The Breed - La razza del male

A group of college-age adults lands on a deserted island where they take up residence at a cabin left to one of the gang. Over the next few days they will discover they are not alone, but sharing the island with dogs. Yes, dogs. Dogs that were trained to kill, but still just dogs.

This film was put together by executive producer Wes Craven and director Nick something... the director being a long-time Craven aide, and both having been quite responsible for the catastrophe that was "Cursed". You'd think after making a horrible film about werewolves, they would try to avoid dogs or similar creatures altogether, but you would be wrong. My growing hobby of player-hating on Wes Craven is only added to with this one. And it was written by the writers of "Who is Harry Crumb?", which may be good or bad depending on how that tickles you.

The cast isn't much better. You have two brothers (played by people unfamiliar to me, but they're alright), Taryn Manning (best known for her role in Britney Spears' "Crossroads", who is supposed to be "hot" but comes off as more whiny and annoying), Michelle Rodriguez (the actress who single-handedly killed off all the fans from TV's "Lost")... and the token black guy. Token black guy who tries to seduce blonde, white girl and does every other stereotypical thing imaginable (who writes this crap?).

This film suffers from disjointed opening scenes, where the time-line makes no sense. On one hand, you have the longest afternoon in history where the gang hangs out all day in a powerfully fun montage. Then you have them meeting a boater on day two who had been attacked by dogs presumably before their arrival. So, how did the boater survive at least two days in the woods? As we see in this film, two days is an eternity with these dogs.

I'm unclear about some things, most notably an incident with the character played by Michelle Rodriguez... why can she survive a serious injury and shrug it off as if it were nothing? She should become the one dragging the team down, but only seems to be more of a leader after the fact. And what happened to Manning's character? She seems to get some sort of lust power, almost wolf-like (again, see "Cursed") but it never amounts to anything and has no importance to the plot.

The biggest problem with this film is that it's about an island of dogs. Is there really anything scary about a dog sitting in a tree? Or a dog laying on the beach? Because most of the time, that's all the dogs do -- sit and look cute.

This film went straight to video. If there was something beneath "straight to video", that's where this film would have gone. Nothing really remarkable about this film, other than its sheer stupidity. Thanks Wes Craven for letting this sort of worthless thing make it to my eyes and permeate my brain. There's a special place in hell waiting for you.

A bunch of adults-playing-teenagers go to an isolated house, for a weekend of fun and everything else teens do in horror films. However, what was at first a fun weekend for the group ends up as a fight for their life as they are attacked.

As expected from the plot and/or from a Wes Craven picture, 'The Breed' is overflowing with the typical slasher clichés. Also present is Craven's typical 'tough female lead', this time played by Michelle Rodriguez (who really isn't good).

However, two things change in this usual horror-movie clichéd situation: the house is in a 'deserted' island instead of a forest (which changes the usual escape tactics); and the killer here isn't a Jason-style stalker, but rather intelligent (genetically enhanced) and rabid dogs.

To my surprise, the characters act unexpectedly smart for horror movie victims, actually thinking and coming up with decent/good plans to escape/fend off the dogs (though their dialogue skills are still heavily impaired). However, the usage of real, trained dogs instead of CGI is easily the film's highlight; the best scenes are done by them, with or without the humans.

It's a very dumb and idiotic film but also rather fun, and the dogs are definitely the movie's true stars. Not something to look for, but not a bad choice to watch if you haven't anything else to do.

Don't you just hate it when, in a movie, something seemingly trivial occurs or is introduced and you just know that it'll come into play later on?

I know I do, so when the characters in The Breed casually mention an old 'zip-ride' (or death slide, as we English call it), tinker with a car that hasn't been used in years, or break an old roundabout leaving a sharp wooden stake pointing upwards, I prayed that my cliché radar was on the fritz. But sure enough, each device played a major part later on in the film and I laughed at the film's predictability.

It's a shame really, since there are several scenes which are more than competent, actually managing to scare and excite—which is all you really want from a film about rabid, genetically enhanced dogs attacking a group of people stranded on a remote island! The five friends who come up against the vicious killer mutts are your standard assortment of attractive twenty-somethings of the type that seem to populate most popcorn horror flicks these days: a couple of bickering brothers—one reckless (Oliver Hudson) and one responsible (Eric Lively); a 'pretty' blonde (Taryn Manning—not my cup of tea but appealing to some, I guess); a wise-cracking smart-ass (Hill Harper); and a feisty babe (Michelle Rodriguez, playing her usual tough-but-tasty type). Of course, there are no prizes for guessing who is going to become dog food.

The most effective parts of The Breed are definitely the dog attacks, with the snarling, fanged beasts being suitably frightening and convincingly nasty. Surprisingly, however, given the current trend for graphic splatter, the film is rather 'dry', with only one or two moments to make you wince (highlight of the film: a poorly aimed arrow!) or turn away, and the gore-hounds amongst us will most likely be disappointed.

Still, kudos to director Nicholas Mastandrea for opting to use real dogs rather than CGI. And whilst I'm at it, I'll also thank him for getting Michelle Rodriguez into a bikini (although naked would've been better!).

A bunch of undergrads (played by 30 and 40somethings--no joke!) take their jet to an abandoned island for a vacation. Because undergrads do that? They get attacked by wild dogs that turn out to be genetically engineered killers. Scary! History has taught me to stay away from anything labeled "Wes Craven Presents," but I decided to check this out because how bad could a movie starring Michelle Rodriguez vs Killer Dogs be? Rodriguez isn't the best actress, but I always enjoy seeing her one-note tough-girl shtick in movies or TV (long live Ana Lucia!) And she does her own stunts in this! There's no CGI, which is commendable, though I'm not entirely sure how I feel about a large number of dogs being trained to attack for the sake of a dumb horror movie. And this is, indeed, a dumb horror movie. All the clichés are intact, the writing is awful, and there's even a dumb subplot about brotherly love. Or something. Taryn Manning is cast as the "hottie" of the group, though she looks washed-up and talks like she smokes six packs a day. There's an interesting subplot with her character that would have made the movie more interesting had it been expanded upon. This is enjoyable for what it is, but it's nothing special.

Movie concepts don't get much simpler than this: on a supposedly deserted island, genetically enhanced, rabid-like dogs attack five college kids who have gone there for a weekend of fun. It's kind of surprising that a movie like this, made in 2006, still gets theatrical release in some countries; this is usually direct-to-DVD stuff. With that said, however, "The Breed" is effective at what it sets out to do. What gives this movie an edge over other contemporary "creature features" is that the "creatures" are real, highly-trained dogs instead of fake CGI bats, crocodiles, snakes, spiders or whatever. This adds an element of realism to the proceedings, as does the fact that the characters behave rationally for the most part. Michelle Rodriguez looks great (what else is new?) and shows her physicality, and the rest of the cast may not be brilliant, but they're not bad, either. The movie does suffer from a terrible ending though - it was probably intended as a shock but it's so sudden that it looks as if the producers ran out of money or time or something. (**)