Monster Dog (1984)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Best movie of this year hands down!

A lot of fun.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Musician Vincent Raven (Alice Cooper) loads up the gear and his band to travel to his boyhood home to film a music video. Along with the band is his girlfriend (Victoria Vera). Entering town, Vincent is met by a childhood friend, (Ricardo Palacious), who just happens to be the local sheriff. Vincent and his crew are warned of wild dogs running loose and killing area residents. The back story is that about twenty years earlier, Vincent's own father was killed by an angry mob. The towns people thought he was a...werewolf. The star knows different; meanwhile the townsfolk fear that Vincent is just like his old man.This is an Italian film, so voices have been over dubbed. The acting isn't much, but all considering, MONSTER DOG is a decent late night creature feature. Alice Cooper manages to sing two songs, "See Me In The Mirror" and "Identity Crisis", that were never released for fourteen years.Also in the cast: Fernando Conde, Pepita James, Carlos Santurio, Emilio Lender and Charly Bravo.

Starring Alice Cooper as a rock star (I mean, really? How's he going to pull that one off? >_>) returning to his home town, Monster Dog is something of a werewolf whodunnit without much of a whodunnit part. Since most of the attacks are credited to wild dogs whom we see throughout the movie (supposedly controlled by a werewolf because, well, werewolf mythology is anything you want it to be) the film builds up the idea that there may not even be a werewolf... or, at least, a werewolf that doesn't look like one.Because the movie doesn't have enough bizarre plot threads, you have an old (bloody) doomsayer running around as well as an angry mob who killed Alice Cooper's dad because they thought he was a werewolf. The mob, which consists of four angry rednecks, are the closest thing the film has to antagonists. Most of the time you're left wondering when that werewolf will show.And because Alice Cooper is a rock star playing a rock star, you have an obligatory terrible music video (entitled "Identity Crisis" which could either be clever foreshadowing or, more likely, they just thought it sounded cool...) which plays in the beginning (and is reused at the ending because, well, Alice Cooper) as well as some scenes of shooting another rock video. For extra laughs, Cooper's character is named Vince Raven. I'm not joking. Seriously, it's a name so badly contrived that you'd more expect it in the laziest of fanfics.All things considered, it's a decidedly average film. It moves at an okay pace (except for a far too long obvious dream sequence). The redneck gang was pretty entertaining even if they weren't played up enough. Pretty much everything in the film seemed to rush by, probably because they tried to do far too much.

Monster Dog (1984)** (out of 4) Alice Cooper plays the leader of a rock group who takes his band back to his hometown to shoot a new music video. Once there the group learns that the town is under attack by some mysterious murdering dogs but could it really be a werewolf? This Spanish production is also known as Leviatan and believe it or not the thing isn't too bad if you're a fan of Cooper's. The bad thing is that Cooper didn't get to dub his own voice so you have to hear someone else talking in his place but we do get a new Cooper song, which remained unavailable until a few years ago. The movie is from director Fragasso who is best known for co-directing several Italian films with the legendary Bruno Mattei including Hell of the Living Dead, Zombi 3 and Troll 2. All of those films have a notorious reputation so it's really shocking that this movie didn't turn out worst. The actual attacks are pretty lame and the blood level is rather low but the mystery is somewhat well handled and God knows this is certainly far from the worst werewolf film. I'm not sure why this title was selected for the American release unless the buyers only watched the opening twenty-minutes and actually thought the dogs were the big story as the werewolf part doesn't kick in until later in the film. Cooper turns in a decent performance but he's always been rather entertaining when appearing in films or doing his act on stage. The supporting players are all rather weak but no worse than what we normally see in a movie like this. Again, this is no lost masterpiece but fans of Cooper's should get a few kicks out of it.

Reputation alone this should be a stinker, even with the presence of rock singer Alice Cooper and the video case artwork being quite striking. Anyhow I went in expecting just that, and sure enough it's low-barrel straight-to-video schlock, which I actually didn't mind. This shoestring Spanish werewolf horror production feels like nothing more than a Cooper vehicle, especially with the time spent on him in some music video clips ( for two previously unreleased songs entitled, "Identity Crisis" and "See Me In The Mirror."). Yep that's right; he plays a popular musician (Hell at least he's true to character!) who returns back home to shoot a music video clip, but the town is plagued by murders caused by stray dogs, or something much worse. The concept isn't too bad, but the leaden script and muddled story dispatches any chance of demonstrating some quality with cheesy daftness, padded stretches and senselessly prolonged plot inclusions. Instead on relishing in suspense, and build up (despite some minor tension and sudden twist near the end) director Claudio Fragasso goes for nightmarish moodiness, as a smoky, darkly lit atmosphere of fog, and light filtering engraves itself into the forebodingly isolated location. There's no better place to stage these things than in rundown, shadowy mansions. Although it works, the direction comes off clunky, and uneven. An eerie, stinging music score splices up well with the on-screen atmosphere, while the soundtrack is an unshakable winner. Now the special effects… yeah they're hokey. However there's a terrific head explosion and plenty of blood splatter, but when it came to the beast's make-up. It's shonky. Even the dogs in picture look bewildered when the werewolf finally makes its grand appearance. The transformation sequence is wickedly cheap, but amusing. The acting is downright disposable and flaky, but Cooper's comfortably sound turn holds your interest and the ravishing Victoria Vera is tolerable.