House of the Dead 2 Review

The sequel gets back to the game’s plot by introducing two government agents who are sent into the zombie territory to retrieve a blood sample before the military destroys the whole area with bombs.

Throughout its run through zombie movie clichés (such as the “survivor” that turns out to be a zombie, infected team members who need to be executed, etc.), House of the Dead II manages to keep things interesting with an undercurrent of self-aware humor. The cast, for the most part, is capable of delivering even the most insipid dialogue with conviction, and they’re given some refreshingly intriguing situations to contend with alongside the familiar.

A DNA sample is being sought to develop a vaccine against the living dead plague, one scene has a soldier infected with the zombie virus by a mosquito, there’s a zombie football game, and the living dead move more quickly than the traditional Romero zombies due to the mutation of the virus. There’s nothing exceptional about any of the material, but this is a classic next to the awful original.