Review

Dante makes his escape from a prison gang, meets various weirdoes in the local mountains, and ends up being pursued by a bounty hunter and his rather large Rottweiler doggy. Dante gets the drop on the pair and dispatches them, and this is where his troubles really begin. The dog gets resurrected as some sort of devil dog from hell, and goes on the rampage, taking out anyone who comes into contact with the escaped felon. Some weird stuff ensues as we get more than the "B" grader we dialled in for. Ready to try canine obedience school?

I was expecting to dial into some cyborg dog attacks group of disposable teens action with this film, and got something completely different. Sure, the movie is proudly "B" grade, come on a dog possessed by mist demons or something? - but end of day the film has an interesting take on the whole subject matter. You get the feeling that with a better name it might have actually garnered a far wider appreciation circle than the odd fan on the lookout for schlock.

Director Brian Yuzna continually throws up interesting movies, but has this hit and miss thing going down. You are either going to get a good film from the dude, or something atrociously bad. Having said that, even at his worst Yuzna is making far more interesting movies than his counterparts at the big studios. Once again, Rottweiler is certainly an interesting outing, but it will miss with those simply wanting a by-the-numbers, cookie-cutter movie, which just requires you to park your brain before digging in.

There's cool use of the dog POV, which surprisingly works far better than it sounds by reading this review. Tension drips off the screen as we got POV shot followed by likely victim not being sure where the heck the dog is. Unfortunately Yuzna fails to deliver on any jump scenes, and things are slightly telegraphed action-wise.

Another nice feature, which I enjoyed, was Dante's hallucinations which actually add up to meaning something by movie's end, but which are somewhat confusing as the film advances in the first and second acts. There's clearly not enough in the budget to go all Nightmare On Elm Street is it real or not, but the Director has it working for us in context.

Honking big dog, were's some disposable teens for the beastie to get its teeth into?

Some good use of the fog machine in places, some excellent plot twists, and some weird stuff involving a scorpion add spice to the movie being presented. This doggy was sitting up and begging to be loved, and for a change I was rocking on with the offbeat nature of the movie.

On the reverse side of the feeding bowl, the film is bloated with a few too many scenes of Dante climbing around hills and such. You get the feeling that Yuzna had his major scenes plotted out, but needed to add just a tad too much filler to stretch the movie out to feature length. A tighter editing, with maybe a couple more shock scenes would have seen Rottweiler receiving a treat from this reviewer.

Potential viewers should be warned that the flick has the gore factor ramped up a bit. There's plenty of claret and flesh flying around in places, as the Director goes full out on the dog attack scenes. A couple of fairly harsh scenes will turn off those who aren't howling at the moon when it comes to the gore stakes.

Great creature effects in use here. The rottie in question goes from being your pretty menacing guard dog, through a sort of cyborg look, to finally appearing as truly demonic. That was one freaking evil-looking mutt by the final act, and I would certainly be giving it all the steak it could eat. There's an added bonus in the final scene, but you'll need to check the movie to get onboard that goodness. Well impressed with the efforts put into the creature.

William Miller (Dante) is pretty much holding this walk together on his own, with everyone else being support characters. Besides looking remarkably like Yahoo Serious "all about that freaked out hair" Miller handles things adequately, but was off in a few scenes. The actor wasn't strong enough to be the central character throughout a very tightly focused plot line, but considering we aren't talking an Oscar contender here, I'm going to sign off as happy with his performance.

The gals score big on the T&A front here, with Miller charging around naked for quite some running time. Yes you do get a full frontal, but in a long shot, and yes the dude clearly works out. Dig on in there, ladies. Guys get the occasional boob shot, but the production team are doing that Euro thing, where they have to have it, but don't go over the top with it.

Mark Thomas delivers a pretty effective sombre score, but unfortunately Yuzna uses it sparingly. Pity, as it was sounding good and added the right mix to the atmospherics from time to time.

Rottweiler is one of those low-budget European horror movies that is trying its best to go beyond the "B" grade kennel. There's a lot of interesting angles going down, loved the full loop on the storyline, and it's certainly an interesting ride from the opening scene to the closing scene. I took on board the issues the movie has, but as the end credits rolled I was nodding my head in approval, guess I enjoyed the time spent in country.

Yes I would recommend the movie, but not a hell of a lot of people are going to dig the stuff being shown on their screens. If you don't mind the sort of fringe movie styles the Aussies throw up each year, and can go with the flow with horror, then you may get some good times with Rottweiler. The movie is never going to be a cult classic, but it retains far more interest than the vast majority of genre flicks coming out of Boredwood currently. You'll either lap it up, or eject the DVD early. Worth seeing if you can apply a leash to this bad boy.