RARE HORROR GEMS WITH JEFF SANDERS!
I wanted to recommend horror films this Halloween that you may not have seen. The horror genre has been rich from the beginning with strange and fun titles. So many have been overlooked or just plain forgotten. These are the titles I want to focus on in this column. Look into that creepy old mansion keyhole, open the box, and taste the deliciousness of the horror movies that you may have missed.
The Pack (1977)
Reviewed by Jeff Sanders
I once heard of an island off the coast of Japan completely run by dogs…
There once was a movie called JAWS, and after it became the success that was then newly termed “blockbuster,” believe it or not, people tried to capitalize off of it by making knock-offs. We see it all the time these days. Movies don’t even have to be that big (see SNAKES ON A TRAIN, OUIJA EXPERIMENT, etc.) True, this trend existed before JAWS, but never to the extent of what would happen after the “blockbuster”.
But we are getting off track; we are talking about JAWS and the subsequent animals-terrifying-a-community films that followed. Most of us have heard of PIRANHA, probably the best of the one-offs, but there were more, a lot more, and they weren’t always great (TENTACLES, THE SWARM), sometimes they were okay (ORCA, GRIZZLY), but every once an awhile there was a really good one.
THE PACK is a good one!
The tourists love visiting Seal Island, but most opt to leave once the weather is about to turn. They leave their rented cabins and don’t bother bringing back their unnecessary baggage, including the dogs they picked up at the local shelter. No, they leave the pooches behind, left to fend for themselves on the island. They justify it to themselves by thinking that the pups will have a better time running around eating squirrels (or whatever else they might find) in the woods. This beats bringing them back to the unforgiving city, where they will have nowhere to play. Problem is there aren’t too many squirrels hanging around anymore. Problem is these tourists have what you call a crap mentality. The reality is, dogs get hungry, and they will eat a horse, another canine, or anything else they can find in the name of survival.
Jerry (Joe Don Baker) is a Marine Biologist and heads Fish and Game on Seal Island. He is sort of a mix between Brody, Hooper, and Quint if we want to keep this in JAWS terms. Jerry has only been on the island a short while, but plans on settling there with his wife, two boys, and dog (like I said…Brody, Hooper, and Quint.) There are other locals introduced: A banker, an old sea fairing man, and blind kook named McMinnimee, a son, a young attractive lady, yada yada yada. They are all there and they all get along as well as anyone possibly could on a small island where everybody knows one another. The tourist season has just ended, so things are going back to normal, at least, that’s what the community initially thinks. Jerry has just found the corpse of full-on horse that has been eaten alive. Upon this discovery, an angry feral dog attacks Jerry’s furry companion but Jerry manages to frighten the mutt off in time to save his pooch’s life.
Then, the plot thickens as a storm warning comes into play. There is no way out and no way to the island. Jerry warns the locals to stay inside at night until he can find and take care of that feral mongrel he saw, which could very well be rabid. At this point, what Jerry doesn’t realize is that that dirty cur isn’t alone. It seems that there’s a squad of former man’s best friends hanging out in a barn.
What follows is a tense, no-way-out thriller that pulsates with a man-versus-nature hook, and it will have you all riled up until the final tense frames. There are some amazing squabbles and white-knuckle moments along the way that will have PETA jumping for the phones. However, I would like to add that the animals were all monitored by the humane society. That being said, the filmmakers, actors (human and non-human), and wranglers did a heck of a job designing the attacks. These dogs got attitude!
THE PACK was directed by Robert Clouse. Cult movie fans should recognize that name, for he is the man who brought Bruce Lee to the American mainstream with the Kung-Fu masterpiece, ENTER THE DRAGON. He is one of the many reasons why THE PACK is not to be bunched in with the rest of the almost JAWS knock-offs. He has a sharp eye for both visuals and tense pacing. One of the other contributing factors of success in this picture is an actor who was loved and hated by so many. That would be the incomparable Joe Don Baker, who gives one his very best performances here. Mr. Baker was ripped into (and justifiably so) by Mystery Science Theater for his hammy tough guy performances in MITCHELL and FINAL JUSTICE, but people also forget that the man had subtlety and his big persona made way for great character dynamics in films like THE OUTFIT, MUD and EDGE OF DARKNESS. He’s great in THE PACK, offering up just enough loose Southern wit, pathos, and tough guy intensity to make him a compelling central figure. Which brings us to the final component that makes this film work so well: The dogs, and the way they are treated in the screenplay!
In JAWS and almost all the lesser versions, the primary animal is treated fairly mindless. They are just eating machines that have no soul or sympathy. Not so in THE PACK. Don’t get me wrong, these pooches are vicious, but they also have a bit more going on in their canine noggins. These dogs are abandoned by us, and are desperate in every sense of the word. They are hungry and have no food. They were not always this way; They were brought to it by negligence. In this film’s final scene of the film, we feel this first hand. It is quite an unconventional way to end a monster movie. Then again, and I say this as I look at a Shih Tzu named Fozzy, who likes to watch me type on my computer in hopes that I’ll pet him and give him jerky treats, these dogs aren’t ordinary monsters. Would Fozzy eat me if had the chance? No. Would he eat me if I left him alone to starve thereby leaving him to join a gang of hooligan mongrels who had never been given a fair shake? I don’t know…Maybe? But who’s fault would that be? I pet Fozzy often and can only hope he doesn’t get too many radical ideas from the movie we just watched together.
I recommend the THE PACK and hope you will all check it out. Don’t get it confused with other movies with the same name. This one is only available on VHS and DVD from Warner Archive. Warner did a solid job remastering the film, but one does feel sad that no one even bothered to put it out as a regular release on DVD. Then again, maybe you will watch it and get the word out to your friends, and then their friends will watch it and someone will eventually take note and give us a new Blu Ray treatment! That is the point of why I choose to write about these rare horror gems. We remember the big movies, but we tend to forget about the puppy-horror-JAWS-knock-off-movies-with-more-going-on-than-what-we-thought-at-first-glance movies like THE PACK.
And that makes me sad.
If you’re in to the animals-terrorizing-humans sub-genre, I suggest you seek these titles out too:
DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL – with Richard Crenna – from Rambo!
GRIZZLY – It’s Jaws with Claws!
NIGHT OF THE LEPUS – Mutated giant killer Bunnies! I repeat: MUTATED…GIANT KILLER… BUNNIES!!!!
PROPHECY – No, Christopher Walken is not in this one, but a mutated bear with a hell of a right hook is!!
FROGS–Acting legend Ray Miland vs. thousands of vicious amphibians!
SQUIRM–Downed power lines make man-eating killers out of average Earth worms in this 70s B-movie classic!
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