From executive producer Wes Craven (does he actually know his name is on all these movies?) comes an old school, straight-forward revenge-of-nature flick, much in the vein of Robert Clouse’s THE PACK (1976).
If you were feeling uncharitably picky, you could use several sheets of A4 jotting down this pic’s clichés. Just for starters, check out : the old car that only starts at the plot’s convenience ; a corny climactic kiss-off line (“Give Cujo my best!”) ; a miraculous “I thought you were dead!” moment after a major character’s apparent demise ; a bunch of noisy false-scare jumps ; and a defiant character giving a rousing survivalist pep talk in front of a window, only to be interrupted by – ah, you know the rest. If you were being really picky, you might also groan at the prominent presence of The Wisecracking Disposable Black Dude ™ , whose destiny is to be the first key character to be killed while poking about in a basement by himself.
In spite of all these hackneyed elements, THE BREED turns in to a fairly suspenseful 70’s style siege-horror movie, in which a gradually depleted bunch of characters out of their natural environments barricade themselves in a house with a rampaging menace outside determined to get them. A group of students, including two brothers with sibling rivalry issues and two bikini-clad girls (Michelle Rodriguez being the hot one) take refuge at a remote island with childhood significance for the two brothers. The weekend’s fun drains swiftly when they are attacked by a pack of canines freshly escaped from a military compound, where genetic experiments have turned them in to unrelenting attack dogs.
THE BREED faces the main challenge of all killer dog movies : how do you turn a gang of cuddly German Shepherds into feasible monsters? While the “killer” dogs sometimes look like all they really want is an extended belly rub, the movie stages convincing attack scenes and there are well done, suitably discomforting moments in which the animals are believably wounded or killed during struggles. It’s refreshing to see a Fill-In-The-Blank-On-The-Rampage movie without cruddy CGI creatures : seamless use of animatronics and trained real dogs help create some tense set pieces.
Corny and hokey at times, this efficient, pacey movie is never invaded by post-modern cleverness and is all the better for it. There’s a stand-out nasty bit featuring a simultaneous dog / girl impalement and a fun “shock” at the very end that fits with the slightly retro feel of the rest of the film. Rodriguez, playing a more ordinary (though still feisty) girl than usual, is the most appealing member of the functional cast.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
