house of pain or house of humor? YES. This is the most poorly made movie that I can remember being in theaters. Yes, this movie is bad. However, it is not unwatchable. Let's count this movies strengths (which would be weaknesses for most movies, but when you fall into the so-bad-it's-still-bad-but kinda-funny territory, you take what you can get), and come to a better understanding of the film.
First off, I love the film's concept of a rave. It's a few tents, a (singular) keg of beer, and dancing in the daylight. Oh, and it's outside on an unpopulated island (because those exist near the United States). I don't know where they got the power to run this rave, since the island clearly is deserted and does not have a power source. Maybe they used power generators...and hid them...and muffled the sound. You would think that a movie like this would exploit the idea of a rave to have pointless nudity and partying, but they don't. We don't even have the gratification of seeing these ravers die, for the most part. All we get is a flimsy framing device for the movie that is quickly forgotten.
The movie also opens with narration from the main hero. However, he is narrating things that he could not possibly know about. And then the narration stops. Sure, why not? Now, on to horror movie staples. The nudity in this movie is strange. I think it's a given that horror movies like this need nudity, but even I laughed at one of the two nude scenes. It involves a girl washing her shirt in a sink. Huh? There was a scene involving two ravers making out in the jungle that did not have nudity, but a dirty shirt has it? I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that it's odd. The other nude scene involves a girl getting undressed and swimming while her boyfriend opts to sleep on the beach. During this entire scene, it is clear that there is something scary in the water with this girl. Bubbles are rising up, she's getting scared, and the camera has almost point-of-view shots looking at the girl from underwater. However, there is nothing in the water, apparently. Despite all that foreshadowing, it turns out that the bad guys were in the jungle.
There are also tons, and I mean TONS, of continuity errors in this film. The same scene will change from raining to not raining, depending on the camera shot. Characters just emerging from the water are often dry. Sometimes, characters have backpacks and weapons appear on their persons out of thin air. I think the door to the house (yes, of the dead) was even blown up twice.
My favorite part of the movie is not even in the film. On the DVD insert, each of the main characters (the ones who survive the initial purging of ravers) is given a military title and weapon of choice. For instance, the Asian woman is a martial arts master. However, the character Simon, who is constantly shown to be a total moron, is identified as the tactical leader of the group. Good choice, guys.
And who can forget the video game clips? The clips in the movie rarely have anything to do with what's happening on screen, and on those rare occasions where the video clips and the scene coincide, I would bet money that it was coincidence. Most of the clips are not even played by a real person. Instead, the screen has "press start to play" or "insert coins" or something like that flashing in the corner. The filmmakers did not even buy the video game they were taking clips of! Another interesting part of the movie is the logic of becoming zombie. Instead of becoming a zombie when you are bitten, like in most zombie movies, you must be injected with a serum. I think you have to be alive for this to work, but I may be mistaken. I would double check, but that would require watching this movie sober. Now, I know this isn't exactly a classic zombie movie, and I do appreciate when movies make up their own rules for classic movie monsters. However, this whole serum business is ridiculous. That means that all of the ravers (remember, there are no bodies found at the rave or anywhere else) were killed and then dragged to the secret lair of the serum doctor, who injected them and turned them into zombies. Apparently, the doctor had been preparing for an unprecedented rave on his deserted island and had made an extra large vat of serum to inject dozens of people with.
All in all, there is a lot to laugh at in this movie (I didn't even talk about the Matrix-style shots), but I wouldn't recommend it without a few friends and beer. Or, watch it on a Nyquil buzz when you're sick and falling asleep on the couch. That might be the best way to watch House of the Dead.