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2005 - 95m.

I'm not quite sure who thought a sequel to Uwe Boll's terrible adaptation of the Sega videogame was in order, but I'm happy to report that this follow-up is virtually unrelated to that film, it doesn't contain lame clips of the games amongst the action, and it never once takes itself seriously. However, it's still a mediocre low-budget zombie flick, even if it does have a few inspired moments.

Upon popping House Of The Dead 2 into my player I began to wonder just what awful frat comedy I had stumbled upon but that all changed quickly as one of the sorority girls is hit by a car driven by one of the college professors (played by Sid Haig, who's quickly become a cult figure in the genre thanks to Rob Zombie casting him as Captain Spaulding in House Of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects).

He takes her back to his lab and proceeds to cut off all her clothes (and he's having a hard time at it since those scissors must be dull as shit) in order to give her an injection to try and bring her back to life. That's right, cuts off her clothes to give her a needle - think about that for a second. At first nothing happens and he's about to claim failure but before he can he's attacked by the reanimated corpse. Roll credits as we see brief clips of the university campus being overrun by flesh eating zombies.

In order to contain the problem the Government decides to send in the military and the AMS (don't ask what it stands for as we're never told) to try and eliminate the outbreak while trying to track down the original infected zombie (dubbed "generation zero") in order to get a blood sample and create an antidote to what they're calling a "plague".

Heading up the mission are AMS soldier Ellis (Ed Quinn), scientist Alex (Emmanuelle Vaugier), and the typical batch of formulaic soldiers led by Sergeant Dalton (one time rapper Sticky Fingaz). They enter the campus of Cuesta Verde University and have to try and complete their mission (and stay alive) before the suits decide to send in some guided missiles to destroy the area. This being a zombie movie that proves to be more difficult than they thought as they're attacked at all sides by the infected students and faculty (who have been dubbed "hyper-sapiens").

Writer/producer Mark A. Altman gives this one a more tongue-in-cheek spin and while it's a welcome thing (and distracts you from the fact the premise is about as by-the-book as they get) it at times feels that the humour is played much too closely to scenes of suspense. Sure, it might be funny to see our two heroes shoot a zombie in the head and get splattered with its blood while nonchalantly carrying on their conversation and such scenes as when the obnoxious and sarcastic soldier Bart (James Jean Parks, who pretty much steals the show here) answers one victims cell phone and says, "John can't come to the phone right now, he's dead", but when these moments are followed directly by people having their throats ripped out and rapid machine gun fire we don't have time to enjoy these dopey moments.

And speaking of throats being ripped out and the like, the movie contains some really well done make-up effects and a good amount of gore to keep you interested - at least until Altman tries to dumbly tie-in the original movie and when the film takes a break from its quickly paced action to work in weak explanations and plotting.

Playing more like a videogame than the original managed to, House Of The Dead 2 is fun for a little while, so it's too bad when it loses its footing in the second half and becomes a series of pretty dull and repetitive undead attacks before the unintentionally silly finale (especially when Quinn's character slops zombie intestines all over himself in order to sneak past a group of them). (Chris Hartley, 6/5/06)

Directed By: Mike Hurst.
Written By: Mark A. Altman.

Starring: Emmanuelle Vaugier, Ed Quinn, Victoria Pratt, Nadine Velazquez.