GL84
Enjoying a weekend getaway, a group of high-society friends arrive on a secluded island getaway for a vacation finds the entire island is overrun by wild dogs left behind over the years and turned into vicious, hungry kills forcing them to battle the dogs to get away alive.This one here wasn't all that bad and has some good things about it. One of the film's most enjoyable parts is the more realistic and outright plausible scenarios possible for this kind of story, as there's a great tone throughout here that makes for a nice time throughout here. The idea of having this be based around the dogs that have now turned feral and wild out in the wilderness makes for a pretty realistic scenario for this type of story, and is handled in a logical manner with them simply looking for nourishment rather than attacking for any kind of mutation-based change or other forms of alterations that have been attempted over the years. This naturalistic element present here makes for a great basis here and that gives the attacks throughout here a far more realistic bent to them which is aided along nicely by the savageness of the action within here, as they get really chilling with the encounter at the blind man's shack and a great encounter in their home where the swarm traps them inside the car only to eventually be driven away by the neighbor's intervention. A later chase scene through the woods and out to a large rocky outcropping on the top of a cliff is another rather enjoyable action-packed chase with the dogs continually closing in until the final encounter out by the sea, and there's even more great fun to be had here with their attempts at stopping the pack from them storming their hideout in the rain to the failed attempt at running them over with the car and the absolutely crazy attack on their fortress as the pack breaks in at several spots forcing them into some inventive and fun barricading themes that are part of what makes this so much fun. That all of these scenes are fun is mostly due to the fact that there's real dogs in here that are portrayed in here as there's a rather appreciated feel here that comes from the use of real dogs there to interact with and it really manages to score quite well here. However, that also brings out the film's single biggest flaw with the realistic use of the dogs here making this one incredibly hard to sit through which happens with all the brutality inflicted not only by them but also against them. The scenes of the dogs being whacked with baseball bats, clubbed with pieces of logs and being chased around a small lot in a car that's barely missing their legs and snapping jaws is quite hard to watch seeing that the dogs are that close to being in real danger makes for quite a troubling watch for those that have a sensitivity to watching dogs in peril. Likewise, the beginning to this one takes a while to get going as there's a rather long display featuring their going around the island with the dogs in the background that doesn't really have much else going for it. That's all that this one has holding it down.Rated R: Violence, Language, children-in-jeopardy and violence- against-animals.
udar55
Thanks to uncaring tourists, a pack of wild dogs has slowly been building on Seal Island. Tired of devouring horses, the dogs decide to wag...er, wage an all-out man vs. beast war against the island's inhabitants led by marine biologist Jerry (Joe Don Baker, who qualifies as both man and beast). A pretty darn exciting horror-action flick from director Robert Clouse that re-teams him with Baker after the equally entertaining GOLDEN NEEDLES (1974). Baker is affable, but the real stars here are the pack of canine characters, led by a mongrel that probably spent his later years terrified of mono filament line. The last 40 minutes is basically NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with dogs and the attack scenes are well staged with some superior slo-mo. The only thing lacking is a higher body count (a paltry 4 human deaths here). There are also some dopey bits like people always running outside and the characters not being attacked as they carry a dead body out of the house because, as Baker puts it, "we have torches." I'm surprised at how much the recent killer dog flick THE BREED (2006) ripped this one off.
Candice Boyle (SalamanderGirl)
"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.".
Joseph P. Ulibas
The Pack a.k.a. The Long Dark Night (1977) was another one of those "nature rebels against man" films that were cranked out during the seventies. This time it's dogs and that's where this movie went to. Joe Don Baker and some residents of a Pacific Northwestern town must contend with a pack of mean and wild dogs who decide that they've had it with man. Dogs of all shapes and sizes join together to try and defeat man. Can Joe Don Baker and the beleaguered residents ward off the mangy mutts throughout the long dark night?It's a real cheesy movie that's no great shakes. But if you could find a copy watch it with some friends so you can get a few laughs. I highly doubt that this movie was intended to be a comedy but that's how it turned out. Many of these films were pretty hokey and this one is no exception. The problem with most of these films is that they try too hard. The film makers forget that they're making a cheap animal exploitation film.Not recommended, unless you're extremely bored.