Review of Dog Pound (2010) by Steph V — 06 Nov 2012

Whether it's classic films such as The Shawshank Redemption, or old school prison drama's such as Prisoner Cell Block H, we always appear to be entertained when it comes to stories about life 'inside'.

Is it the dark side of us wanting to be satisfied by a constant stream of violence, hooliganism, and rival gang behaviour, or perhaps it's the mystery and intrigue of wanting to know exactly what happens behind bars? In my case, both! We join the scene as three new inmates arrive, each with different backgrounds, personalities.

...........and tolerance levels. These are soon evident as their new roomies soon make it clear who's boss, and 'how things work around here'. With every conversation that takes place, there's a potential fight brewing, and with every decision taken, there are usually some horrifying retaliations from those who don't benefit, resulting in some fatal consequences.

It's exciting to discover who will come out top dog and who will cower in the corner, or prefer a life in solitary confinement. It's a gripping storyline, and easy to familiarise oneself with each of the characters and their emotions.

It did end somewhat abruptly, as did some of the inmates story lines, but I guess the difficulty in prison drama's is being able to select an appropriate ending given the continuous environment that it is.

One things for sure though, it's certainly a fantastic deterrent for any juveniles planning to disobey the law, assuming that detention centres are the hellhole like environments that are depicted here.

I would at some point be happy to watch this again, but fear I'd only start to be more critical of a film which overall thought was very well acted, presented, and ultimately enjoyed.