Dogged

Not a genre I normally watch but thought I'd give this a go and really enjoyed it. It's dark in places and really thought provoking - found myself still mulling it over and thinking about it the next day after I watched it. It's quite Hitchcock-esque in that there is not a lot of obvious gore and horror on screen but more what your imagination runs away with from the images on screen. Overall a really great film.

A young adult returns to his island home for a funeral and is caught up in shady goings-on. Like most films of this style, the drama works best before the motives are revealed, but this does well to keep the tension to the end. The subject matter pulls few punches.

There are some clunky stereotypes and the script does not always flow, but the locations are used to build a satisfying air of claustrophobia. Limited budget means the cliffs that are central to the story never actually appear, and it is difficult to locate the island geographically - a Shropshire mini cab is presumably used to start the protagonist's journey, not end it.

Although the sound recording has alarming echoes during indoor scenes - some soft furnishings would have helped - the incidental music punches above its weight and lends the film a professionalism it perhaps didn't earn. Incidentally, not the film's fault but the Prime subtitles are appalling.

At almost two hours, the runtime could have been trimmed quite a bit but holds the attention effectively for most of its length. A surprisingly large cast for such a low budget can make it tricky to remember who is who. Overall, though, a good effort with credit to the crew for a job well done.

I had a great time watching Dogged, in my opinion it was time well spent. If you are only into big budget Hollywood films full of CGI then unfortunately this film is not for you. However if you're a die hard horror fan like myself that watches as many horror films as possible, and at the same time enjoys seeing new creative ideas, and supports independent horror films than I recommend this to you!

I rented the title on Google play and really enjoyed it. The film has an unnerving and creepy atmosphere throughout which I thought worked really well to suck you into the world of the remote village. The overall story I thought was strong and easy enough to follow, not to mention a decent plot twist.

Only a few things that took away from the viewing experience for me was some mildly inconsistent cinematography, some unusual camera angles in there and a lot of quick edits which can be disorientating from time to time. However the sound is crisp and well mixed with an atmospheric musical score to accompany.

I'd highly recommend the film to anyone who's a fan of films such as the Wicker Man and those who prefer suspense over blood and gore.

I was really looking forward to this, I love Folk Horror and I had heard good things, but they were all wrong.

No disrespect to the people involved in making this but it is one of the worst films I have ever had the misfortune of seeing.

It made very little sense, was painfully slow, badly acted and went on for far too long.

There have been a lot of low budget British horror films, some good and some bad, and this is sadly one of the worst, a great example of an effective low budget British horror is The Borderlands. Watch that instead.