Freakdog

Having seen the Northern Ireland premier of this home-grown horror film at QFT in Belfast, I can now share my disappointment in its complete lack of features that would lead me to recommend it. 'Freakdog' tells the somewhat original tale of a comatose man's control over a group of friends, leading them to commit unspeakable acts. Unfortunately, it fails on almost every level; a complete non-starter as a horror film and totally incoherent as a thriller.

The opening portion of the film is simply dull; a chance for the screenwriter's occasionally competent dialogue to be ruined by an ill-conceived cast. The character development is so lacking that all human aspect of the story is played entirely in cliché, and the standard of acting is poor even for a low-budget independent feature.

Of course, the purpose of this film is obviously to provide either shocks or genuine, disturbing scares. It delivers neither. The film is utterly inept as a horror, offering nothing but a series of mild gore scenes to fans of the genre. Essentially, this film is mixture of poor acting, dull cinematography and a script that, despite a few good pieces of dialogue, is both confusing and simplistic in equal measure. However, the production team must be commended for successfully shooting a U.S-set film in Belfast, which is carried of convincingly.

Overall, 'Freakdog' is a poor effort when pitched against either major Hollywood horror films or the usual B-movie fare. It fails to deliver the necessary scares and constantly suffers from poor acting and a ludicrous storyline. I really cannot recommend this film, which is a real shame as I was hoping it would deliver so much more.

Or is it "Dog Standard"? ;o) Just kidding, I'm not spoiling anything, by saying the movie doesn't involve a dog (as in an animal). It's a "nickname". The movie is more or less what you would expect it is (with one or two exceptions). The gore is OK, the story has been told in similar fashion many times and the acting is OK.

The craziest thing was a warning before the movie started. For anyone who might be epileptic, there are scenes in here, that will trigger epilepsy (I don't know if there is any other more political correct way to say that, but I guess you get my point). The movie was screened at Fright Fest and the reaction of most of the crowd was less than enthusiastic (some even said, that it was as "bad" as Shrooms ... since I haven't yet seen that one, I can't comment on that though)

Irish film-maker Paddy Breathnach bored me to tears with the asinine drivel that was Shrooms, but being the reasonable fellow that I am, I was willing to give the guy a second chance at impressing me with his next movie, Red Mist AKA Freakdog (the fact that the back of the DVD showed hottie Arielle Kebbel in her undies had nothing to do with my decision—Scout's honour!).

Although this film isn't as soporific as Breathnach's earlier fungi-flavoured flop, at least delivering a few reasonable performances, it's still an ultimately unimpressive effort, with a derivative narrative that borrows heavily from several other horrors (most notably 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and 'Patrick'), a thoroughly unlikable group of extremely clichéd characters, and a surprising lack of gore given the nasty ways in which the characters meet their fates (a juicy knife-in-the-throat aside, Breathnach misses every opportunity to really gross out his audience).

Oh, and the 'Kebbel in her scanties' scene lasts for all of 10 seconds... grrrrr!

In FREAKDOG (aka: RED MIST) a group of med students decide to mix narcotics and alcohol for a night of utter blotto-ness. Unfortunately, their shenanigans are witnessed by Kevin who records their antics on his cellphone.

Not wanting their future careers ruined, the quick-thinking students decide to get Kevin wasted so they can destroy the evidence. Things don't go exactly as planned.

If you enjoy paranormal horror-revenge movies with possession and lots of gory deaths, then this will take you to Nirvana! There's even some mad science tossed in for extra joy!

This film gets bonus points for originality and its novel approach...

I've just watched this at Frightfest festival and to be honest I think it's a really good movie. Ticks all the boxes for me for what a good horror should have... Blood (tick), gore (tick), deaths (tick) a hot lead (tick, tick) and a few twists in the plot (Tick!).All in all this surprised me in how good it was. I've heard the budget isn't brilliant (Rumoured to be around £2million) and if this is the case then they've done a great job!) Also is it true that this was filmed totally in Belfast??? If this is the case then I would never have guessed - every location had me fooled into believing it was in America!! I'd give this 8/10 and in saying that when it is released nationwide I'll probably go back to watch it again (i'm weird like that - i enjoy watching a film for a 2nd time once I've seen the twists played out the first time round!)

Go see it it's well worth the visit!