Play Dead (1983)

Pretty Good

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Yvonne De Carlo of "The Munsters" fame star in this horror about a very bitter heiress who former lover falls for her sister. Because of this, she would take matters in a supernatural way. The former lover has a child, who is now grown, loses her mother in a tragic accident. Animosity and resentment gets involved in the reunion. Trying to make peace with the family, the aunt wants to move forward. But there's another thing, she has a Rottweiler from Europe that seems docile, but the appearance can be a ploy. Not only is the aunt is wealthy, she's involved in sinister black magic. She used that hulking dog to exact revenge on the lover and her sister. And turns it loose on the siblings as well. Driving the niece out of her mind, and causing much mayhem. This dog is so smart, it can throw off the brightest of detectives. Especially, when he put that drain cleaner along with the seltzer. Can't tell which is which. This movie was not well made. A little spoiler from the crew was spotted during the love scenes. In fact, I was wrong about "Dogs" in 1976, this movie really was barking up the wrong tree. 1 star!

Right off, I have to explain why I've given this film ten stars.Bad films are something of an art form in themselves. Think Ed Wood, think Brian DePalma (come on... be honest, he s*cks, and you know it.) Play Dead has no pretensions. It knows it's a pile of crap, and it revels in it (in as much as a film can do anything more than just exist, but bear with me, I've got this theory...) Look, the dog, while a bit underbitten and mopish looking, just excludes sweetness. She's a Serious Canine Actress, and a God Dog, and she's trying -- for God's sake. Can't say much for Lily Munster though, except, for a husky old broad, she still looks pretty good.Come on -- it's a film about a Satan-inspired Rottweiler serial killer, what did you expect? Straw Dogs? Mystic River? Hell Comes to Frog Town? Hand me another Heinekin and I'll shut up, serious.And come on -- the dog was cute.

Not a great deal you can say about a film where the best acting comes from a dog. Yvonne De Carlo is supposed to be creepy and scary as the evil aunt but she was far more frightening as Lily in the 'Munsters.'The cops investigating the killing done by the aunt's evil possessed canine seem to have acquired their detective skills from a mail correspondence course from the back of a magazine. It's not surprising that they fail to solve the crimes.It's left to auntie to be the architect of her own doom when she seriously upsets the pooch. Word of warning: if you have 'Satan's Dog' (as my DVD copy was entitled), never, ever get on it's wrong side as it will all end in tears.....Dull and boring, poorly acted, a waste of time really. Go watch 'Cujo' or the original 'Hound of the Baskervilles.'

Apparently a *construction company* produced this film? Well, that makes just about as much sense as anything.The movie starts with shots of a Rottweiler attacking a person who is prostrate on the ground. Then, we're at the funeral of a woman. Hester shows up, and her voice is instantly recognizable as that of the actress who played Lily Munster: yes, it is she.She is the late woman's sister, and she is not well liked by her sister's children.Hester is rich, and she is angry at her sister and her niece and nephew, because she had had a relationship with her sister's husband prior to their marriage., and she feels she would have been better for him. He died years ago, but she has a place of honor in her house for a photo of him, and she likes to imagine herself dancing with him in slow motion in front of a mirror.Hester owns a Rottweiler that she brought back with her from Europe. She also dabbles in black magic of some kind. She left a necklace with a pentagram on it in her sister's casket. The dog also has one on its collar. The dog also does things in slow motion.Hester gives the dog to her niece, and pretends that she cares about her niece and nephew now that her sister has passed on. However, she does rituals involving blood and chanting Latin in order to remotely cause the dog to bring about the deaths of her nephew, her niece's neighbor and boyfriend and others.The movie doesn't really have any resolution at the end. A real non-ending, not setting up a sequel, but just petering out without letting us know what happened to some of the main characters.