in everything but the kitchen sink, however in the end it's rather monotone in its developments and a lack of directorial flair (although Saxon enjoyed using slow-motion) really does show it up. Little atmosphere or tension arises from the repetitive situations and the editing is clunky, but still there's a certain raw, brutal edge to it and some moments of pulsating graphic make-up FX offers creatively icky surprises. It's tacky and primitive, but Saxon does a decent job making it tight even though its slow to get going and with the dreary prison surroundings a suffocating strangle hold is constructed. Where it actually surprised though was the performances; mainly those playing the bad guys; John Saxon, Tony Franciosa and Howard George as the head guard. Saxon gives a typical conniving turn as some sort of ice-cold patriotic CIA agent who likes to preach, but it's Franciosa who's the life of the party as a mafia gangster. The rest are acceptable even with Dennis Cole's wooden persona in the lead and the ravishing Tane McClure looking professional. Also appearing is Alex Courtney, Michael Pataki and Ron O'Neal. Formable, junky low-grade entertainment. "Don't touch my twinkies"!

Zeegrade Directed by John Saxon "Zombie Death House", with zombie shoddily superimposed to make this 1980's cliché filled flick appear more like "Return of the Living Dead" rather than a episode of "Hunter", focuses too much on exposition of the characters than on what this film was meant to be. A zombie infestation set inside a corrupt prison has all the elements to be a cult classic but this movie takes far too much time establishing the plot and offers little in violent mayhem.Former Vietnam vet Derek Keillor (the late Dennis Cole) takes a job as a driver for local mob gangster Vic Moretti (the late Anthony Franciosa - did anyone survive this?) and promptly begins driving Moretti's girlfriend Genelle with his penis. When the affair is discovered Moretti kills Genelle and frames Derek for her murder. He's convicted of the crime (must of had a bad lawyer) and sentenced to death at a prison that conducts medical experiments on the prisoners through a covert government operation led by Col. Gordon Burgess (Saxon). This takes up the first 20 minutes of the movie which is way too long of a setup to introduce the "innocent hero" in a prison setting. The prison that I speak of has a corrupt head guard, Raker, that works for Moretti and answers to Moretti's homosexual inmate brother Franco and his boytoy Sean whom Raker gets "intimate" with during the film. Anyway, a new serum that's supposed to give ordinary men super strength is injected into one of the inmates about to be executed (does anybody think that super strong convicts might cause a problem?) when he turns into a zombie-like monster a begins killing his captors. Turns out that this infliction acts as a virus and the first signs of infection are persistent nosebleeds before succumbing to it. Derek manages to escape his cell during the attack which he then frees the other prisoners, who are more than cooperative for death-row inmates mind you, and organizes a hostage exchange with Col. Burgess who is watching the whole mess unfold just outside the prison. With the prison quarantined along with a few new guests, a former co-worker of Burgess turned newswoman Tanya Karrington (Tane! McClure) her cameraman and Vic Moretti himself looking to free his brother Franco minus his boyfriend. Will anyone survive? How will they get out? Will Tane! McClure show off her wonderful breasts? Does she ever fail to?I don't know where to categorize this one. Clearly this was meant to be more of an action film under the original title of "Death House" rather than horror. When the zombies finally figure into the story it's only sparingly with too much emphasis on Derek's vendetta against Moretti. The gore is okay, not anything special and downright silly in one scene when someone loses an arm, and there are a couple of topless scenes including the absurd daydream that Derek has of Tanya. Speaking of the lovely Tane! this movie supposedly introduces us to Ms. McClure meaning that this was her first film. Not true! While "Death House" came out in 1987 McClure starred in the 1986 Klaus Kinski slasher "Crawlspace" in 1986 billed only as Tane!. You can find this in the bargain bin DVD section for about $1 which is all I would pay to see this nothing more. Disappointing.

Rautus 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.

elmondomacabro This is pretty cool in an 80's kind of way, take 'good' looking main guy and throw him in a hell hole on a frame up, add government madmen, zombies, slime balls and gay prisoners and SHAZAM! You've got a movie!John Saxon is excellent as always but I think the show is stolen by the Rasta Zombie, I've never seen one of those before. Why is it the secret antidote to these plagues always looks like cough syrup and there's never enough to go around? Prison movies are always good for a laugh and this one is no exception, a great way to spend some free time. Maybe Saxon's time on Cannibal Apocalypse influenced his direction on this, as it really does have an Italian feel as stated by the other review here.