The Pack, 2015
Directed by Nick Robertson.
Starring Anna Lise Phillips, Jack Campbell, Katie Moore, Hamish Phillips and Charles Mayer.
SYNOPSIS:
A farmer and his family are trapped in their secluded farmhouse by a pack of bloodthirsty wild dogs.
The Pack is an Australian nature-gone-bad horror movie that takes a lot of cues from the usual influences – Razorback, Rogue, Long Weekend, etc. – but could also be a redo of Night of the Living Dead if you swap the zombies for a pack of wild dogs with a taste for flesh.
Farmer Adam Wilson (Jack Campbell), his wife Carla (Anna Lise Phillips) and their two children live in a remote farmhouse deep in the forests of the Australian countryside. Due to financial troubles the family face being kicked out as an unsympathetic bank manager (Charles Mayer) is threatening to foreclose on the property but as the manager is leaving the property he stops for a pee against a tree and is attacked and killed by several wild dogs. After this kill the dogs move towards the Wilson’s home and the stage is set for a night of pure terror as the dogs close in on the terrified family.
It’s a pretty standard setup for what turns out to be a pretty substandard horror thriller, and that is unfortunate because there are some individual elements of The Pack that work very well. For instance, the dog attacks are handled very competently, being both gory and violent while still being able to make out what is going on (note – apparently these are properly trained dogs and not animatronic puppets or CGI, which helps keep things grounded and looking more natural) and the performances are pretty solid and believable, with Anna Lise Phillips being the obvious standout by turning in a performance that draws on being both a mother and a heroine in a classic Sigourney Weaver-type way.
But the major problem with this film is with the pacing and the fact that first-time director Nick Robertson mistakes setting a mood and creating tension for just being plain boring. The film clocks in at around 85 minutes, which is a perfect running time for a movie like this, but Robertson fills most of that time with extended shots of the various family members crawling around their darkened house (and hiding behind opened doors, because dogs don’t have heightened senses at all, do they?) and not really doing very much. The dogs themselves aren’t exactly terrifying, although the close-ups of snarling teeth manage to get across some sense of threat, but as soon as the dogs get into the house they just look like… well, dogs. And dogs that were conniving and evil when they were outside in the forest but suddenly become dumb when they get inside the house. If only somebody had produced a nice juicy steak to distract them with…
While The Pack starts out well with a moody setting and some nice aerial photography to get a sense of place it runs out of steam way too quickly and before the first hour is up the film has nowhere left to go. The lack of rhythm when it comes to moving the plot along is a huge problem, and if you’ve got a DVD player with a clock on the display then your attention is likely to be drawn to that rather than the very dull siege that has seemingly come to a standstill on your TV screen. As previously stated, this is Nick Robertson’s first film and he clearly does have an eye for framing a shot and shooting a busy attack set piece but apart from the two or three decent kill scenes and a committed lead performance it’s just far too plodding and uninteresting to hold your attention for the whole 85 minutes.
Buy The Pack on Amazon UK or Amazon US
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
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Originally published March 7, 2016. Updated March 2, 2020.
