Dogs of Hell

Amateurish, bloody, dimly-lit North Carolina production has the inimitable Earl Owensby as a mumbling, expressionless sheriff who must protect a town of unsuspecting yokels from an onslaught by a pack of aggressive rottweilers, trained by the government as special operations assassins, accidentally set free after the convoy transporting them overturns.

Filmed in 3-D, director Keeter (a frequent Owensby collaborator, e.g. "Wolfman") builds an effective (and bloody) climax as the rabid hounds systematically corral the occupants of a luxury country club then treat themselves to the buffet. Camera angles framed for the purpose of accentuating the 3-D effects obviously do little when you're watching this on your regular TV-set (as I did), and the action is at times so cloaked in darkness (not to mention the incoherent dialogue) that it's often difficult to follow what's happening.

If you accept that the flaws are attributable to its independent production values scale, and yet despite those constraints there's plenty of gory attack scenes and expensive looking explosions for those interested, then you might be persuaded to watch "Rottweiler" (aka "Dogs from Hell") at least once. Hard to locate, I got my copy as a VHS reject during the DVD revolution and I suspect the ex-rental market is the only place you'll find a copy, until someone enterprising (perhaps Owensby himself) decides to unlock the 3-D potential and re-release on DVD.

Dogs of Hell (1983)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The evil U.S. government have created Rottweilers that are trained to attack and kill humans. A truckload of them are going through a small town when the truck crashes and sends the dogs on a killing spree, which has Sheriff Hank Willis (Earl Owensby) having to take control.

This here was the first of six pictures that Owensby would produce in 3D but to my knowledge there has never been a home video of this version. Most copies out there are from the video and are full screen and don't look the greatest so it's hard to judge the effects obviously but at the same time there were very few things that "jumped" at the screen outside an early scene involving a dart.

As far as the rest of the movie goes, it's really no different than films like THE PACK or DOGS. This one here contains a certain regional atmosphere, which is a plus and it's always fun seeing that charm of Owensby but outside of this there's really not too much here to recommend. The biggest problem is that the film has the majority of the attacks off the screen so we get the cheap effect of a dog growling and then the aftermath of the attack.

DOGS OF HELL has a certain low-budget appeal but there's just not enough here to make it interesting enough to recommend. That is unless you're a fan of Owensby.

Okay, I give up. It really is impossible to make a good killer dog movie. This is a prime example of what not to do. Don't set the movie in Hickville, don't cast a bunch of real hicks, and don't take ten years to get to the dog action. The title was so promising: Dogs of Hell!! I was more than ready for some hell hound horror. You do get a small dose of that, it's just not what you want. Chick screams then gets covered in blood. You hear the dog panting but you never see him. The camera stays in the dogs POV. The Rottweilers and the humans are never onscreen at the same time. Dogs of Hell is a mega-low budget movie and is not worth your time. This dog just has no bite.

"They were perfectly trained for one task: Manslaughter!"

This movie is so stupid. I went through a lot to try to find this movie. I only could rent it anyway. Maybe it was just for rental because it was too bad enough to keep on the market for people to buy. You could not even see the dogs killing people as if they would switch the camera every minute. Being a horror movie genre fan, you would think the title had a good significance as to why I would want to see this movie really bad. I wonder are there any other killer dog movies that beat this one.

Independent star / producer Earl Owensby 3D fable "Rottweiler: Dogs from Hell" is a trashy, but mildly fun cheap-jack little animals run amok horror enterprise. I saw this one when I was only a kid and certain scenes had stayed in my head. I couldn't remember the title, where I only found it out recently. Came across a copy and when watching it the memories came flooding back. Don't remember it being as dodgy as it was, but it remained diverting enough.

A pack of Rottweilers are trained by the military for warfare, but these vicious killing machines are accidentally released within a small mountain community when the truck they are in crashes. Soon bodies start piling up and it's up to sheriff Hank Willis (Owensby) to put an end to this carnage.

Outside this systematic set-up (that has shades of "Jaws"); there are the small-town dramas to give it that genuine sense of community. Such distractions as angst teenagers (father and son issues), catfish talk, reflective time and women mud wrestling… these kinds of things feel like nothing more than filler. There's too much of it. When it came to the dog attacks, it's rather sloppy or off-screen with crude blood effects being splashed about. However when Owensby uses his magnum on the dogs; we are treated with graphic head imploding shots. There were one or two effectively minor intense set-pieces that spring out some calculative tension. Also we get plenty of POV shots from the dogs, as well growling which sounds more like someone's stomach is churning behind the camera… maybe that's where the panting arrived from too. Nonetheless is didn't sound as bad the daggy music score with its weepy piano pieces… which always felt it was going to cut to a sequence of someone playing a piano. It was just that odd in its placement. The performances are pretty much one-note, but Owensby equips himself quite well despite the script coming off as blunt and clumsy. Low-grade shoddiness, but sort of entertaining in that.