Play Dead

I've been after this movie for a while, though mainly because of the cool VHS cover and the fact that Yvonne De Carlo is in it. Well, I finally found a copy at a market. The film didn't live up to my expectations, but I'm used to that, being a fan of low budget horror.

The film is kind of watchable and semi-interesting, but isn't much of a horror film because there are no violent deaths. The deaths are caused by the dog but in very tame ways. The plot also seems muddled and the motivation for the killings is unclear. I found the ending rather bizarre but slightly surprising.

The main reason to seek this film out as far as I'm concerned is the VHS cover (the UK one). It looks good amongst my collection of big box horror films and I love the artwork. Other than that, there's little reason to seek out this film, even for fellow fans of low-budget horror.

In PLAY DEAD, Hester (Yvonne De Carlo) lives with Greta, her friendly Rottweiler. Hester just wants her family to be close, though most of them can't stand her, only wanting her vast fortune.

One day, Hester decides to use her occult powers to make things right. Soon enough, her relatives begin having terrible "accidents", seemingly caused by a big dog.

Hmmm.

The police are stumped, unable to prove anything about these "coincidences".

As Hester continues her ritualistic mumbo jumbo, her family shrinks through severe attrition.

Released through Troma, this is one of their better acquisitions. Contains semi-gory violence, nudity, and 1980's cheeeze aplenty! Though it's somewhat slow in spots, Ms. De Carlo is at her best! It's her appearance that raises this above the usual bilge...

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Play Dead; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.25 Direction: 1.00 Pace: 1.00 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.00

TOTAL: 5.50 out of 10.00

Two things keep this Dark Thriller of a Horror flick from greatness. The writing and the direction. However, it's a case of swings and roundabouts - when the narrative works, the filming doesn't and vice versa. For example, the ending is logical, though predictable. Since you can anticipate the finale, you need something that keeps it from feeling old and stale. The writers give the audience this, though the director fails to make it gripping enough, and it falls flat. But when we have the black magic rituals, the direction is spot on, though the writers needed to give us some believable dialogue in the way of spell casting.

I have to admit I loved the story concept of a killer hound possessed by its owner to kill her family due to her jealous hatred. I cannot think of another possessed dog tale off-hand, so kudos for that. All the characters required fleshing out a tad more as they appear two-dimensionally flat. It would have been nice to see some of the romance between the nephew and niece's dead daddy and their auntie. It would have proffered more engagement for the audience and taken the touch of dullness off.

The direction suffers from averageness. Due to the flaws in the writing, the filmmaking needed to be more engaging. The simple point and shoot are okay, but better composition would have gone a long way. The entire movie feels like a bad made-for-TV. It doesn't help that when Auntie Hester is thinking back to yesteryear and her yet-to-be brother-in-law, the director uses slow-motion to display her reminiscing. And, it gets worse with the foreplay. When the niece, Audrey, is making out with her bo' by the fire, the sultriness is cheapened and dulled by the smooth jazz soundtrack. It gives the section the feel of a soft-core porno. It is truly cringe-inducing.

The acting is also average, though Yvonne De Carlo as Aunt Hester is on form and adds a touch of class to her scenes. The ones she has with the policemen are the best. It shows how dominant and how much a force of nature she is. The other stand-out performance comes from Glenn Kezzer as Otis, the detective. It's a shame that some of the worst dialogue comes in his scenes, though he delivers it like a pro.

All-in-all, Play Dead isn't too terrible a movie. It entertained me enough to waste an hour and a half. Though, I may not be reviewing the possessed killer rottweiler anytime soon. If you have nothing else to watch and killer pooches yank your leash, then Play Dead is worth a look-see, at least once.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror, Killer Thriller Chillers, and Monstrous lists to see where I ranked Play Dead.

Take Care & Stay Well.

This might be some kind of b-movie classic. This is a film where a dog is the killer, but those expecting Cujo style dog attacks will be well let down, because this dog does it's whacking gangland style, yo.

Some Auntie who's into Satan and all that jive isn't too happy with the way her dead sister's estate turned out (I think). So she trains up this dog to be a killer and gives it to her niece as a present. Only prob is that this dog is out to kill all of aunt's enemies and does so by accidental car death, electrocution, strangulation and poison.

Like you I was wondering why it didn't just rip the throats out of folks, but there you go. Maybe it was because the dog involved was such a cutey and no one could believe it could kill someone using it's teeth. Who knows.

Also, there's this sex scene that seems to involve body doubles, and the body double covering for the chick has bweuubs three times the size of the actress she's covering for so watch out for that.

This film is great!

Satan's Dog is the British title for Play Dead, the VHS came with striking artwork but as is so often the case the film did not live up to the packaging. Yvonne de Carlo plays a rich but bitter woman who imports a large Rottweiler from Europe called Greta and uses black magic to control her, killing people for her own greedy ends. If you are hoping to see gory dog on human attacks then you will be disappointed. Greta is a very intelligent dog and doesn't want the deaths traced back to her, for example while a woman is taking a bath the clever dog drops an electrical appliance into the water and zap! Having said that a couple of deaths do see some of the red stuff. The black magic scenes don't have much bite either. Much better is the movie Devil Dog (1978)