The Pack (2016)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I'm a bit of an outlier on this, I guess, but I really liked this movie. It's a short (less than 90 minutes) and taut Australian horror movie about a family trapped in their farmhouse by a vicious pack of wild dogs. It's suspenseful and at times exciting. It's hard to take seriously, of course - but I'm not sure that horror movies are meant to be "taken seriously." The basic point of the movie is made pretty quickly, when a couple on another farm are killed by this pack, and then Adam (Jack Campbell) discovers a whole flock of mutilated sheep on his property. That was our introduction to the family who are the main characters. Mom and Dad (Mom Carla is played by Anna Lise Phillips) are in danger of losing their farm because they can't pay the mortgage and the bank is about to foreclose. Adam's a farmer whose livestock (as we've seen) are being killed by something, and Carla's a veterinarian who doesn't have enough business in this isolated area to make much money. Daughter Sophie (Katie Moore) is actually delighted by the prospect of having to leave, since she desperately wants to live in the city, while her younger brother Henry (Hamish Phillips) has never experienced anything but the farm and can't imagine living anywhere else. So the dynamics of the family are set up pretty well, and the movie moves pretty quickly into the primary story - how is this family going to survive once the attacks begin one night?I did, in fact, really like this. I thought it moved along nicely, the attacks that were shown were just graphic enough without being over the top gory, and director Nick Robertson made what I felt was very effective use of lighting in the film. Lights would flicker on and off because of a previously mentioned problem with the fuse box and that added a sense of drama and mystery and an edginess to the story. So, yes, I am a bit of an outlier on this - but I thought it was a really good and effective horror movie (8/10)

The Pack: 6 out of 10: Nature gone wild films are a particular pleasure of mine because they are, by their very nature, silly. The Pack, unfortunately, is yet another attempt to make a serious one.Of all the horror genres nature gone wild is one of the hardest to pull off in a serious role. Recently Liam Neeson's The Grey pulled this off fairly well but it had the advantage of well Liam Neeson. The Pack has the always stunning Anna Lise Phillips, who admittedly is a discount Radha Mitchell, but alas she is not Liam. The Packs much bigger problem, besides tone and a lack of Liam, is a lack of cannon fodder. A good nature gone wild film needs people for nature to go wild against. The pack has an entire cast of six people.The main plot of The Pack is about a farmer who is isolated, in debt up to his eyeballs, has had all his sheep killed by wild dogs and whose entire family unit is straining to the breaking point. An evil banker comes by and offers him lots of money and debt forgiveness to "give up his land" and go live in a condo overlooking an Australian beach while his wife works at a nice vet clinic in a strip mall down the street. In grand movie tradition he, of course, kicks the evil banker off his land (the same guy he presumably borrowed money from before the movie started) and declares no one will take his land. (Which no one would if he would stop borrowing against it… just saying) This is a well-worn head scratching trope and The Packs version is particularly silly. Anyway, the family is attacked by wild dogs. Wife, who is a vet mind you, forgets dogs have a sense of smell and goes for the stay still and be quiet approach. Dogs slowly walk around the house looking menacingly. And that is about all because once again this is a nature gone wild film with six people.Well filmed with a good cast but it takes itself too seriously and simply lets itself down when it comes to genre standards. There just isn't that much there, there.

it started promisingly, sweeping farming lands with forests adjoining. a struggling farming family somewhere in Australasia. This could have been quite a good little film, except all canines have very acute senses, aural and olfactory, and how the family avoided being decimated by these feral dogs with no senses is beyond comprehension - oh, Iknow - the dogs had no senses!!!. I don't quite understand how the finance for this film was gleaned based on these very, very important points, is beyond me! Whoever wrote the story should have done more homework on dogs and all our canine friends - it is an indictment on both the writer and the professional cineast.It was, however, watchable. I wish I had had a hand in this - it would have been mesmeric.

Oh my...and it started so promising...50.000 people die every year by wild dog attacks (I know - crazy number, isn't it?!), so I thought, "yeah, a movie about that might be interesting !".And I indeed am a fan of animal horror, and I can understand, that it's not easy to make a movie about this. The animals need to be trained well, and a lot of Special FX is necessary.This having in mind, I could not enjoy "The Pack" - at all. What did bother me most, were two things: the characters would just have needed to call the cops and wait things out behind a locked door. Pretty easy so far. And IF, I say IF, they wanted to go out - never heard of fire? Build a torch, scare the dogs away, go your way in freedom and safety.When I watched "The Pack", I seriously was happy, that this family was not part of the app. 10.000 people, that once carried out the DNA legacy of Homo Sapiens, because we would have died out as species.Also, of course no mobile or even radio / Walkietalkie will work on the farm? Wow, Dudes, this is not "Amityville". When the landlines, radios and mobiles did work in the afternoon, they will work after dark as well.I know, I know - people do dumb stuff in horror movies, and getting no signal is part of the basics, and sometimes it just has to be that way to tell the story, I get this and usually am okay with it. But in "The Pack" these points are too important for me personally to not dislike the movie completely ignoring it. Come on, they could have made a "twist" that the dogs origin from house dogs and thus are not afraid of fire or whatever...the way it was solved here is just lazy storytelling."Hey, couldn't the family like, use some torches or so to scare the pack away?" "I don't believe in fire...only in the great C'tulhu!" "Uhm, I don't think this will be a proper explanation for..." The Great C'tulhuuuuuuu!"Also, why should the dogs stop attacking in Daylight, when they think they cornered their prey? It's not werewolves, only dogs...Also, the characters stay superficial and pale, I was not at all interested in them or if they survive the night. The acting was average, but the problem was the character design, not the actors. As viewer you stay completely uninterested, and nothing is done to wake your interest. Also, with a family of 4, you can imagine who will survive...The father is downright stupid, by the way. The bank tells him he will lose everything. Next sentence from him to his wive is, they will never lose the farm? Come one - the bank accountant literally told you the exact opposite just minutes ago, and she sat next to you. What's wrong with you, bro?Also, they are like, cattle owners, and in the beginning of the movie totally nobody was surprised to find dead sheep, obviously torn in pieces by wolves or bears or whatever. So, no one ever expects wolves or bears, despite no one is surprised to find their victims? So, they know the animals are there, but they don't care and protect themselves in any way? Everyone just wanders out in the dark wilderness without being properly armed? Because don't mind that bear, if it comes, they will...what? Hug it out? Sorry, but I can't give this more than 2 of 10 points, for me it was a huge disappointment. I give one point for the dog training and one point for the nice low key lighting. Oh, I liked the song in the end credits...at least something, eh?Can't recommend. Watch "Backcountry" for good animal horror and leave this one in the cheap DVD box.