What do Robert Englund , Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley, Doug Bradley, and Gunnar Hansen have in common? While they have each earned horror film notoriety in their own rights and that does give them a shared honor, they have all signed on to participate in Harrison Smith’s Death House . To look at Death House ‘s IMDb page , it would seem that Mr. Smith has gone to great lengths to pull in every iconic name in the horror genre. If they’re still alive, chances are they will be in Death House .
Harrison Smith ( 6 Degrees of Hell, The Fields ) is billing Death House as an “ Expendables of horror” film, based on a script originally penned by Kane Hodder (Jason from four of the Friday the 13th films) , but Smith says that the plot description provided on the IMDb page is out of date and that he has personally modernized the story. In an interview with Bloody Disgusting , Harrison Smith described Death House as “ Assault on Precinct 13 meets Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs.”
As surreal as that comparison seems, it’s only where the juxtaposition begins to form. Smith has delved into some fairly fantastic universes, bringing Death House together with elements from Silence Of The Lambs , The Wizard Of Oz , Alice In Wonderland , and Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy . Harrison has stated that Death House will be a serious, if fantastical, horror film in spite of rumors from fans that this will just be an excuse to give these horror icons one last hoorah.
Death House will “…not a gimmick film of ‘hey look it’s….!’ throughout,” Smith insisted. “We are making a solid horror piece…dark, nasty and gore soaked. It will not be satire or tongue in cheek.”
Movie Pilot posted a synopsis for Death House , stating that it was obtained from the IMDb page, but a look at that page turns up a very different, far less detailed synopsis, so they may have obtained the revised summary through some other means. The Death House summary provided by Movie Pilot is quoted below.
“The Four Horsemen are the most notorious serial killers of all time. Robert Englund’s weapon of choice is fire; Gunnar Hansen has an unquenchable thirst for human flesh; Bill Moseley is a surgeon, and tends to focus on mutilation and torture; and Doug Bradley shares a bond with spiders, particularly the Brown Recluse Spider, whose poison Bradley is happy to dispense among those unfortunate enough to meet him.
“All four killers are safely housed in a maximum security wing in the basement of the infamous Dodhoff Prison, aka The Death House.”
While it’s hard not to get excited about such an enticing premise, featuring so many horror genre favorites, it seems no one’s anticipation can compare to Harrison Smith’s enthusiasm for the project.
“I think I delivered a powerhouse horror script and it will be kickass horror film.”
IMDb lists a release date of October 20 for Death House .
[Featured image: Robert Englund courtesy of IMDb; Doug Bradley courtesy of www.dougbradley.co.uk; Kane Hodder courtesy of ghostadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Kane_Hodder; Gunnar Hansen courtesy of halloweenfuntime.com/legends/gunnar_hansen]
