The House of the Dead was originally released, for some odd reason, as Alien Zone and as such really confused plenty of people. As for the movie itself, it’s kind of your standard horror film in vignette form, taking cues from The Twilight Zone though done a lot better years later with Tales from the Crypt.
The House of the Dead
(aka Alien Zone)
(1978)
Genre(s): Horror
Vinegar Syndrome | NR – 80 min. – $32.98 | July 31, 2018
Date Published: 08/11/2018 | Author: The Movieman
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Vinegar Syndrome provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
PLOT SYNOPSIS |
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Four tales of intrigue and horror await anyone brave enough to enter The House of the Dead… When a philandering husband accidentally finds himself lost during a rainstorm, he’s taken in by an elderly mortician and is forced to learn the ghastly origins of four freshly arrived corpses: a scornful teacher whose students teach her a fatal lesson, an amateur filmmaker with a deadly muse, two dueling detectives attempting to solve a mysterious murder, and a bitter man whose arrogance costs him everything… |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.0/5 |
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This two-disc release comes in a standard clear Blu-ray case and there is a limited edition slip cover with artwork designed by Earl Kessler Jr. I’m not a huge slip cover guy, though I like to have them when a released is supposed to come with one, but this was pretty cool. This is actually one of the lighter releases from Vinegar Syndrome. There are two Interviews, one with Director Sharron Miller and the other with Screenwriter David O’Malley. There’s also a Production Still Gallery. |
VIDEO – 3.75/5 |
| Vinegary Syndrome releases The House of the Dead onto Blu-ray presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a new 1080p high-definition transfer scanned and restored in 2K from the 35mm camera negative. Detail on this was rather good and colors do appear rather good, especially for what likely was low budget from 40 years ago. That said, I did notice some wear and tear in the print with some scratches and dust marks, but it was nothing terribly distracting. |
AUDIO – 3.5/5 |
| The movie includes your basic but effective enough DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which does output good dialogue levels and showcases some okay depth during the segments as well as things like the downpour which sets up the movie. There were no noticeable instances of hisses or any other damage so it was a fine lossless track. |
OVERALL – 2.5/5 |
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Overall, The House of the Dead was originally released, for some odd reason, as Alien Zone and as such really confused plenty of people. As for the movie itself, it’s kind of your standard horror film in vignette form, taking cues from The Twilight Zone though done a lot better years later with Tales from the Crypt. This Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome offers good video/audio transfers but the features are on the lackluster side, however the limited edition slip cover was pretty cool looking. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.