SEGA’s legendary light-gun shooter is shambling its way from arcade screens to movie theatres. The House Of The Dead, the horror video game franchise created in 1997, is marking its third movie adaptation courtesy of Paul W.S. Anderson, a veteran in the game-to-movie scene.
The franchise is no stranger to movie adaptions, but its prior two outings, 2003’s House of the Dead and its 2005 sequel House of the Dead 2, fell short of expectations and were critically panned. At least the upcoming film seems to be in good hands, with Anderson previously helming a host of video game movie adaptions such as 1995’s Mortal Kombat, 2020’s Monster Hunter and four movies from the Resident Evil franchise.
The classic shooter franchise was famed for popularising fast-moving runner zombies to the genre, which the upcoming film hopes to emulate, following the plot of 2002’s The House of the Dead III. The movie will also apparently play out in real-time, bringing an interesting prospect to the already over-saturated zombie movie genre.
“We’re going to base the movie on The House of the Dead III, and if you know the mythology that is all about family conflict, amidst the action and scares,” explained Anderson during an interview with Deadline, “It’s about a woman, Lisa Rogan, who’s attempting to rescue her father. And it’s also about Daniel Curien, who’s the son of the man who caused this mutant outbreak in the first place and who has to deal with the sins of the father.”
“It’s not going to be kind of lumbered with a whole bunch of back story that might exclude people who know nothing about House of the Dead,” Anderson added, clarifying that the film would be accessible to even those without intimate knowledge of the lore-heavy franchise. “Everyone’s going to get sucked straight into the action and learn about the characters and the plot, as they have 90 minutes to escape the most extreme haunted house you’ve ever been in.”
The House Of The Dead movie is currently aiming for a 2025 release date, with no further details of its plot or leading cast revealed so far.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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