The Pack (1977) by Robert Clouse

Director: Robert Clouse

Year: 1977

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: The Long Dark Night

Genre: Nature-Run-Amok

Plot:

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.

Review:

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 logically, 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 are 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 are 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 them 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.

Overview: ****/5

Slightly flawed but a highly enjoyable effort, there's a lot to enjoy here with plenty of likable elements throughout here which manage to hold off the few drawbacks that hold this back. Those with an appreciation for this era of the genre, who are curious about it, or who are fine with the issues present will have the most to like, while most others out there should heed caution.