The House of the Dead

John Ericson ventures out in the rain after having been left off by a cab at the wrong street. Soon he finds refuge in an old building with a friendly mortician that gives him tea and shows him some of his "clients." There are some easy clues early in the wrap-around story for this anthology to tell you where that story is going, especially after having just seen the man prior to getting in the cab have an adulterous pleasure period with someone else's wife. But the frame story is really just a means to allow mortician Ivor Francis to tell his stories about his clients. I always liked Francis for his calm presence and subtle humour, yet here he is given some really bad dialog but does manage to put some life into this otherwise drab little film. The problem with this, also known for some inexplicable reason as Alien Zone(I saw House of the Dead copy), is that the budget here is really minuscule and the stories, what special effects there are, and acting quality are all directly affected. Nothing is shown. I was shocked that we never even got to see the faces of the dead corpses in the coffins - now that is low budget! The first story deals with a teacher who it seems dislikes children - based on one scene of her walking from her car scowling. She then goes home and the supernatural effects of red tinting children wearing masks and wearing what appear as shark teeth begins. Truly terrifying. (Yawn.) The second story has some real bad actor lure women into his apartment so he can film them being killed. It's done in an almost comedic fashion and has virtually no substance at all. Then there is the one story that I did really like and does have a bit of budget and real actors. The third story has Charles Aidman and Bernard Fox as two great detectives out to outwit the other and become the leading criminologist in the world. This episode has some humor and clever dialog and of course both Aidman and especially Fox have acting ability. You get an idea where it is going but should enjoy it nonetheless. It ends way too abruptly though. The last story is pretty decent too as we see a man who seems to be a person that doesn't care about the society around him get locked into an abandoned building and fed on booze until he becomes a boozer like the one he snubbed earlier. Despite its ridiculous story, the effects of despair are not all that bad. Then of course there is the obvious conclusion to the frame story. This movie was cheaply made and has that real cheap feel to it, but it isn't that bad and a couple of the stories are relatively interesting and none so bad as they are not watchable.

"Alien Zone" aka "House of the Dead" features four creepy stories told by a creepy embalmer.A man lost on his way to hotel listens to his tales.The first tale about a school teacher who hates children managed to creep me out.This nervous woman is being stalked by little children hidden behind their disturbing clown masks.The second story about serial killer of women,who enjoys filming his victims is quite boring and tedious.The stories number three and four are worth checking out.I still don't know why this film was titled "Alien Zone",because there are no aliens or galaxy invaders in it.A passable "Twilight Zone"-ish anthology.7 aliens of of 10.

Alien Zone (1978)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A married man (John Ericson) is having an affair with a married woman. After a night a sex, the man returns to his hotel but the taxi lets him off at the wrong place. To get out of the rain, he seeks shelter inside a house, which turns out to be a morgue. The Mortician (Ivor Francis) takes him to where the coffins are and tells the stories of the bodies inside.

ALIEN ZONE, also known as HOUSE OF THE DEAD, is an anthology film that is decent entertainment as long as you don't go into it expecting something like DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS or TALES FROM THE CRYPT. In other words, this is a low-budget movie that is mildly entertaining for what it is but there's no question that it falls well short of being a classic film.

Basically you've got the wrap-around story as well as four other stories. The first one deals with a school teacher who hates children and returns to her home and notices something is in there with her. This first story was good and the conclusion was nice as well. The second story deals with a serial killer who has a camera set up in his apartment to catch all of his action. This one here pretty much goes nowhere and ends out of nowhere with nothing much happening. The third film has a master detective trying to teach someone else how to solve crimes. The fourth and final entry has a man being tortured into drinking.

Again, none of the four stories are great but each of them are entertaining enough to keep the viewer interesting in what's going on. The film clocks in at just 80-minutes so there's really not too much time spent with any of the stories. The longest is the third one with the detective and it's actually the weakest as it's pretty predictable. I'd argue that all of the stories are predictable but for a "B" type of movie everything is decent enough.

ALIEN ZONE isn't a masterpiece and it's certainly flawed at times but as long as you're just looking for some cheap entertainment there's some to be found here.

After a quick night of kanoodling with mistress Leslie Paxton, John Ericson is caught out in the rain, but kindly old mortician Ivor Francis allows him to get out of the cold and wet while he tells him job stories. And for Francis, being a mortician is a job he relishes.

The title Alien Zone is quite the misnomer because there are no creatures from another planet in this film. Unless you consider the perceptive Francis from another world. Because what Francis does is show him four coffins with bodies inside and tells him about how all of them got there. Apparently no one who is a client at the Francis Funeral Home ever died a really natural death.

The stories are of an uneven quality, the best being the third one which involves a couple of vain police inspectors, Charles Aidman and Bernard Fox, each thinking he's the world's best detective. The dialog is really good in that story. The others involve Judith Novgrod as a reclusive school teacher who hates kids, Burr DeBenning as a psychotic murderer, and Richard Gates as a selfish yuppie. They all get a good comeuppance in the end.

Despite a misleading title Alien Zone is not a bad anthology film and how does Ericson and his story fit into all this. Not really hard to figure out even if you don't see the film.

Whenever the title "House of the Dead" is mentioned nowadays, people – and horror fanatics in particular – automatically link it to that hag Uwe Boll's AWFUL video game horror adaptation about UN-frightening looking CGI zombies on an island. Another movie with the same title existed already since the late 1970's, though it's also known under the completely irrelevant title "Alien Zone", and that one is a lot better! It's a low-budget exploitation attempt to create a horror anthology similar to the contemporary successful British films, like "Tales that Witness Madness" or "Asylum", complete with a detailed wraparound story and a sinister host. Whilst on a business trip in an unknown city, a guy named Talmudge cheats on his wife and gets lost on his way back to the hotel. Since there's a heavy thunderstorm going on, a seemly friendly mortician invites him in and informs him abut the background stories of four "clients" of his. None of these horror mini-tales is groundbreaking or particularly shocking, but they all feature an admirably dark atmosphere and revolve on rather inventive topics. The first story is extremely short and introduces a lonely female schoolteacher with a clear aversion towards children. When she goes home one night, she senses a strange presence in her house and subsequently gets attacked by a large collection of eerily deformed and mask-wearing children. I'm not quite sure what the deeper meaning of this short story was, but those kids sure looked creepy! The second story is – once again – a very short reworking of the classic film "Peeping Tom", with a perverted man inviting girls to his apartment and murdering them for the eye of the camera. The tone of this segment is definitely disturbing, but it has no satisfying ending, since it just cuts back to the mortician who explains the culprit got executed for his crimes. Huh? What's the point? Then comes the third and unquestionably best chapter of "House of the Dead", about an intellectual criminologist competing with his overseas colleague of Scotland Yard for the honor of most deductive police investigator in the world. This segment has an incredibly predictable climax, but it's very enjoyable thanks to the wit dialogs and convincing on screen chemistry between actors Charles Aidman and Bernard Fox. The fourth and final segment hints at some really horrific themes, but unfortunately the elaboration is poor. It's about an egocentric man who gets terrorized by unseen forces and eventually becomes everything he detests himself. Namely a needy and filthy individual who blindly gets passed by on the streets. It's a curious little tale that definitely deserved some more plotting and perhaps a slightly longer playtime. Naturally the film ends with an unmerciful fate for Talmudge (adultery, remember…). The late 70's definitely brought forward better horror films than this, but "House of the Dead" is nonetheless a worthwhile and entertaining little chiller that offers a handful of frights and delightful genre clichés. It's a film for undemanding trash-fans.