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Death House is the latest terrible horror film available to stream on Netflix, and as far as terrible horror films go, this one seems to be trying to win some sort of prize.
The Death House cast is made of up of over a dozen well-known horror actors: Kane Hodder (aka Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th), Bill Moseley (aka Chop Top in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Michael Berryman (aka Pluto in The Hills Have Eyes), Tony Todd (aka Candyman in Candyman and William Bludworth in Final Destination), Sid Haig (aka Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie’s horror films), Adrienne Barbeau (aka Maggie in Escape from New York) and Barbara Crampton (aka Aubrey in You’re Next). Then there’s also Dee Wallace, who you may know as the mom from E.T., though she’s also been in horror flicks like The Howling and The Hills Have Eyes. And more!
So, yes, this is essentially The Expendables of horror films. We assume that was the intention of writer-director Harrison Smith, and original scriptwriter Gunnar Hansen. You probably know Hansen from his role as Leatherface in 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but sadly, Hansen died in 2015 at the age of 68, three years before the release of Death House.
It’s unclear if the filmmakers thought beyond getting an all-star horror cast together. The plot is, uh, interesting to say the least. I mean, just listen to this Netflix synopsis: “Two federal agents battle through an army of rioting prisoners—and their sense of reality—inside a high-tech prison modeled after Dante’s Inferno.”
It’s really the “Dante’s Inferno” part that gets me. So far, horror fans aren’t very impressed by the film itself. While there is no Rotten Tomatoes consensus yet, the movie’s score is currently at 40 percent.
Death House originally premiered at the Central Florida Film Festival in September 2017, and then went to VOD last November. But clearly, Netflix saw an opportunity in Death House. It seems the streaming giant is continuing a similar strategy employed with the releases of low-budget Blumhouse horror films like Thriller and Mercy Black earlier this year. People want to watch bad scary movies, and Netflix is more than willing to provide.
