Cast: Michelle Rodriguez, Oliver Hudson, Eric Lively, Taryn Manning and Hill Harper. Dir: Nicholas Mastendrea Rating: 0/5Brothers John (Hudson) and Matt (Lively) have inherited a house on an exotic island from their uncle after he passed away. With Matt’s girlfriend Nicki (Rodriguez) and friends Sara (Manning) and Noah (Harper) they head out for a weekend to relax.After finding a seemingly harmless puppy the group learn that the island was once used by a special canine research unit. But when Sara is viciously attacked by another dog and John, Matt and Noah see another visitor to the island savagely killed by a pack of dogs they realise that they island is over run.But with their plane set adrift by the canine killers the friends find themselves stranded on the island with the mutant animals, genetically engineered to hunt and kill.They attempt to outrun and outwit the dogs in a bid to stay alive.Sadly there are no positives that could possibly be raised in defence of this truly awful light weight teen drama.
It’s a cheap ugly looking ‘horror’ movie with horror being a slightly misplace word. It’s totally predictable ticking all the horror cliché boxes damsel in distress, don’t go in the basement, car chase, explosion you name it. This is Mastandrea’s first film in the director’s chair and he cannot shoulder all of the blame – but lets hope he never directs again. The screenwriters have produced the most obnoxious waste of space characters that you are begging for their demise so that the credits can role.
But the major flaw in this movie is that lack of a villain the cute and cuddly dogs are not your average cower behind the sofa, stuff of nightmares baddy.
These dogs are described as genetically engineered killing machines yet all they seem to do is bark a bit and flash their teeth. The writers didn’t seem to understand that a pair of swimming dogs doesn’t exactly qualify as cut throat horror.
All in all this is movie best avoided and it’s hard to see why Wes Craven, who was the executive producer, has his name anywhere near this bargain basement picture.
Helen Earnshaw