The Pack

This may not be the best of its kind (no pun intended), but it is a very decent low budget effort. And it has a couple of surprising moments in it (twists), that are nice. The acting is OK, again always considering this is a low budget affair. The effects are nicely made and work for this movie too.

I watched it at a Festival and while no one was too excited about it, there weren't too many people who felt it was a waste of their time either. Of course the movie has it's clichés too and before we get a few nice turns we also get what we expect. It's teenage problems combined with the supernatural, with a tick of family issues thrown in for good measure.

The Breed, Burning Bright and now The Pact! The list is growing, movies where people are trapped inside the house with the enemy surrounding the place and finding its way in, are plenty, but how many out there, are good?

I never cared much for The Grey, I am a huge Liam Neeson fan, but still, that one was way unrealistic, probably even for a sci-fi film. So, as horror has it lately, bring on the indies, the low budget projects, the little gems, movies that manage to take you by surprise and offer a good 80-90 minutes worth of thrill and suspense. Now don't get me wrong, The Pack is no masterpiece and it does have its holes, but still, it was a pleasure watching it.

No real explanation will be offered, typical, I know, and this one builds very little to itself as it jumps straight to action. I think they worked OK as a family, the dialogue was decent, the acting good, effects simple tho hitting the spot and a good execution to a quite used plot. More to say about it?

It is shorter than most, just 80 minutes here of watch, doesn't bring any new elements to the story, doesn't act dumb either, so all in all, I graded it a 4. It was better than most, not a bad movie, just a decent watch!

Cheers!

I found this to be mostly alright for the most part. The story is simple with a family attacked by a group of wild dogs while trying to survive. It's pretty predictable throughout and goes through the same tropes like any of those movies. There's is a minor side plot with their house being foreclosed, but that is forgotten after the guy gets killed. Which is fine because that isn't interesting at all. The movie is pretty suspenseful, with the characters trying to survive against the wild dogs and their best to fight back against them. It shows how deadly these dogs can get with them attacking current characters. But it does have a couple of cheap jump scares throughout. And the ending is pretty generic.

It's not the Low-Budget of this Australian Thriller that Hurts, it's the Lack of Imagination. The Film Crew put a Professional Looking Movie on the Screen but the Limited and Standard Story-Line of People Trapped in the House Assaulted by...Fill in the Blank, has been Done to Death and the Only Thing that can Resurrect the Plot is Creativity. This Movie has Very Little.

It's Competent but Repetitive beyond anything Approaching Tolerable. All of the Attack Scenes and Gore are Exactly the Same and some actually Look Like they are the Same. The Attempt at Atmosphere, like Shadows on the Wall are Exactly the Same, except one is a Knife and the other is a Gun. Sheesh!

Scenes Linger and go On and On, one guesses to Build Suspense but a Jump Scare here and a Dog Attack there just come off as Redundant. Overall, Average or Slightly Below for this Type of Thing. Not One Surprise, Shock, or Anything Remarkable occurs. It's not a Sloppy Film but a Stale One to be sure.

The first thing I checked after blindly purchasing "The Pack" was if it's a remake of the tense but sadly forgotten 1977 horror/thriller with the same title and directed by Robert Clouse. It's not, and I guess that makes sense, since "The Pack" is a logical and common title for a movie about a bunch of wild dogs entrenching petrified families. Nevertheless, I couldn't wait to watch it fast, because I have a fondness for Aussie horror and particularly because I'm always in the mood to see a good old-fashioned "animals gone bad/nature against humanity" flick. It's already a personal favorite sub-genre of mine and, quite frankly, I've been so fed up with horror movies about cannibalistic/inbred families lately, that an "animal-attack" film sounds extra fresh and appealing! The best possible thing I can write about "The Pack" is that debuting director Nick Robertson did an exceptionally impressive job when it comes to building up tension and sustaining the uncanny atmosphere. The body count is rather low, I'll reveal that much, but it's a rare example of a recent horror movie where you develop sympathy for the lead characters and move towards the edge of your seat during the chase sequences. The plot introduces the Wilson family, living on an isolated farming estate in the remote Australian countryside. The rebellious teenage daughter wants to move back to the city and the parents are virtually bankrupt, mainly because all their sheep are getting killed by a pack of bewildered dogs. When the dogs move in closer, the mean and nasty debt collector from the bank is the first one to get what he deserves. But savage dogs don't care about mortgages, and pretty soon the family's sole concern becomes the nightly battle for survival. I like my 'nature revolts' movies best when the animals in question are as normal as possible. Like in the awesome 1977 film, these dogs aren't mutated, sick or excessively large. They've just gone savage because they were abandoned and depend on their natural killing instinct to survive. Simple, perhaps, but even more efficient and it's exactly what makes them more menacing. There are a few clichés and fake jump-scares, but also a bit of decent gore and the attack sequences are more than adequately illustrated. I didn't know any of the names in the cast, but they all put down good performances. "The Pack" isn't the most memorable or spectacular horror/thriller you'll ever watch, but it's certainly worth and hour and a half of your life.