Les Assiégés

Robert Clouse's "The Pack" is mostly your usual killer pets movie. In this case, people buy dogs at the pound, and leave them on a vacation island. Sure enough, the dogs turn feral and go after the island's inhabitants. While most of the cast does the sorts of things that we expect in one of these movies, Joe Don Baker is quite cool as the leader. But the real stars are definitely the rabid canines. The people behind the camera probably fixed up the main dog so that he would look more menacing; I mean, I've never seen any mutt looking like that.

I notice that this movie was filmed in Bodega Bay, California. Film buffs know that town as the filming location of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". Is every movie filmed there going to feature non-human fauna attacking people?! Another thing - and I may be the only person who thinks of this - is that "The Pack" was released through Warner Bros. When I was really young, I always associated that studio with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc. I wonder: what would I have thought had I known that the studio behind the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons also released horror movies (they also released "The Shining", "The Awakening" and "The Nesting").

But I digress. This movie isn't terrible. Worth seeing maybe once.

After the cheap 'n' cheerful sci-fi movies of the '50s which sometimes featured mutant animals, the animals-on-the-rampage genre was promoted into an art form when Alfred Hitchcock scared us all half to death with his horrifying "The Birds". In the years that followed, we had killer sharks (Jaws); killer bees (The Swarm); killer whales (Orca); killer ants (Phase IV); killer amphibians (Frogs); and, believe it or not, killer rabbits (Night Of The Lepus). The Pack, released in 1977 with a cast of solid but not-all-that-well-known actors, is the inevitable killer dogs variation of the theme. When I sat down to watch the film, I expected little from it. Surprisingly, the film proved to be very well-made, with lots of excitement and some skillfully edited dog attacks, plus an unexpected injection of humour (sample: R.G Armstrong has a hilarious line, commenting upon the disappearance of an overweight tourist: "if he had any sense, he'd climb a tree. That is if he can get his fat ass off the ground!")

Marine biologist Jerry (Joe Don Baker) has been working on a remote island called Seal Island, where he has begun to build a house for himself, his girlfriend Millie (Hope Alexander-Willis), and their children from previous marriages. Seal Island has a fairly steady summer tourist trade, but once the holiday season is over the only folks left around are its handful of permanent residents. This year, a small party of bankers also stick around after the summer season for a little extra fishing and recreation. Things get awkward for the holiday-makers and the residents when they learn that a pack of dogs - mostly pets abandoned by tourists at the end of the season - are roaming the island. Starving and rabid, the dogs have started to target people as their likeliest possible food source. One by one, the people on Seal Island are hunted by the bloodthirsty canines and torn apart, leading the survivors to barricade themselves inside a building where they attempt to survive until the arrival of the weekly ferry.

Writer-director Robert Clouse (of Enter the Dragon fame) has fashioned a genuinely exciting story here. It's predictably plotted, yes, but Clouse quickly disguises the fact that this is an old, old story by introducing a clutch of refreshingly oddball characters and building an ever-present undercurrent of suspense. Because the cast is relatively unknown, it becomes hard to guess who will live and who will die (more than once characters you don't expect to get killed do just that, while characters who you're sure are about to be devoured unexpectedly survive). The dog attack sequences are very well handled and seem realistic, which adds to the film's excitement (in films like Nightwing, the animal attacks looked too fake, too funny, to be frightening... but not so in The Pack!) If you're searching for a rampaging animal movie that is actually good, then look no further.

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to my review of 1977s The Pack.

Before I get into the review, here are my ratings for the movie.

The story gets 1.5 out of 2: The Direction a 1.5: The Pacing receives a 1.25: While the Acting gets 1.25: And my Enjoyment level earns a 1.5 out of 2: The Pack, therefore, receives a total of 7 out of 10.

If you enjoyed Stephen Kings Cujo, either the book or the film adaptation, then The Pack will be for you. In all honesty, The Pack is a smidgen better than Cujo. Robert Clouse, who directed, also wrote the screenplay based on David Fisher's novel. And, since I enjoyed the movie, I am now on the lookout for the book.

Fisher and Clouse provide the audience with a fictional tale based on an all too real problem. What happens when people discard their pets like trash? The trash bites back. It's drawing to the end of the holiday season on Seal Island, and the last vacationers have arrived for their fishing hols. However, something isn't right. When Jerry and his family stumble across the remains of a horse, he notes the bones show bite marks. He quickly concludes the island has a problem with feral dogs. And, it's not long before his notion is confirmed, and the island's residents and last holidayers become dog food.

What is nice is the fact that all the characters are different. There is a broad and fascinating mixture: From the ditsy blonde to the domineering father. But it's not only the conflicts these people have, it's their changes in personalities that add depth to the story. When the father loses his son, he suddenly reveals a caring side: One that is willing to lay his life on the line. There's a crabby old bugger who hates holidaymakers. However, he likewise becomes a hero when he decides to aid them in the only way he can. You feel for them and can relate to them.

But the most dynamic thing about the story is that you equally feel for the canines. None of this is their fault. All they are seeking to do is survive. Whose determination and cunning will win out?

