The Pack

My quick rating - 5,1/10. Was much better then expected by reading the summary. Basically a family on the brink of losing their house in the middle of the outback is suddenly under siege by a "pack" of attack dogs. Yes, it does sound somewhat stupid by that but taking a simplistic idea and doing something with it (without cheating and using a 200 million dollar budget) is something to be said. The acting is good and seems very matter of fact. The characters just had believable qualities that helped the story along. The pace was done well and of course turns into high gear when the animals go into full attack mode. Speaking of, the effects were fine and not overdone are bad cgi laden. Overall not a bad unknown little flick that has a couple decent scares.

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.

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.

Oh my...and it started so promising...50.000 people die every year by wild dog attacks (I know - crazy number, isn't it?!), so I thought, "yeah, a movie about that might be interesting !".

And I indeed am a fan of animal horror, and I can understand, that it's not easy to make a movie about this. The animals need to be trained well, and a lot of Special FX is necessary.

This having in mind, I could not enjoy "The Pack" - at all.

What did bother me most, were two things: the characters would just have needed to call the cops and wait things out behind a locked door. Pretty easy so far. And IF, I say IF, they wanted to go out - never heard of fire? Build a torch, scare the dogs away, go your way in freedom and safety.

When I watched "The Pack", I seriously was happy, that this family was not part of the app. 10.000 people, that once carried out the DNA legacy of Homo Sapiens, because we would have died out as species.

Also, of course no mobile or even radio / Walkietalkie will work on the farm? Wow, Dudes, this is not "Amityville". When the landlines, radios and mobiles did work in the afternoon, they will work after dark as well.

I know, I know - people do dumb stuff in horror movies, and getting no signal is part of the basics, and sometimes it just has to be that way to tell the story, I get this and usually am okay with it.

But in "The Pack" these points are too important for me personally to not dislike the movie completely ignoring it. Come on, they could have made a "twist" that the dogs origin from house dogs and thus are not afraid of fire or whatever...the way it was solved here is just lazy storytelling.

"Hey, couldn't the family like, use some torches or so to scare the pack away?" "I don't believe in fire...only in the great C'tulhu!" "Uhm, I don't think this will be a proper explanation for..." The Great C'tulhuuuuuuu!"

Also, why should the dogs stop attacking in Daylight, when they think they cornered their prey? It's not werewolves, only dogs...

Also, the characters stay superficial and pale, I was not at all interested in them or if they survive the night. The acting was average, but the problem was the character design, not the actors. As viewer you stay completely uninterested, and nothing is done to wake your interest. Also, with a family of 4, you can imagine who will survive...

The father is downright stupid, by the way. The bank tells him he will lose everything. Next sentence from him to his wive is, they will never lose the farm? Come one - the bank accountant literally told you the exact opposite just minutes ago, and she sat next to you. What's wrong with you, bro?

Also, they are like, cattle owners, and in the beginning of the movie totally nobody was surprised to find dead sheep, obviously torn in pieces by wolves or bears or whatever. So, no one ever expects wolves or bears, despite no one is surprised to find their victims? So, they know the animals are there, but they don't care and protect themselves in any way? Everyone just wanders out in the dark wilderness without being properly armed? Because don't mind that bear, if it comes, they will...what? Hug it out?

Sorry, but I can't give this more than 2 of 10 points, for me it was a huge disappointment. I give one point for the dog training and one point for the nice low key lighting. Oh, I liked the song in the end credits...at least something, eh?

Can't recommend. Watch "Backcountry" for good animal horror and leave this one in the cheap DVD box.

Just another Aussie movie that I was disappointed after watching. I've been going by what the previous reviews say about Aussie films and as a American film goer, I gotta say, their films kinda suck a...s. They start off pretty decent like this one did, but twenty minutes in, you start seeing some real stupid scenes, that makes you question what were the script writers thinking, when they wrote that part in the scene. The movie is a about a pack of wild ferocious wolves who now set their fury on a family of four, who's home is about to be put into foreclosure. Not giving any spoilers, but this story is tired and old and done so many times before, you would think they would've gotten basic formula right. But my issue with Aussie films are they always have certain scenes that make absolutely no sense, when it comes to survival. Anyway that's my spiel on it. Not really worth the watch unless you have nothing else to do, but time to waste.