Play Dead

I've been after this movie for a while, though mainly because of the cool VHS cover and the fact that Yvonne De Carlo is in it. Well, I finally found a copy at a market. The film didn't live up to my expectations, but I'm used to that, being a fan of low budget horror.

The film is kind of watchable and semi-interesting, but isn't much of a horror film because there are no violent deaths. The deaths are caused by the dog but in very tame ways. The plot also seems muddled and the motivation for the killings is unclear. I found the ending rather bizarre but slightly surprising.

The main reason to seek this film out as far as I'm concerned is the VHS cover (the UK one). It looks good amongst my collection of big box horror films and I love the artwork. Other than that, there's little reason to seek out this film, even for fellow fans of low-budget horror.

Yvonne De Carlo (everyone's favorite Munster) gives away quite a scary and praiseworthy performance as Hester Ramsey, a rancorous and slightly deranged elderly lady who lives alone in a large mansion with her harshly trained Rottweiler Greta. She holds a *slight* grudge against her family because she's convinced that her sister stole the one true love of her life and now she developed the fiendish plan to use Greta's killing capacities to get revenge. It's a fairly interesting and original concept for an 80's creature feature, but the film lacks tension and there's too little gore and bloodshed. Greta is an astonishingly trained dog, but her skills are still underused and the script at one point even reveals that black magic is responsible for her turning into a merciless killing machine. Why the hell was that necessary? Who needs voodoo to explain the aggression of a Rottweiler? There's nothing as pathetic as wanting to make a horror movie about a dangerous killer dog and then cowardly blame his action and behavior on the black magic powers of his owner. Greta also has voyeuristic tendencies, because she observes a young couple having (overlong) sex not once but twice. Instead of doing that, or instead of electrocuting people in their bathtubs, she ought to rip out throats, dammit! The character of the police inspector provides some comical relief, with his witty remarks and arrogant behavior towards his younger colleagues, but it's just a small positive detail in an overall extremely dull and forgettable movie. Good horrors revolving on murderous dogs are quite a rarity. Top of my head I can only think of "The Pack" and "White Dog". "Play Dead" belongs in the mediocre-to-awful section, alongside "Rottweiler", "Devil Dog", "Dogs of Hell" and "Monster Dog".

Apparently a *construction company* produced this film? Well, that makes just about as much sense as anything.

The movie starts with shots of a Rottweiler attacking a person who is prostrate on the ground. Then, we're at the funeral of a woman. Hester shows up, and her voice is instantly recognizable as that of the actress who played Lily Munster: yes, it is she.

She is the late woman's sister, and she is not well liked by her sister's children.

Hester is rich, and she is angry at her sister and her niece and nephew, because she had had a relationship with her sister's husband prior to their marriage., and she feels she would have been better for him. He died years ago, but she has a place of honor in her house for a photo of him, and she likes to imagine herself dancing with him in slow motion in front of a mirror.

Hester owns a Rottweiler that she brought back with her from Europe. She also dabbles in black magic of some kind. She left a necklace with a pentagram on it in her sister's casket. The dog also has one on its collar. The dog also does things in slow motion.

Hester gives the dog to her niece, and pretends that she cares about her niece and nephew now that her sister has passed on. However, she does rituals involving blood and chanting Latin in order to remotely cause the dog to bring about the deaths of her nephew, her niece's neighbor and boyfriend and others.

The movie doesn't really have any resolution at the end. A real non-ending, not setting up a sequel, but just petering out without letting us know what happened to some of the main characters.

Play Dead aka Killer Dog is a pretty mild horror film about an mean spirited elderly woman (Yvonne De Carlo), who uses her rothweiler Greta (one of the nicest dogs you have ever seen) to get rid of a few people who are in her way. And not in the kind of way you would expect from a dog which is supposed to be ferocious, De Carlo uses cuty pie Greta and her black magic to kill her victims off in quite creative ways, how to discribe this movie... Greta the killer dog convinces the audience to be one of the most lovable dogs ever, and the added growling effects are quite laughable. They tried to add some intensity to use slow motion each time Greta comes in action, which failed in my opinion. The death scenes them selves are a bit foreboding, you know what's about to happen before the deaths itself. A bit of gore would've been nice (since there isn't any), to make a long story short. I would only reccommand this "killer"dog flick if you're into unknown works of obscurity.

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Play Dead; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.25 Direction: 1.00 Pace: 1.00 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.00

TOTAL: 5.50 out of 10.00

Two things keep this Dark Thriller of a Horror flick from greatness. The writing and the direction. However, it's a case of swings and roundabouts - when the narrative works, the filming doesn't and vice versa. For example, the ending is logical, though predictable. Since you can anticipate the finale, you need something that keeps it from feeling old and stale. The writers give the audience this, though the director fails to make it gripping enough, and it falls flat. But when we have the black magic rituals, the direction is spot on, though the writers needed to give us some believable dialogue in the way of spell casting.

I have to admit I loved the story concept of a killer hound possessed by its owner to kill her family due to her jealous hatred. I cannot think of another possessed dog tale off-hand, so kudos for that. All the characters required fleshing out a tad more as they appear two-dimensionally flat. It would have been nice to see some of the romance between the nephew and niece's dead daddy and their auntie. It would have proffered more engagement for the audience and taken the touch of dullness off.

The direction suffers from averageness. Due to the flaws in the writing, the filmmaking needed to be more engaging. The simple point and shoot are okay, but better composition would have gone a long way. The entire movie feels like a bad made-for-TV. It doesn't help that when Auntie Hester is thinking back to yesteryear and her yet-to-be brother-in-law, the director uses slow-motion to display her reminiscing. And, it gets worse with the foreplay. When the niece, Audrey, is making out with her bo' by the fire, the sultriness is cheapened and dulled by the smooth jazz soundtrack. It gives the section the feel of a soft-core porno. It is truly cringe-inducing.

The acting is also average, though Yvonne De Carlo as Aunt Hester is on form and adds a touch of class to her scenes. The ones she has with the policemen are the best. It shows how dominant and how much a force of nature she is. The other stand-out performance comes from Glenn Kezzer as Otis, the detective. It's a shame that some of the worst dialogue comes in his scenes, though he delivers it like a pro.

All-in-all, Play Dead isn't too terrible a movie. It entertained me enough to waste an hour and a half. Though, I may not be reviewing the possessed killer rottweiler anytime soon. If you have nothing else to watch and killer pooches yank your leash, then Play Dead is worth a look-see, at least once.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror, Killer Thriller Chillers, and Monstrous lists to see where I ranked Play Dead.

Take Care & Stay Well.