Review of White Dog (1982) by Jason D — 09 Dec 2008

There is NOTHING bad that I can say about Samuel Fuller's power Horror/Drama film White Dog. A young struggling actress accidentally hits a white German Shepherd with her car, nearly killing it. She takes it to the animal hospital and then home with her while she awaits for the owner to come forward.

One night, the dog saves her from a rapist, causing her to want to keep the dog. Things go bad when she starts to realize, thanks to the help of animal trainers Burt Ives (whose a lot of fun in this film) and the late Paul Winfield (possibly his best role EVER), that the dog is a "White Dog" a specially bred attack dog that only attacks and bill black people.

From that point on, I was gripped by this film, totally entranced with it every minute of the way through. The attack scenes are very chilling and are done delicately enough to where this film doesn't fall under the same boat as more B-movie style killer dog films like Cujo, Man's Best Friend, or Rottweiler.

Everything about this film is terrific, especially the very emotional scenes of the film including one where a dog is "put down" at an animal shelter and one where Winfield comes across a victim of the White Dog in a church (my favorite scene) which is a mixture of suspenseful and very heartbreaking.

I really loved this film. Excellent direction from Samuel Fuller. Also, be on the lookout for small cameos by Paul Bartel and Dick Miller.