Clouse keeps up the excellent work with the direction. The Pack is superbly constructed and flows effortlessly. He uses everything in his arsenal to deliver the best picture he can. There are iconic shots. The one of the eaten horse is both striking and shocking. In part, this is due to the low camera shot. It shows the partially devoured head centre-screen; its lips are gone, only the teeth and gums are visible. To its rear, we can see the bloodied stripped ribs slightly out of focus. It's an image that stays with you. He's adept at employing shadows to build up the tense atmosphere. The lighting is witnessed best in the sequence where the ditsy blonde stumbles on the packs' roost. She is seeking shelter from the rain and enters the gloomy barn, and promptly falls asleep. A noise arouses her, and she awakens to discover the dogs in front of her, blocking any escape. The alpha dog at the head, growling menacingly and hungrily at her. Some modern directors would have produced this scene in almost darkness as they appear to believe the darker it is, the scarier it is. Wrong. Seeing the front row of the pack well lit is ominous. You can see the saliva dripping from their incisors. The deeper shadows behind them and blackness behind them make it hard to figure out how many dogs there are. There could be ten. There could be a hundred and ten. Way scarier.

But Clouse doesn't stop there. Two later scenes involve trucks, and both are choreographed and filmed expertly. The end credits state no animals were harmed in the filming, though watching the scenes made me wonder otherwise.

And still, Clouse adds more. The Pack delivers one of the most striking images of a war-torn, sick, and half-starved dog that I've ever seen in a film. The close-ups of the leader of the pack add so much. You feel sympathetic for the abuse this dog has received, but you're weary too because you know he's both a clever and dangerous killing machine.

Presently we arrive at the cast and thank god that they were all tremendous in their roles. Each one of them nailed their performances. I'm not a fan of Joe Don Baker. I find he can be heavy-handed in his portrayals. The Pack represents the best role I've seen him in to date. Jake possesses two caring sides. One is gentle, and the other is a tad more rugged. Baker pulls these off beautifully. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed his performance.

The one thing I can fault with the story and the film is the depiction of the kids. It would have been enjoyable to observe more interaction between the two boys as they were best friends and soon to be step-brothers. Clouse could have used this to add a reminiscent feel to the film. The "I remember when I was a kid" effect. Truthfully, the two lads are the only characters who aren't well constructed. They're a wasted opportunity. And I believe the two actors could have handled the extra depth.

The Pack is a delightfully entertaining, thought-provoking, and moralistic tale about being kind and considerate to animals. I genuinely enjoyed it and would recommend for everyone to at least check it out once.

Get in that rowing boat and start oaring your way over to my Killer Thriller Chiller, Monstrous, and Dramatisation lists to see where The Pack finally rested in my rankings.

Take Care & Stay Well. Get Inoculated.

The late film director Robert Clouse showed himself to be fairly versatile when it came to his projects. After having already made one bonafide classic with the martial arts actioner "Enter the Dragon" and the similarly fun "Black Belt Jones", he went on to do the futuristic sci-fi saga "The Ultimate Warrior". Here he tackles the "nature strikes back" sub genre with very enjoyable results.

It takes place on a resort island where the year round residents, and some visitors, now have to deal with the problem of a ferocious dog pack that is the result of vacationers having adopted these dogs for the summer and then abandoned them. Yeah, there's a real message in here about mankinds' callousness towards his fellow animals that gives this movie some appreciated (and not overdone) subtext in addition to its thrills.

There's no filler here, just a good, straightforward story (based on a novel by David Fisher) that moves forward at a decent pace. The rural scenery is, not unexpectedly, very nicely photographed and the booming music by Lee Holdridge is perfect accompaniment. The animal action is first rate - the principal trainer is Karl Lewis Miller, an old hand at that kind of thing for many years, and he gets utterly convincing performances from the canine stars, especially the primary antagonist, a mangy mongrel, and the pathetic straggler of the group whom we see abandoned near the beginning of the movie.

The human cast does not fare badly, either, with the ever solid Joe Don Baker, playing a marine biologist (!), as the kind of hero you can root for. (Of course, there are also the standard characters in this thing whom you pretty much *hope* are going to come to a bad end.) Hope Alexander-Willis is his appealing leading lady, and the supporting cast features such reliable performers as Richard B. Shull and R. G. Armstrong.

"The Pack" never gets too graphic, preferring to leave some things to the imagination, but doesn't skimp on the thrills, being genuinely exciting at times, especially in the last half hour. Overall it's more effective than the movie "Dogs" which was also released in that busy period, post-"Jaws", when a number of movies like this were coming out. It's entertaining all the way; that final sequence will just melt your heart.

Clouse returned to animal horror five years later with "The Rats", a.k.a. "Deadly Eyes".

Eight out of 10.

"The Pack" is perhaps the best Killer Dog movie ever made. At first glance, it appears to be a simple enough story that we've seen a hundred times before. Assorted people trapped in a house, locking doors to keep something out. The Killer Shrews, Savage Harvest, Day of the Triffids, and a hundred other films all used this same premise, some with greater results than others.

"The Pack" is one of the better ones. The people are believable characters with lives that are interesting, not just cardboard cutouts with interchangeable dialogue whom the audience will remember only by their violent deaths. In fact, there's little blood in this film. But lots of menace, as a pack of dogs terrorize people on an island.

What makes "The Pack" a cut above other films in its genre is that the dogs aren't played as blood-thirsty monsters. They're simply pets who have been abandoned on an island, and they're just looking for food. In addition to a few genuine scares, this movie also has heart, and last scene will make you cry.

Joe Don Baker, Richard B. Shull, R.G. Armstrong and Bibi Besch are among the cast, and the performances are good, but the scene stealer is the lead dog, who's manic, vicious, lethal, and still an animal, a living creature, not just a monster.

"The Pack" was directed by Robert Clouse, who directed Bruce Lee in "Enter The Dragon.".