The House of the Dead (1978)

An adulterous businessman gets lost in the rain and a mortician gives him shelter in his funeral parlour, who shows the man some of the corpses being embalmed on the premises. Each one has a tale about how they met their untimely demises: a school teacher who hates children is frightened to death; a predatory photographer who kills his unwitting subjects on-camera is eventually caught and executed; a self-inflated criminologist meets his British rival and in trying to out-do each other, discovers his nemesis is prepared to kill to be the best; and finally a selfish office worker is lured and held captive by an unseen assailant for an extremely long time but soon dies after he is inexplicably suddenly released. The man is told they all were victims of their own errant ways. When he asks about a final empty coffin, the mortician replies it is for him!The individual stories and the main framing story are written in a very comic-book or pulp-novel way. The second one about the photographer is probably the worst one but is fortunately brief enough not to be a problem. Despite some really awful music, ropey acting, and what appears to be lighting supervised by a blind man, this collection of shorts is fairly well directed enough to be entertaining. I am confused with the movie's original title of 'Alien Zone' - there are no aliens at all in it! Clearly they were actually going for something like 'The Twilight Zone' and were meaning 'Alien' in a more literal sense, as in "unknown" rather than "being from outer-space"! Even still, it's not such a great title; 'House Of The Dead' makes more sense.

It's a horror flick that had creepy moments but I failed to understand the how or why behind it! One of the lead characters, a mortician shares stories of how four of the people in his coffins had died, and then we're shown their lives in flash back. Each of the individual stories are directed well but nearly all of 'em are unconvincing. I cannot explain further without letting loose spoilers. And even the scare factor of these four are weak.The scare actually happens in the scenes involving the lead character besides the mortician, John Ericons as the philandering businessman. And he acts well too. I felt none of these disastrous sub stories should have happened and a plot could have been weaved just around this man. Also Ivor Francis as the mortician did a very good job. I think the best acting came from Charles Aidman as detective Malcolm in one of the stories. Alas, what's the point of all their acting if the movie fell flat on it's face? That's quite unfortunate.Good music, decent cinematography and all the actors do justice to their characters.Verdict: Expected a lot from this 70's flick but felt like an Alien in a no-parking zone!

"A man in town for a convention gets lost while trying to return to his hotel room, after seeing a woman, and ends up being taken in by a mortician to wait out a storm. To pass the time, the mortician shows the man four recently deceased people and begins to tell him how each person ended up as an occupant of one of his coffins," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.John Ericson (as Talmudge) is the man who finds refuge with mortician Ivor Francis, during the rainstorm. Mr. Francis' four stories aren't as enthralling as his characterization is appealing. Bernard Fox (as McDowal) is featured in the, passable, third story. Mr. Fox was, perhaps, most memorable the delightful witch doctor first called upon by "Samantha Stevens" on "Bewitched"; but, even "Dr. Bombay" can't save this plodding film. Charles Aidman (as Toliver) banters well with Fox."Alien Zone" was appropriately re-titled "House of the Dead". Steve March, vocalizing the theme song "The Sound of Goodbye", sounds a little like his famous father.

Whenever the title "House of the Dead" is mentioned nowadays, people – and horror fanatics in particular – automatically link it to that hag Uwe Boll's AWFUL video game horror adaptation about UN-frightening looking CGI zombies on an island. Another movie with the same title existed already since the late 1970's, though it's also known under the completely irrelevant title "Alien Zone", and that one is a lot better! It's a low-budget exploitation attempt to create a horror anthology similar to the contemporary successful British films, like "Tales that Witness Madness" or "Asylum", complete with a detailed wraparound story and a sinister host. Whilst on a business trip in an unknown city, a guy named Talmudge cheats on his wife and gets lost on his way back to the hotel. Since there's a heavy thunderstorm going on, a seemly friendly mortician invites him in and informs him abut the background stories of four "clients" of his. None of these horror mini-tales is groundbreaking or particularly shocking, but they all feature an admirably dark atmosphere and revolve on rather inventive topics. The first story is extremely short and introduces a lonely female schoolteacher with a clear aversion towards children. When she goes home one night, she senses a strange presence in her house and subsequently gets attacked by a large collection of eerily deformed and mask-wearing children. I'm not quite sure what the deeper meaning of this short story was, but those kids sure looked creepy! The second story is – once again – a very short reworking of the classic film "Peeping Tom", with a perverted man inviting girls to his apartment and murdering them for the eye of the camera. The tone of this segment is definitely disturbing, but it has no satisfying ending, since it just cuts back to the mortician who explains the culprit got executed for his crimes. Huh? What's the point? Then comes the third and unquestionably best chapter of "House of the Dead", about an intellectual criminologist competing with his overseas colleague of Scotland Yard for the honor of most deductive police investigator in the world. This segment has an incredibly predictable climax, but it's very enjoyable thanks to the wit dialogs and convincing on screen chemistry between actors Charles Aidman and Bernard Fox. The fourth and final segment hints at some really horrific themes, but unfortunately the elaboration is poor. It's about an egocentric man who gets terrorized by unseen forces and eventually becomes everything he detests himself. Namely a needy and filthy individual who blindly gets passed by on the streets. It's a curious little tale that definitely deserved some more plotting and perhaps a slightly longer playtime. Naturally the film ends with an unmerciful fate for Talmudge (adultery, remember…). The late 70's definitely brought forward better horror films than this, but "House of the Dead" is nonetheless a worthwhile and entertaining little chiller that offers a handful of frights and delightful genre clichés. It's a film for undemanding trash-fans.