Writer/director Robert Clouse took a break from the string of high kicking action films he was making in the 1970s in the wake of the international box office success of his Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon (1973) – he followed it with Black Belt Jones (1974), the Yul Brynner science fiction action thriller The Ultimate Warrior (1975), Game of Death (1978), The Big Brawl (1980) et al – for this addition to that other 70s cinematic staple, the revenge-of-nature thriller. There were a spate of canine-centric horror films in the late 1970s and early 1980s – see also Dogs (1976), Dracula’s Dog/Zoltan, Hound of Dracula (1977) the television film Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978), Rottweiler (1982) and the Stephen King adaptation Cujo (1983) (there’s even a scene here in which someone is menaced by a dog while trapped in her car) but this unassuming little chiller, silly and implausible though it might be, is one of the more enjoyable ones.
On the tourist trap Seal Island, it’s nearing the end of the season when marine biologist Jerry (Joe Don Baker), his new wife Millie (Hope Alexander-Willis) and their two sons from previous marriages, Guy (Eric Knight) and Paul (Steve Lytle) arrive, unaware that the island is also home to a pack of feral dogs, abandoned pets who have been living off their wits in the woods. With the return of the infrequent ferry service to the mainland still a week away, the family, a fishing party and various locals are soon being menaced by the pack and fighting for their lives.
Presumably Clouse, who adapted Dave Fisher’s source novel himself, realised that no-one was particularly interested in characters in this sort of thing so doesn’t bother establishing any beyond the very basics needed to keep the plot motoring along. Everyone here is an easily recognisable cipher and other more. The fine cast of B-movie dependables – as well as the always watchable Baker we get Richard B. Shull, R.G. Armstrong and Bibi Besch – don’t get a lot to work with but muck in with some enthusiasm, gamely being mauled by their canine co-stars in scenes that look uncomfortably realistic.
Though Clouse made many hit films, he never showed any particularly distinctive style. His films are efficient but nothing more and the hits were generally successful thanks to the talents of others. Here he marshals the action with his customary competence and manages a couple of decent jump scares but the animal trainers and their accomplished canine wards are the real talent here. Indeed the pack’s leader, a constantly snarling and vaguely demonic pooch, is rather menacing and gives the most committed performance in the whole film.
The Pack is a very silly and by any reasonable standards it’s not very good but it’s a hard film to dislike. The dog attacks are ferocious and often worryingly realistic (it’s hard to tell if a dog knows when they’re only supposed to be pretending), the human cast is mostly very good (except Sherri Miles as an airhead hired by a wealthy father to deflower his overweight, socially awkward son who is completely hopeless) and the attractive scenery is nicely shot by director of photography Ralph Woolsey. On the other hand, Lee Holdridge’s score is too emphatic and the plot revolves around the rather implausible idea that enough people are willing to abandon their pets on Seal Island to help create a pack of killers.
The Pack (also screened as The Long Dark Night) isn’t a terribly good film – but neither is it actually terrible. It’s an efficient time waster with some decent animal attack scenes and as a part of that late 70s Jaws (1975)-inspired revenge of nature horror run it’s one of the less tedious and even more enjoyable offerings. Dog lovers will squirm at some of the apparent brutality meted out to the pack (though the American Humane Society were on hand to monitor and approve the animal action the end credits assure us) and just about everyone will squirm at the ludicrous final scene in which man and canine are apparently reconciled.
Nick Robertson’s 2105 Australian horror film of the same title has a similar plot but is unrelated to Clouse’s film. Clouse himself returned to the revenge-of-nature cycle with his underwhelming adaptation of James Herbert’s best-selling novel The Rats, Deadly Eyes in 1982 which also featured dogs, albeit ones dressed up as giant killer rats.
The EOFFTV Review 