House of the Dead, The

MPAA Rating: R

Entertainment: +1

Content: -3

This horror film is based on a Sega video game, but Tomb Raider it is not. Five friends celebrate spring break by going to a big rave on an island near Seattle. A Captain Kirk (Jurgen Prochnow), who has heard horrible tales about the island of death, is hesitant to take them but is convinced by Simon (Tyron Leitso) for a thousand dollars. They make it to the island only to find lots of beer, but no people. While they are searching for all of the missing partiers, zombie-like creatures attack them. The students take refuge in a death house and there find two survivors of the rampage that took the lives of the rest. They all decide to make a run for the boat docked at the beach, but they discover that it too has been overtaken by the zombies. Fortunately for them, Kirk smuggled some weapons onto the island. The rest of the movie is students versus zombies in a fight to the finish.

Preview cannot recommend this film or the game it is based on. If these are the games our kids are playing, we are in trouble! Quite a few of the films many negative elements appear in the first five minutes. Lets start with the language: profanity, crudities and obscenities, with the F-word and S-word being used many times. Then there is the violence: a lot more than we need or want to see with lots of blood and gore. And of course they had to toss in the nudity: womens breasts and buttocks exposed a few times. And there are plenty of sexual implications to go along with the alcohol use. And on top of all that, there are dead people walking around definitely not biblical in this type of setting. The Bible says that it is appointed once for men to die, and then comes the judgment (Heb. 9:27). Previews assessment? The House of the Dead needs to stay dead and buried!

Preview Reviewer: Lynn Nusser
Distributor: Artisan Entertainment

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: Many (17) times mild 10 (hell, damn); moderate 7

Obscene Language: Many (39) times (S-word 15, F-word 21, other 3)

Profanity: Many (10) times regular 1; exclamatory 9 (OMG, OG, G-sake)

Violence: Many times the whole movie was violent with: lots of blood and gore as the zombies attack and as the students fight back; all kinds of weapons used including guns, knives, swords, axes and grenades; hand-to-hand fighting; flashback scene showing the legend of how the zombies originated where a Spanish pirate murders the captain of his ship (shown) and supposedly kills the rest of the crew (not shown)

Sex: None actually carried out, but a guy and girl are attempting to have sex in a tent when he leaves to go to the bathroom and she is murdered by a zombie, and a guy and girl are in the woods attempting to have sex when they are killed by the zombies

Nudity: Several times girls breasts fully exposed in a couple of scenes, girls buttocks exposed in one scene, girl in bikini at beginning of film, girl wears spaghetti-strap belly shirt

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Few times guy tells girl he wants to do the Humpty Bumpty with her, girl tells guy to go play with himself, guy kisses girl on arms while she is trying to talk on cell phone, guy lays on top of girl on the stage, zombie licks a girls neck

Drugs: Few times students drink beer, captain of ship smokes cigars

Other: In flashback to Spanish pirate, he says, There is no God. I am God; guy vomits over the side of the ship (not shown), and guy vomits on girl (shown); first mate gives girl a cross and tells her it will protect her from evil spirits

Running Time: 90 minutes
Intended Audience: Adults

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