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Dogs of Hell

Independent star / producer Earl Owensby 3D fable “Rottweiler: Dogs from Hell” is a trashy, but mildly fun cheap-jack little animals run amok horror enterprise. I saw this one when I was only a kid and certain scenes had stayed in my head. I couldn’t remember the title, where I only found it out recently. Came across a copy and when watching it the memories came flooding back. Don’t remember it being as dodgy as it was, but it remained diverting enough.

A pack of Rottweilers are trained by the military for warfare, but these vicious killing machines are accidentally released within a small mountain community when the truck they are in crashes. Soon bodies start piling up and it’s up to sheriff Hank Willis (Owensby) to put an end to this carnage.

Outside this systematic set-up (that has shades of “Jaws”); there are the small-town dramas to give it that genuine sense of community. Such distractions as angst teenagers (father and son issues), catfish talk, reflective time and women mud wrestling… these kinds of things feel like nothing more than filler. There’s too much of it. When it came to the dog attacks, it’s rather sloppy or off-screen with crude blood effects being splashed about. However when Owensby uses his magnum on the dogs; we are treated with graphic head imploding shots. There were one or two effectively minor intense set-pieces that spring out some calculative tension. Also we get plenty of POV shots from the dogs, as well growling which sounds more like someone’s stomach is churning behind the camera… maybe that’s where the panting arrived from too. Nonetheless is didn’t sound as bad the daggy music score with its weepy piano pieces… which always felt it was going to cut to a sequence of someone playing a piano. It was just that odd in its placement. The performances are pretty much one-note, but Owensby equips himself quite well despite the script coming off as blunt and clumsy. Low-grade shoddiness, but sort of entertaining in that.