The Film (3/5)

Death House has been over nine years in the making since the original scriptwriter Gunnar Hansen – best known for his legendary performance of Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – came up with the idea to create a movie to bring together as many horror legends as possible.  Gunnar Hansen's unfortunate passing in 2015 slowed down the progress of Death House; however, director and co-writer B. Harrison Smith, who Gunnar Hansen had talked to about the movie prior to his passing, managed to keep the movie from disappearing and the finished film was released in 2017.

Death House boasts a throng of stars spanning decades of the horror-sphere – although, sadly, some actors such as Robert Englund, Ken Foree, Doug Bradley, and Don Shanks, who were originally intending to appear in the movie, dropped out of the project as the years went on from concept to completion.  As it is, and as one should expect considering the size of the main cast, many of the horror stars have brief roles in the movie.

The plot for Death House centers around Death House; a secret federal maximum security prison started in 1954 to house the worst of the worst.  Unlike most prisons, the high tech Death House prison is designed to create a comprehensive criminal database.  Most of the incarcerated are rehabilitated through virtual reality reprogramming.  The 'five evils,' the worst of the worst, are kept in a familiar virtual reality scenario for study.  Agents Jae Novak (Cody Longo) and Toria Boon (Courtney Palm) are new to Death House.  Captain Victor Galan (Kenny Ray Powell), as part of their initiation to the supermax, sends them on a tour of the underground prison complex.  A power out during the tour causes the inmates to get free, and Jae Novak and Toria Boon have to fight for their survival.

Whether you ultimately like or hate Death House will depend on what you are looking for when you go into the movie.  Death House has been called The Expendables of horror films due to all of the horror legends in the movie.  If you go into the movie expecting a brainless horror gore fest, you are going to leave Death House feeling very disappointed.

Instead, Death House has a rather complicated story.  The viewer, along with the agents, is both left in the dark at the beginning of the movie and are given hints slowly as the movie plays out as to what is going on.  As a result, if the viewer isn't paying attention to the movie, the plot isn't going to make a whole lot of sense.  Sadly, this reviewer thinks that the limited budget is seen in the plot since there is the general feeling that portions of the movie were never shot due to budgetary reasons and ended up just being flat out explained to the viewer at the end of the movie.

B. Harrison Smith has made some noticeable changes to the screenplay since Gunnar Hansen's original.  B. Harrison Smith has, very loosely, tied Death House into his 2014 movie Camp Dread.  The connection is so tenuous, however, that even viewers who have seen Camp Dread may miss it.  This reviewer isn't sure how he feels about this connection.  Death House should be Gunnar Hansen's movie, and by trying to tie it into B. Harrison Smith's movie universe, it feels like B. Harrison Smith is trying to take over ownership of the universe in a way.

The other, likely, obvious alteration to Gunnar Hansen's screenplay is the wide open ending that indicates that B. Harrison Smith intends to revisit the Death House universe several more times.  In fact, the prequel Dawn of Five Evils, which is just the working title, has already been announced by B. Harrison Smith.

B. Harrison Smith has made many other changes to Gunnar Hansen's screenplay as well; they just aren't as obvious.  According to B. Harrison Smith, roughly 90 percent of the screenplay that was used was B. Harrison Smith's, and 10 percent of the screenplay was Gunnar Hansen's.  However, according to B. Harrison Smith, Gunnar Hansen approved the screenplay that was used prior to his passing.  

According to B. Harrison Smith, Gunnar Hansen's original screenplay involved a group of filmmakers who went into an abandoned asylum to meet their doom.  The five evils and the concept of good and bad being dependent on each other were parts of Gunnar Hansen's original screenplay.  It is evident that portions of Gunnar Hansen's screenplay were kept, at least in concept.  Although Death House doesn't take place in a run-down asylum, it does take place in a rundown prison complex.

