Play Dead

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.

This might be some kind of b-movie classic. This is a film where a dog is the killer, but those expecting Cujo style dog attacks will be well let down, because this dog does it's whacking gangland style, yo.

Some Auntie who's into Satan and all that jive isn't too happy with the way her dead sister's estate turned out (I think). So she trains up this dog to be a killer and gives it to her niece as a present. Only prob is that this dog is out to kill all of aunt's enemies and does so by accidental car death, electrocution, strangulation and poison.

Like you I was wondering why it didn't just rip the throats out of folks, but there you go. Maybe it was because the dog involved was such a cutey and no one could believe it could kill someone using it's teeth. Who knows.

Also, there's this sex scene that seems to involve body doubles, and the body double covering for the chick has bweuubs three times the size of the actress she's covering for so watch out for that.

This film is great!

Satan's Dog is the British title for Play Dead, the VHS came with striking artwork but as is so often the case the film did not live up to the packaging. Yvonne de Carlo plays a rich but bitter woman who imports a large Rottweiler from Europe called Greta and uses black magic to control her, killing people for her own greedy ends. If you are hoping to see gory dog on human attacks then you will be disappointed. Greta is a very intelligent dog and doesn't want the deaths traced back to her, for example while a woman is taking a bath the clever dog drops an electrical appliance into the water and zap! Having said that a couple of deaths do see some of the red stuff. The black magic scenes don't have much bite either. Much better is the movie Devil Dog (1978)

In PLAY DEAD, Hester (Yvonne De Carlo) lives with Greta, her friendly Rottweiler. Hester just wants her family to be close, though most of them can't stand her, only wanting her vast fortune.

One day, Hester decides to use her occult powers to make things right. Soon enough, her relatives begin having terrible "accidents", seemingly caused by a big dog.

Hmmm.

The police are stumped, unable to prove anything about these "coincidences".

As Hester continues her ritualistic mumbo jumbo, her family shrinks through severe attrition.

Released through Troma, this is one of their better acquisitions. Contains semi-gory violence, nudity, and 1980's cheeeze aplenty! Though it's somewhat slow in spots, Ms. De Carlo is at her best! It's her appearance that raises this above the usual bilge...

I expected at best a kind of Poor man's CUJO or something in the line of WHITE DOG but I was misunderstaood. It is a horror thriller with a painful watch for me to find the great Yvonne De Carlo lost in such a mess. I loved so much De Carlo in Paramount features from the fifties, adventures little gems made in Technicolor, and it it hurts me to assist to her downfall in such grade Z films. She is still beautiful for her age. That's the only thing that I will remember from this film. Just the last minutes are interesting.