If you've ever set foot in an arcade, then you'll probably have encountered The House Of The Dead, Sega's legendary light-gun shoot 'em up. Famed for bringing running zombies (well, undead mutants, to be more precise) to the turn of the millennium and helping spawn the zombie horror gaming boom alongside Resident Evil, the mainline HOTD franchise has spanned five games — and two woeful movies — to date. But, per Deadline's reporting, the undead hordes are now preparing to run back to the big screen once again courtesy of game-to-screen veteran Paul W.S. Anderson, director of Mortal Kombat, Monster Hunter, a fistful of _Resident Evil_s, and of course Event Horizon.
Pitched as a real-time horror emulative of the experience of playing a House Of The Dead game, Anderson's movie — which the director will produce alongside longtime collaborator Jeremy Bolt — is set to follow the plot of the third game in the series. Speaking to Deadline, Anderson — whose love for the "hyper-kinetic, immersive" arcade games goes all the way back to the 90s — teased what that plot entails. "We’re going to base the movie on House of the Dead Three, and if you know the mythology that is all about family conflict, amidst the action and scares," explains Anderson. "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."
But if the above sounds a little like you're going to have to do homework to get on Paul W.S. Anderson's HOTD's level, then the filmmaker is quick in the article to reassure that's not going to be the case. "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. Everyone’s going to be on the same page," says Anderson. "Everyone’s going to get sucked straight into the action and learn about the characters and the plot, as they have 90 minutes to basically escape the most extreme haunted house you’ve ever been in.”
Circling a mid-to-late 2025 shoot at the moment, we don't yet know who'll lead this new House Of The Dead movie (surely Anderson's wife and Resident Evil icon Milla Jovovich is nailed on to appear?) or when exactly it'll hit our screens. But 90 minutes to basically escape the most extreme haunted house we've ever been in? And it plays out in real-time? Now there's a curiosity shot and attention chaser we can get behind this fine Halloween. Light-guns at the ready, folks!