Dogged

At about the halfway point of this movie, there is a quick cut to the TV in our protagonist's bedroom, and there's a DVD of The Wicker Man propped against the TV. That's director Roundtree's acknowledgment of his influence, and the influence is strong - a person from mainstream society comes to an isolated community after one of them dies, encounters some very odd characters, and, through persistence, learns that the society is hiding a dark and deadly secret.

Consistent with the folk horror tropes, we get lots of shots of the bleakly beautiful countryside and seaside settings. It's a slow burn that creates unease and builds dread. And it introduces a secretive group that practices ancient, non-Christian rituals.

Those are all positives, but the film stumbles a bit, mostly in its execution. It's a low budget, independent release, so I cut it some slack, but I felt that the editing at times was a bit clunky, and there was too much use of shaky handheld cameras, odd angles, and extreme close-ups that obscured what was happening. The story, as stated above, is not particularly original, and some of the acting was sub-par.

All of that being said, though, this is a promising directorial debut, and an enjoyable contribution to the folk horror sub-genre.

I watched this because of the fairly good ratings. I'm guessing all the good ratings were from their Kickstarter friends.

I love horror movies, weird horror movies, and Australian films. This one, not at all. Possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Starts off slow and keeps going slow. No plot. Storyline made no sense. There was no tension, no horror, no thrills, and no suspense.

I could go on about it and tell spoilers, but the spoilers wouldn't even make sense. The filming was weird. I can't count how many times the camera was focused on someone's crotch as they literally walked onto the camera, then it cut and you watch their butt as they walk away. What was up with that?

I'm not going to tell you not to watch the movie, just warning you. I fell asleep three times and finally gave up 10 minutes before the end. I couldn't put up with the excruciating boredom and lack of real story.

I'm going to go watch the short film this was supposedly expanded from. I have a feeling all the good reviews were from that. I gave it a one, and I was being generous.

This film has flaws, it is very low-budget, but it does a lot more right then wrong. I get why some people despise this film, It is advertised as horror, and while it could be categorized as such, more fans of horror will hate this, they will consider it more of a thriller with horror elements, but honestly, the events of this film are presented in a very dark manner. it has the look of a 1970's grindhouse film, reminiscent of the original Last House on the Left. So yes, I believe the jaunty cuts and grainy low-grade photography and shaky camera work are a stylistic choice, but not one that everyone will enjoy for sure.

The acting of Father David is over the top, but it doesn't feel out of place, and it moves at a fairly slow pace, "not a lot" happens, but that isn't actually true. The entire film is one long build up of weird events, all the way to the events of the end, and no, there isn't a lot of on screen violence, what could have been a blood bath at the end is not, and if that bothers you, don't watch this. Most of the violence is suggested at, or shown after the fact, in it's place are red flashes, and I don't see this as copping out, so much as a stylistic choice. I think this is a lesson in showing less, is often more, what is suggested here, is more powerful than what is shown.

It took me a good week to watch this, not because it is boring, but because it has such an unsettling tone and everything generally feels off kilter, it made me feel pretty grimey everytime I watched it. The ending left me feeling pretty upset and despondent. I did really care about the characters. Even if I didn't know everything about them, the way the film takes it's time, you really get to spend a lot of time around the characters, and the lead is very likeable. The acting here, other than Father David, is really understated and well-done, I really liked Rachel as well, they came across as just normal people trying to live a normal life, someone you might have as your neighbor down the street. Daniel was particularly well-played, he could have been turned into a nutty caricature, and in a an almost completely silent role, it is well-done and he has quite an imposing presence. The rest of the town on the other hand are messed up beyond belief, but how, I will not say, you have to find that out yourself.

This is a very low-budget film, but for despite this, it is well-done, it has a good solid script. I do believe the grimy grind house feel is intentional and meant to call-back to exploitation films of the 1970's, it wouldn't be a long shot to call this an exploitation of film either. If you are not a fan of those types of films, or are looking for a straight-up horror film and not slow burn that doesn't slow much actual violence, you will hate Dogged, and I recommend you stay away. If you are a fan of well-made low-budget films, there is a lot to like here. It has a very unique feel and style and it truly creates its own little world.

God Bless ~Amy

A badly shot montage of establishing shots of locations and props, and about two hours of people walking around, occasionally speaking briefly, while nothing happens. A pretty sad state of affairs

I was really looking forward to this, I love Folk Horror and I had heard good things, but they were all wrong.

No disrespect to the people involved in making this but it is one of the worst films I have ever had the misfortune of seeing.

It made very little sense, was painfully slow, badly acted and went on for far too long.

There have been a lot of low budget British horror films, some good and some bad, and this is sadly one of the worst, a great example of an effective low budget British horror is The Borderlands. Watch that instead.