IMDb RATING
4.8/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
"The House of the Dead" is a 1978 horror anthology movie with "The Mortician" introducing each scary tale."The House of the Dead" is a 1978 horror anthology movie with "The Mortician" introducing each scary tale."The House of the Dead" is a 1978 horror anthology movie with "The Mortician" introducing each scary tale.
Linda Gibboney
- Julie
- (as Kathie Gibboney)
John King III
- Marie's Husband
- (as John King)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe screenplay was originally entitled "Five Faces", and then changed to "Five Faces of Terror" during production. Prior to release, the film's title was changed to "Alien Zone" by the distributor, for unknown reasons, and then changed again to "House of the Dead."
- GoofsA killer in the second story chokes his victims too easily and quickly. It would take a lot more effort and time in real life.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Elvira's Movie Macabre: House of the Dead (1984)
- SoundtracksThe Sound of Goodbye
Music by Stan Worth (as Stan V. Worth)
Lyrics by Ayn Robbins
Performed by Steve March
Featured review
Moody, But Weak
If you're looking for another Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow, The House of the Dead will disappoint you pretty brutally. For all its flaws, it does have a striking low budget 1970's mood and they lay it on pretty thick, so it's hard to call the filmmakers untalented or hacks, because they clearly have talent - it just might have benefited them to have another few cracks at the script.
As with most anthologies, there's a wraparound story which is almost exactly the same as the one in Tales From the Crypt (and it would be used again, if reworked, in Tales From the Hood). A mortician tells a man 4 stories about his most recent clients.
The first story centers around a bitter schoolteacher who gets her comeuppance when she goes home for the evening. While it would help for us to see this teacher being a little bit more cruel (all she really does is yell at a kid to get away from her car and get angry at neighborhood kids for leaving their junk in her yard. Understandable.), this segment probably has the most suspense even if the pay off isn't really good. There are lots of creepy moments of the teacher wondering if she left this door unlocked or had that radio on before she left the room. It's subtle and builds tension pretty well.
The next is about a guy who kills women and films them. It's pretty dull. After that, we have the most boring of the stories with two detectives...talking...about stuff...for what seems like an eternity. The final story doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's better than the previous one and involves an awful guy getting trapped in a building overnight as some supernatural force tries to drive him insane.
As with most anthologies, there's a wraparound story which is almost exactly the same as the one in Tales From the Crypt (and it would be used again, if reworked, in Tales From the Hood). A mortician tells a man 4 stories about his most recent clients.
The first story centers around a bitter schoolteacher who gets her comeuppance when she goes home for the evening. While it would help for us to see this teacher being a little bit more cruel (all she really does is yell at a kid to get away from her car and get angry at neighborhood kids for leaving their junk in her yard. Understandable.), this segment probably has the most suspense even if the pay off isn't really good. There are lots of creepy moments of the teacher wondering if she left this door unlocked or had that radio on before she left the room. It's subtle and builds tension pretty well.
The next is about a guy who kills women and films them. It's pretty dull. After that, we have the most boring of the stories with two detectives...talking...about stuff...for what seems like an eternity. The final story doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's better than the previous one and involves an awful guy getting trapped in a building overnight as some supernatural force tries to drive him insane.
- emilywallace-49758
- Jul 22, 2019
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Alien Zone
- Filming locations
- Ponca City, Oklahoma, USA(Detective Toliver & Inspector McDowal dinner, Cantwell on the streets, film's final sequence)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $350,000 (estimated)
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