Review of Doghouse (2009) by Lauren H — 09 Jun 2009

Oooh, I'm the first person to review this on Facebook!

Anyway, excitement aside, this was.... really rather good. From the trailer it looks tiresome and nothing new, but it really kind of was something new. At least as far as commercial British comedy horrors go. Okay, so we have Danny Dyer being Danny Dyer, we have a remote obscure village in the middle of no where, we have zombies going around eating people for no reason... there's umpteen cliches on offer, yet the way it's presented is just so silly and so pointless that if you're a fan of this kind of thing, you should ideally like it.

I'll be honest, it wasn't until I realised that Jake West had directed this that I actually was interested in seeing this... and that's purely because he has zero pretention and his films just are what they are - they don't try to be big and clever or to prove a point. He just loves gore and doing so in a "what the hell?" kind of way.

The whole premise of women being zombies was a little bit funny I thought, yet seemingly unexplained. But really, if you start picking faults with it, you kind of miss the point of the film. There was MUCH room for improvement, and considering I have something of a hate relationship with Danny Dyer (I honestly do), there was times when I wanted to at least like his character.... but again, that's the point, you're not meant to like him... really. I just kinda wished he wasn't such a stereotypical Danny Dyer-ish prick.

It was no where near as witty as Evil Aliens (I urge people to see this film!), but furthers the fact that Jake West is probably one of the few original British horror directors out there... and you can just tell that everyone that was a part of this film must've had fun making it.... the effects and make up are fantastic!

I liked this a lot, and don't think it'll be too well known once it comes out, but I reckon Dyer's name attached will pull in a fair few punters... as his character is pretty much a follow-on from his one in Severance.

I do have a lot of gripes with the film - and really wanted to understand WHY they were zombies, and I'm not buying that remote control thing, that was just ridiculous.

Was nice to see Emily Booth in the role of what looked very much like Edward Scissorhands though!