Monday, July 28, 2014

Dogman (2012)

Hanklin and his wife Dorothy have started noticing things disappearing from their property. First someone steals the snowmobile from the garage, then Hanklin's bow and arrows are stolen from the picnic table, and later some chickens are missing.

Hanklin decides to mount a trail camera deep in the woods to try to capture what might be skulking around. No one shall ask why he doesn't mount this in his yard to catch a shot of who is stealing from him. Or why he mounts the trail cam about seven feet off the ground where it will only be able to see things that are far away.

When their nephew and his friend are attacked by a creature in the woods, Hanklin realizes that the wounds are the same as the ones he previously saw on a deer, and that a Native American woman saw on her dog. He becomes obsessed with finding out what is responsible for the attacks. Working with the police and the Native American woman, he tries to figure out what the creature is and maybe find an antidote to the deadly bacteria before it kills their nephews friend, just like it killed the dog.

Well I guess this could be classified as horror, but if so, it's tepid horror.  The creature is only seen in glimpses, a reflection, and a shot of a big hairy paw.  While imagination can be far scarier than what is on the screen, this only works when a film is able to provide the correct atmosphere, which this film doesn't.  Consequently they are unable to build any tension or come up with any real scares.

Also while I can understand some monster taking the chickens, why it took the bow, arrows and rode off on the snowmobile is a mystery. Random note - the Native American woman is played by the woman who played a Native American on Seinfeld, who was offended when Jerry bought Elaine a cigar store Indian.

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