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Death House
Zombie Death House
USA 1987
produced by
Nick Marino, Nancy Paloian, Barry Gottheimer (executive), Marty Mazza (executive), Salvatore Richichi (executive) for Double Helix Films
directed by John Saxon
starring Dennis Cole, John Saxon, Tane McClure, Anthony Franciosa, Michael Pataki, Ron O'Neal, Howard George, Alex Courtney, Rickey Pardon, Dana Lis Mason, June Chandler, Eric Foster, Robin Lynn Heath, Rorion Gracie, Newell Tarrant, Earl Johnson, Steven Barr, Dennis T. Mooney, Morton Lewis, Dino Paskas, Larry Gelman, Martin Garner, Lorrelei Deardorff, Billy Woods jr, Zoltan Szalva, Frank Marino
written by William Selby, David S. Freeman, Kate Wittcomb, music by Chuck Cirino
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Derek (Dennis Cole) is a driver for mob boss Moretti (Anthony
Franciosa), which is only half as bad as it sounds because he's the driver
only, doesn't participate in any illegal activities. But he makes the
mistake to get intimate with Moretti's moll (Dana Lis Mason) - which
Moretti repays by having her killed and framing him for the murder. Derek
is thrown into jail, where Moretti's brother Vic (Michael Pataki) rules
supreme and promises to make Derek's stay as "pleasant" as
possible. But Derek's problems haven't even started yet ... You see,
there's an army doctor, Colonel Burgess (John Saxon), who uses deathrow
prisoners to perform his experiments on and create the perfect zombie
fighting machine. As these experiments always do, this one gets out of
hands, and soon the zombies run amok in the prison. At first, this is a
good thing for Derek and his fellow prisoners, because somehow they all
break out of their cells and take control of the prison ... but then
again, the zombies are still running amok ... Everything plays out as
expected, with the zombies killing pretty much everyone in sight, but
Derek, the good guy, finds a pretty blonde scientist (Tane McClure), and
with her and two kids (Eric Foster, Robin Lynn Heath), son and daughter of
the deceased warden (Alex Courtney), he makes it out of the prison - but
before that, he has to duke it out with Moretti of course, who has been
sent inside for no particular reason other than for Derek to have his
revenge. Of course, the prison is blown up in the end, and Burgess the
zombie maker gets his just reward - he's eaten up by his own creations ... Made
at the tail end of the zombie boom of the 1980's, Zombie Death House
hasn't anything new to offer to the genre. Sure, the whole thing takes
place in prison for a change, but that only adds a few prison clichées to
the zombie and science fiction clichées normally associated with the
genre. Waht I want to say is this: There is probably a good story
somewhere in the concept zombies on death row. Zombie Death
House, however, is not it. On a directorial level, the film, genre
veteran John Saxon's directorial debut, is less than inspired - but at
least with Saxon, Anthony Franciosa and Michael Pataki the film features a
few great character actors. They are unable to save the film of course -
but at least give it some class.
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