THE PACK - THE HALLOWEEN HORRORS COLLECTION

By Guest Reviewer The Creepy Concierge 

A farmer and his family must fight for survival after a ferocious pack of wild dogs infiltrates their isolated farmhouse. Through a series of frightening and bloody encounters they are forced into survival mode to make it through the night.

Australia is deservedly getting itself a bit of a reputation for good genre cinema and THE PACK is no exception. This low budget 2015 tale of a farm and farming family menaced by a pack of supercharged wild dogs can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of the cinematic thunder from down under. Part horror flick, part social commentary on the woes of being an independent farmer, the film smartly paints a picture of a disaffected family with financial troubles and inter-personal conflicts in just enough broad strokes so that we care about the protagonists before the story goes into overdrive. Livestock are killed by something, power woes trouble the farmhouse but these are small beer compared to the real threat waiting for night to fall ….

Coming in at a slim 88 minutes the pic never outstays it welcome and proves to be an exciting, sometimes brutal, sometimes vicious entertaining little fright flick.  Performances are good all round, this reviewer found himself identifying, and in some moments empathizing, with the characters. Which, for a change, feel truly three dimensional and not at all ready for the traumatic hours ahead at the mercy of the apparently unstoppable pack.

THE PACK looks and sounds great. The cinematography captures the isolated rural environment with just the right amount of lurking hidden canine menace and the production design convinces that our family in peril really live where the film says they live. The score is effective and not too overbearing and helps build the suspense really quite nicely in advance of the inevitable dog attacks. The action set pieces are handled very well, though cut a little too quickly maybe for some tastes, but the canine villains of the piece are totally convincing as cunning, vicious and absolutely determined to eat pretty much anyone who gets in the way.

If you’re a dog lover should you watch it? No, probably not, but if you can suspend your disbelief and accept that this pack of hungry, angry, roving rovers are not the family pup you should be alright. Give it a go. I did and I enjoyed it.

Watch for free by clicking here THE PACK or click on W4FREE where you can watch all our monstrously good movies in THE HALLOWEEN HORRORS COLLECTION for free.