Horror Movie Review: Dead House (2018)

From writer/director Brini Amerigo comes Dead House, a mashup of the home invasion horror and zombies! Out now via Wild Eye Releasing on VOD.

Starring Danny Cutler, Alex Lucchesi and Alex Southern it sees a trio of violent and ruthless thugs break into a home where they hold the family hostage. Unfortunately for them this home holds a secret in the basement. A lab that houses viral experiments gone wrong, basically zombies.

Testamento (Lucchesi) and Nibbio (Cutler) are twisted psychos who enjoy nothing more than torturing their victims. They get their kicks out of forcing people to do vile and depraved things for their enjoyment. Nibbio has dragged his brother Brett (Southern) along too in the hope of teaching him his ways. You see Nibbio believes the upper crust of society deserves punishment and offers no chance of redemption.

A horrid bunch of characters, their behaviour and dialogue are squeamish and often unnecessarily sickening. Writer/director Amerigo certainly did a good job of making them impossible to like and Danny Cutler in particular plays his role with a certain amount of relish.

They make the mistake of coming to John’s house (David White) and attacking his family. What begins as an uncomfortable home invasion horror turns into a gory and violent zombie flick with all the characters fighting for their survival.

An interesting hybrid that also chucks in some good old-fashioned government conspiracy theories too. It’s a solid switch in style as by the half-way point the home invasion angle was starting to get tired. Once the zombies are introduced all hell breaks lose and this is where the gore really steps up. The make-up on the zombies is great and the blood flies. Add in a mutant creature that looks straight out of the Resident Evil series and Dead House turns out to be a decent flick.

The films flaws come with the grim tone and how no character is particularly likeable. There is no one to cheer for and the sour finale just piles on top a pretty miserable experience. One that will leave your mind shrouded in darkness for a while afterwards!