The cast does a great job with the material they were given.  Cody Longo and Cortney Palm carry the entire movie.  Except for the opening of the movie, their journey through Death House carries the narrative thread and the movie itself.  At first, this reviewer was confused as to why two relatively unknown stars in horror circles would be picked as the leads for a horror movie boasting a cast as significant as Death House does.  However, after watching the movie, it makes more sense.  Most of the major names have cameo appearances mostly in the movie, although some, like Kane Hodder, do have more significant roles.  However, allowing the two principal characters to go to more unknown actors and actresses allows more attention to the cameo appearances of the major stars.  Gunnar Hansen does make a postmortem appearance in Death House  – and no, not in the say that Graham Chapman continues appearing with his fellow Pythons.

As far as actual chills and jumps, maybe this reviewer has seen way too many horror films over the years and become too desensitized, however, there wasn't much in the way of jumps or gore in the movie.  B. Harrison Smith has included a lot of homages to other horror films throughout Death House, some that this reviewer caught others that this reviewer needed to listen to the commentary to pick up.

Despite being a high tech supermax, B. Harrison Smith shot the majority of Death House in an abandoned prison in Pennsylvania.  Using an abandoned prison was a far wiser choice on the part of B. Harrison Smith than using a sterile high tech environment that one might expect – and since the prison was made in the 1950s it is believable it could be run down by now.  The setting allows the movie plenty of dark and creepy hallways for an environment.

Some of the action sequences in the movie are entirely unbelievable; however, if you are going into a horror film looking for believable situations, you are going to be disappointed in many ways.  The gore and make-up effects in the movie are well done.

Frankly, Death House isn't all the movie that it could have been.  However, this doesn't make Death House a lousy movie.  Death House is fun to watch, especially seeing all of the horror stars and catching all of the references to other horror films.  Just don't go into the movie expecting to see the best horror film ever made.

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

Cleopatra Entertainment and MVD Visual have done an excellent job with their Blu-ray release of Death House.  As of the time of writing, the Blu-ray for Death House is exclusive to Diabolik.  Death House was shot digitally and is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p.  The image quality is beautiful with no noticeable defects in the image.  There is fine grain in dark shots, and some of the scenes appear to be shot overly bright; however, this looks like how the movie was shot and not a problem with the transfer.  The colors in the movie look great.

Death House is presented with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio track.  There aren't any noticeable defects within the sound.  The dialog in the movie is easy to understand, and the movie sounds good.  This reviewer isn't sure why Cleopatra Entertainment and MVD Visual went with a lossy Dolby Digital audio track over a lossless Dolby TrueHD audio track.

Extras (2.5/5)

Cleopatra Entertainment and MVD Visual have included several extras on the Blu-ray for Death House.  There is a feature-length commentary track with director B. Harrison Smith, which makes for a great listen.  B. Harrison Smith talks about the choices he made while making the movie and points out scenes that are homages to other horror films – and no matter how big a horror fan you are, you are likely to miss some of them.  There are a series of short "interviews" where the subject(s) speak to the camera.  There are segments with B. Harrison Smith on Gunnar Hansen, Cody Longo, director of photography Matt Klammer, and Cortney Palm.  Producers Rick Finklestein and Steven Chase on the movie and Gunnar Hansen.  Cortney Palm on working with Kane Hodder.  And finally separate pieces with Dee Wallace and Barbara Crampton on the movie.

There is a short clip of Cortney Palm performing a stunt jumping into an airbag.  There is a photo gallery, and there is also a small sheet included inside the packaging so that convention attendees can get the autographs of the extensive list of notable horror stars in the movie.

Overall

If you, as a viewer, are looking for a balls-to-the-wall horror gore fest featuring legendary horror actors and actresses, Death House is not a movie for you.  You will leave disappointed.  If you are looking for a different horror movie that has a plot that you have to follow, Death House will make for an enjoyable watch.  Cleopatra Entertainment and MVD Visual have done a beautiful job with their Blu-ray release of Death House with excellent video and audio quality.