I've owned zombie horror film House of the Dead II: Dead Aim for many years, but I had such bad memories of the Uwe Boll directed original that I had long put off watching this sequel. That original made the cardinal sin of being as dull as dishwater, even if it had a couple of inspired moments, such as editing in gameplay from the Sega video games it was based on during some of its more action packed scenes. In terms of quality, this Michael Hurst (New Blood) directed sequel is not better, but is more entertaining in that special way that only low budget zombie films can be.
A university science professor trying to perfect a serum to resurrect the dead (a short but sweet role by cult actor Sid Haig - The Devil's Rejects) results in the accidental unleashing of a virus that turns the students and teachers of the university into flesh hungry ghouls. Catching the attention of a zombie hunting organisation known as A.M.S, they send two agents; Nightingale (Emmanuelle Vaugier - Saw II) and Ellis (Ed Quinn - Werewolf: The Beast Among Us) as well as a small group of soldiers to the place of learning. Their mission is to retrieve a blood sample from patient zero, with the hope a vaccine can be created from the blood. They are working against the clock however, the army planning to destroy the place by missiles in order to contain the contagion.
This was cheesy, predictable, and silly in a way that if not purposely done, was still a good reflection on the cheesy video games that the property spawned from. Over the hour and a half runtime there are many easily avoidable deaths, groan worthy one liners, and stupid ideas. One of the things I most love about zombie films is that it doesn't matter if the plot is particularly good, as long as there are enough undead I am going to be happy, content to switch off my brain and let the goofiness and mayhem wash over me. Unlike the first movie, this one remembers to be entertaining, from the start to the finish there isn't really a let-up, with the action forever increasing, and the odds of survival getting more and more ridiculous. Side characters mainly existed to be swiftly killed, it was funny how fast the soldiers were defeated, even one of them who stated he had fought the undead before, kept mistaking zombies for survivors until his luck ran out. Most memorable of these soldiers was Bart (James Parks - Kill Bill: Vol 1, Vol 2), a self serving and cocky man who was as entertaining as he was sleazy. I liked Nightingale and Ellis, they didn't have much to them other than tonnes of bravado and a willingness to be cold as ice when it came to dealing with the recently infected, but they did remind me of the protagonist duos you would see in the games.
Initially in small numbers, the amount of walking corpses increases as the film goes on. There did seem to be a bit of main character energy with the protagonists, as they are able to survive intense close quarters fighting of large groups without getting bitten or scratched, while the more expendable characters instantly get bitten. To be fair to them, by the end of the movie the zombie actors direction seems to be 'pretend you are in a mosh pit at a hardcore music festival' as they seemed to do little more than rush the heroes with their arms windmilling in large circles! There is plenty of blood, plenty of action, and a couple of references to the games. The games are not known for their deep stories, and this is the same, the plot is incredibly basic and fitted the vibe of a short and sweet arcade machine light gun game. Some later story beats were more silly than serious, but it gave a reason to increase the tension and threat level. Zombies were plentiful and looked the part, often appearing in huge groups. Nothing like the games, there were just zombies here and no other creatures, and those zombies look like former people rather than lab grown monstrosities. I was fine with this though, I was more than happy that the film was enjoyably dumb rather than a lesson in tedium. I also appreciated how this was linked to the first movie, rather than being a completely self contained story. Lastly, I enjoyed the bleak ending to this, always good to see in these types of movies!
With zombie films it is never so much 'is this good?' but more 'is this fun?' House of the Dead II: Dead Aim is not a good movie, but it was an enjoyable one. The university setting might not be the most original, in fact, there is little here that is original, but there are spirited performances from people who are likely all too aware of the level of film they are acting in. The story might be incredibly basic, but I kind of get the feeling that was the intention, and being from the early 2000s (that I have huge nostalgia for), this was a zombie film that did exactly what it set out to do, mindless entertainment.
SCORE:
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