IF you made a THotD movie?

[Mystic Monkey]

I myself have rough ideas for a fanfilm (though given the holes in my idea, perhaps better off as a Netflix series which would give me room to use boss enemies), but if you were to make a movie based on The House of the Dead, what direction, story and content would you put into it?

[Volteccer Pulseman]

Well it has to start with the Curien Mansion incident.  Unless you make it based on HOTD 3 because the actual date is coming up and it would be perfect for Halloween.    Then for backstory you could do it like the game and sprinkle some flashbacks inbetween for context. 

[Mystic Monkey]

I haven't put together a full and tidy script yet, but I do have in mind a rough story and design visuals (With Planet Terror and it's visual effects being an inspiration.)
Thing is though people outside the HotD fandom don't take the franchise seriously as a zombie series than they would for Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead and other leading zombie games. So I decided the best approach would be to make it a mystery drama while also being a comedy (Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland being my favourate zomedies) but will still have a degree of fear and terror.
My story starts off with AMS agents "G" and Thomas Regan in the abandoned streets of Raccoon Cassandra City. The two of them fire whole clips of bullets at a single zombie until it is a mangled mess and treat it as if this was no real big deal at all before turning around and facing a hoard of zombies.

Then it cuts to "28 Days Earlier" AMS intelligence get reports of civilians of Cassandra going missing and unknown creatures being seen. AMS being the governments anti-bioterrorist group expect that Dr. Roy Curien could have something to do with it all. Thomas Regan doesn't want to go because it just so happens his fiancé Sophie Richards recently found employment with Dr. Roy Curien and their relationship is already strained.
Zombies I would like to include would be Samson, a large obese zombie with infantile-like intelligence but with strength to throw heavy objects and at one point use a chainsaw. The other major zombie being Johnathan who is capable of strategy and the use of a fireman's axe to more efficiently kill with.

Thats really all I thought up so far. The story goes back and forth from the "now" (G and Thomas surviving the zombies and traveling to Curien Mansion while being attacked by zombies, they're attempting to save Sophie who is trapped in the mansion) and the "how" (G and Thomas going to Cassandra City to investigate while we learn of Sophie Richard's work with Dr. Roy Curien, how the doctor is trying to save his son from leukemia and the details and extend of the Bio-Reactor project.)

If this was, say a Netflix series instead of a movie, I would have more room to include popular monsters like Chariot, Hangedman and Hermit. But Magician would definately be included as a creation with psychokinesis abilities. (Like how Mewtwo broke out of his laboratory and went on a killing spree)

[Mystic Monkey]

Gonna derail a bit but still on topic...

So I decided to bingewatch all of Anderson's Resident Evil movies. I wanted some more ideas for my hypothetical HotD fanfilm idea and also because I never seen the Resident Evil movies. In fact the only two Resident Evil games I am mostly familiar with are the first two games for PlayStation, both survival horrors that plays more on pacing and terror than the stead-pace railshooting that is The House of the Dead.

After watching all the movies, I gotta say I think the Resident Evil movies would of been better off under The House of the Dead franchise.
Most of the movie consist of Alice fighting Umbrella agents or shooting zombies in an extravagant choreograph manner. This mostly reminded me of Housr of the Dead than the Resident Evil I know which is mostly horror than action. It just felt like the genre's RE and HotD had were switched around for the movie series.
Even Umbrella Corp. was ridiculous with the mad science going as far as excessive cloning and perfectly duplicating clothing for clones even if those clones die. As far as I'm aware cloning weasn't really a thing in the later Resident Evil games, however in The House of the Dead it was common to shoot zombies that appear identical to one another.
Anyway point is for my fanfilm, I'd like it to be like the resident Evil series but with comedy to dilute the ridiculousness the RE movies had. That and Planet Terror's filming techniques to give it that aesthetic I invision.

[YellowJello]

Curious if you ever ended up doing anything with your script, Mystic Monkey. I've never gone to the point of writing anything down, but I feel like it would be difficult to make a dark, serious action horror movie off of the House of the Dead. It's not to say that it's a bad game, far from it, but the tone of the game set by the silly voice acting would make it hard for people to take it seriously based off of the source material. Not saying it couldn't be done, but it would be a bit of an undertaking.

If it were up to me, I'd love a tongue-in-cheek action horror comedy a la Shaun of the Dead. In my mind I'd see it played completely straight, but I feel it would have to be pretty self aware. Tonally, I guess I would compare it to Krampus. Obviously, the movies would be nothing alike, but Krampus was a satire that was winking at the audience without directly saying a joke or outwardly trying to be silly or funny. Would be difficult to cast for that, though.

[Mystic Monkey]

For my movie-idea, I too imagine some tongue-in-cheek humour but I would still like it to be taken seriously.
For example, here's how I would do the opening:An empty street at night, with some heavy mist. from an alleyway a zombie stumbles and lurches, making a loud groaning noise before his head is blown off, before two men proceed to continue to shoot at the zombie corpse for about 15 seconds before finally stopping to ask if that's it.They turn around and see a whole zombie hoard behind them. Cut title.
But I have in mind some sincere moments. Like while Rogan and Sophie are engage, they're both considering calling it off given their relationship is on the rocks, with Sophie's new boss Dr. Roy Curien taking an interest in her.
So it sort of starts off as a "Mystery" on kidnappings and zombie sightings, though given anyone who played THotD will know who it is means I could show how he done it and why than conceal it all.