Bloodline - Zum Killen dressiert

Next to approximately three dozen of other horror themes and subgenres, yours truly is also a giant fan of movies with killer dogs. After recently having seen the surprisingly decent 2015 Aussie effort "The Pack", my interest to seek out some older canine flicks got re-sparked, but then you are instantly confronted with the large number of truly bad titles that exist here. The early and mid-70s still spawned a few cool movies, like "Trapped" (1973), "Dogs" (1976) and "The Pack" (1977), but the 1980s excelled in horrible killer dog movies! The list is quite long already ("Mongrel", "Play Dead", "Monster Dog", "Humongous") and "Rottweiler" (a.k.a. "Dogs of Hell") may be added to it as well. Like with the others, the best thing about this film is the poster image, and everything else is beyond bad. The script is weak, the lead characters don't have any charisma, the acting performances are miserable, the few potentially exciting dog-attack sequences are poorly lit and fuzzy, and the whole thing is stuffed with irrelevant and downright dumb footage (like for example mud-wrestling contests and bar fights). US Military scientist Fletcher was assigned to train a pack of Rottweilers into becoming powerful army weapons, but at the beginning of the film we witness him begging to his superiors to abandon the entire project because the animals lost all their emotional capacities and developed a hatred against humans. The military top refuses, naturally, and the dogs escape during transportation. Apart from unstoppable fighting machines, these nasty puppies are apparently also Houdinis, since they manage to escape from a truck that immediately explodes after a collision. Now they are at large in a sort of mountain spa resort community, with only a lousy Sheriff and a couple of rednecks with guns as their opponents. I understand from the other reviews that lead actor/producer Earl Owensby enjoys some kind of cult reputation, but I certainly cannot guess where that comes from. His performance as the Sheriff is the worst of all (hardly could understand a word he was saying) and he also didn't bother to liberate any budget for the action scenes. Isn't that what producers are supposed to do? There are a few idiotic and senseless plot twists, like the devoted scientist suddenly turning into a madman, and far too many sentimental dialogues/monologues coming from people literally nobody cares about.

So, weren't there any good killer dog movies in the 80s then? Well, the adaptation of Stephen King's novel "Cujo" is enjoyable, but also certainly not a masterpiece. The only truly brilliant film that I would recommend in this genre is Samuel Fuller's "White Dog" (1982).

This film must be seen in the original widescreen 3-D process; as the excellent use of stereoscopic space is its only virtue. If you like cheesy horror flicks, you'll likely appreciate it a bit more. Earl is no actor, but he's fun in this silly little movie.

After seeing COMIN' AT YA! rake in the cash in 1981, Earl got the idea (as did many a producer at the time) that 3-D would bring attention to his low budget southern flicks and decided to shoot everything that way! This was the first of SIX 3-D movies made by Earl Owensby in the 1980's. The others were TALES OF THE THIRD DIMENSION, CHAIN GANG, HIT THE ROAD RUNNING, HYPERSPACE, and HOT HEIR (aka GREAT BALLOON CHASE).

DOGS OF HELL is about a top secret military project involving the killer canines of the title. These ruthless Rottweilers have surgical implants, making them ferocious fuzzballs of doom.

Oh no!

They're accidentally unleashed upon an unsuspecting populace!

Starring intergalactic omni-star, Earl Owensby as Sheriff Hank Willis, this is another low-low-budget schlocker from the 1980's. As such, it must hold some sort of record, considering that every character in it is an annoying idiot. Ranging from squeaky dweebs, to yowling yahoos, the denizens of the fictional town are all equally insufferable!

Thankfully, many of them end up as dog chow.

Of particular interest are the "wilderness photoshoot gone awry" and the obligatory "mud wrestling" sequences.

Ludicrous to the extreme, this could / should have been a masterwork of slack-jawed insanity. Unfortunately, it loses points for its long stretches of trance-inducing dullness. To be fair, it's almost saved by the southern-fried, musical soundtrack, bringing to mind a sort of Lynyrd Skynyrd / Hee Haw hybrid.

The perfect movie for de-wrinkling one's brain...

Independent star / producer Earl Owensby 3D fable "Rottweiler: Dogs from Hell" is a trashy, but mildly fun cheap-jack little animals run amok horror enterprise. I saw this one when I was only a kid and certain scenes had stayed in my head. I couldn't remember the title, where I only found it out recently. Came across a copy and when watching it the memories came flooding back. Don't remember it being as dodgy as it was, but it remained diverting enough.

A pack of Rottweilers are trained by the military for warfare, but these vicious killing machines are accidentally released within a small mountain community when the truck they are in crashes. Soon bodies start piling up and it's up to sheriff Hank Willis (Owensby) to put an end to this carnage.

Outside this systematic set-up (that has shades of "Jaws"); there are the small-town dramas to give it that genuine sense of community. Such distractions as angst teenagers (father and son issues), catfish talk, reflective time and women mud wrestling… these kinds of things feel like nothing more than filler. There's too much of it. When it came to the dog attacks, it's rather sloppy or off-screen with crude blood effects being splashed about. However when Owensby uses his magnum on the dogs; we are treated with graphic head imploding shots. There were one or two effectively minor intense set-pieces that spring out some calculative tension. Also we get plenty of POV shots from the dogs, as well growling which sounds more like someone's stomach is churning behind the camera… maybe that's where the panting arrived from too. Nonetheless is didn't sound as bad the daggy music score with its weepy piano pieces… which always felt it was going to cut to a sequence of someone playing a piano. It was just that odd in its placement. The performances are pretty much one-note, but Owensby equips himself quite well despite the script coming off as blunt and clumsy. Low-grade shoddiness, but sort of entertaining in that.

This movie is so stupid. I went through a lot to try to find this movie. I only could rent it anyway. Maybe it was just for rental because it was too bad enough to keep on the market for people to buy. You could not even see the dogs killing people as if they would switch the camera every minute. Being a horror movie genre fan, you would think the title had a good significance as to why I would want to see this movie really bad. I wonder are there any other killer dog movies that beat this one.