The White Dog Sacrifice

Although, I have to agree that the movie was little low budget, for what M. Flaman did in such a short period of time and with a $100,000 budget, wasn't too bad for his first movie. The plot of this movie was a good one and I can see what his intentions were. He had a good story going, I just found that the movie progressed a little slowly. Instead of throwing in a ton of gore, horror, etc... I found that most of the movie was a build-up of suspense toward a twisted, yet clever, ending. In my opinion, he was trying to show us the background behind each of the characters and throw in some side-stories in order to allow us to slowly put the pieces of the plot together. Some of the corky one-liners weren't too bad either. The movie did have a lot of filler, in the sense that, instead of focusing on actual horrific events/scenes, it seemed to over-explain the sub-plot of the story (a bunch of teenagers/young adults getting themselves into ridiculous situations while camping on a lake). I also didn't really enjoy how a lot of the scenes cut-out. I get that he was trying to build suspense, but a little blood in a horror movie doesn't hurt. I did enjoy the ending very much. It tied up MOST of the loose ends in the story. If the whole movie were more like the ending, it for sure would have gone places. I will definitely watch for this writers/directors future projects.

I believe the WHITE DOG SACRIFICE was intended to be a thriller, but at the same time didn't take itself too seriously as one. And this was its saving grace, (take the tree falling on the scary native for instance). These infrequent quips of satire along with a steady flow of comic relief (provided by the character 'Rob') made this movie more than just watch-able; it was funny. Yet, it still managed to produce the occasional jolt. Okay, it wasn't "The Ring", but what is important is that it didn't try to be. The plot is good, it is easy to follow and it doesn't leave you wondering: "why the hell did he or she do that? (As so many 'scary movies' seem to do). To commemorate this further, the scene where 'Simon' takes off in the boat only to fall prey to the minion of 'Pilot John' was well constructed, and was a unique catalyst for the impending doom of the other campers.

Contrary to the previous review, I will say that this movie did live up to its description and to its trailer. A healthy combination of summer flings, mixed in with an ancient Indian legend, and a psychotic, temperamental old man paved the way for some-what expected, yet original misfortunes to befall the characters. But I am not saying that these 'misfortunes' or the ending were entirely predictable, so I give it credit in that regard as well. However, I will also say that the pace of the movie could have been faster at times. One thing that might have helped in this regard could have been more intense scenes with the large native guy...this might have reduced the seemingly long intervals between his appearances.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie. However, if you rent it with the intention of scaring the crap out of yourself, you'll be disappointed. I would definitely recommend this movie to those who enjoyed 'Wrong Turn'.