Like Dogs

Have you ever stood between two mirrors and seen yourself reflected into infinity? Check that box for now.

Have you ever manipulated/misused/etc... persons of a lower class/caste/etc...? Check that box for now.

Have you yourself ever been manipulated/misused/etc... by persons of a higher class/caste/etc...? Check that box for now.

The two latter propositions are your mirrors. You are a lab rat - or beagle, because they are popular experimental animals, believe it or not. "Like Dogs" is your experiment.

I know. You'll say...

I don't eat slop... from the McDonald's drive-thru.

I don't wear a leash... as you text on your cell phone.

I don't respond to shock therapy... as you pay your rent/mortgage.

I don't abuse others... as you ____ your neighbor/colleague/lover.

I don't suffer abuse from others... as you prepare your next apology to ___.

Yeah. Give it a few minutes. It's that kind of movie.

I sat down to watch the 2021 thriller "Like Dogs" from writer and director Randy Van Dyke here in 2022 without ever having heard about the movie. So I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but it being labeled a horror/thriller was sufficient to make me have an interest in the movie. And also since I hadn't already seen it, of course I opted to do so.

And while "Like Dogs" definitely was off to a killer start and maintained the suspense for a good long way, I have to say that the steam started to vanish from the kettle once it was revealed what was actually going on. Sure, I was a bit thrown off by the reveal, but thought 'hey, why not? We can work with that' and continued on with the movie. However, by the time you get to the laughable ending, the movie had gone from good to being one where you just shrug your shoulders. A shame really, because "Like Dogs" had a lot of potential.

"Like Dogs" is a movie that clearly is a low budget movie, and it shows on the screen. I will say, however, that the first third part of the movie was definitely working out quite well, despite this being a low budget production, so thumbs up to the movie crew on that accomplishment.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "Like Dogs", and that is something I do enjoy in movies. And yeah, it was working to the movie's advantage here as well. Just don't expect to be in for an evening of Shakespearian performances and you'll be set.

I found "Like Dogs" to be a semi-watchable movie. It was adequate enough for a single viewing, if you can look past the downhill slide that the movie was on. But that is one of the problems with "Like Dogs", it is a movie that you watch once and then never again.

My rating of "Like Dogs" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Promising storyline at the start. I think this film would have been much better if they used an adult cast instead of university students, and either had a few less twists or spent more time developing all the twists.

It is a low budget indies film and as such, I thought it was done pretty well considering others I've recently watched. This is attributed to both the acting as well as the screenplay. What I hate most in amateur films is overacting and in this film the actors, both major and minor, both seemed to escape that and did a very good convincing job.

The story was reasonable, nothing spectacular, but props on the mid film twist. I didn't see that coming. However, I felt that like a lot of films I've seen recently, it started out strong but ended weak. The beginning really do keep you engaged and wondering how they ended up in that situation, however after the mid film twist, then it seemed to run out of ideas and they were just winging the script.

My suggestion is take a little more time to develop the story, put the twist at the end, not in the middle. You lose your whole build up at mid point, which is why the 2nd half was like a completely different movie. I would give the first half a 7 and the 2nd half a 3, average both together at 5.

Old joke in film class is that the cheapest indie to make is filming two people talking on a park bench. God provides the lighting, the park provides the set, and luck provides the stars. In this one, it looks at first glance like Randy Van Dyke is going for the Guinness Record in cheap indies ... and then the twists come. Taking a page from the Joss Whedon school of genre deconstruction, Van Dyke keeps things moving briskly, making sure the viewer never gets bored. And that, in a nutshell, is the charm of this oddball extreme-low-budget production.