The Film (3/5)

    House of the Dead (aka The Alien Zone) is a portmanteau film styled after the anthologies made by Amicus in the 60's and 70's. The wraparound segment involves a man played by John Ericson who after having an affair takes a cab home, only to be dropped off too soon, and in the rain. He quickly is taken in by a mortician (Ivor Francis) to dry off, however, the mortician wants to tell him stories of the dead who lie in his mortuary, and other things as well...

    There are 4 stories in House of the Dead plus the wraparound segment, and like most anthology films they are totally hit or miss, and some of them fall squarely in between. The first involving a school teacher who hates children only to find herself falling victim to a group of very strange ones. This one is pretty terrible, but also oddly amusing.  The second segment feels like a short bit of filler, with no reason to recommend it on, but yet this story involving a man who kills his dates in front of a motion picture camera, I found disturbing in a minor way.

      The third segment of the film involves 2 famous detectives who find themselves investigating a new case with deadly consequence. This one was the best segment in the film, it looked lush, was well-acted, and is probably the one I can recommend most highly. The fourth segment involves a man who falls down an elevator and finds himself on the run from something weird and unseen. This is a strange one, but definitely worth a viewers time.

     I am a big fan of anthology films, so I was quite happy to see Vinegar Syndrome releasing another one after the whacked-out brilliance of Night Train to Terror. This one does not come close to reaching the lofty heights of that film, but it is a great middle of the night time waster with some bits to recommend it on.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Vinegar Syndrome presents House of the Dead in a very nice 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer. This film was probably never the best looking film in the world, but Vinegar Syndrome worked their magic and brought out what detail and style there was in it. Colors are nice and stable, and well reproduced, black levels are deep, certain segments have nice warm tones to them, and the overall picture just looks fantastic.

    Audio is handled by a DTS-HD mono track in English and sounds again excellent. Clear and crisp all the way through with no discernible issues.

Extras (3/5)

    2 long form interviews conducted over the phone one with director Sharon Miller, and the other with co-writer David O'Malley. There is also a gallery of production stills.

Overall

    House of the Dead is an interesting, but flawed anthology. The Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray, however, looks and sounds fantastic, and comes with some solid extras. RECOMMENDED.