For most of his musical career, Vincent Furnier has adopted the role of horror rock legend Alice Cooper; in Monster Dog, Alice Cooper plays the part of rock star Vincent Raven, opening proceedings with a song entitled 'Identity Crisis' in which he sings about performing as several different iconic characters. I would consider that an ingenious touch, if this film wasn't from the mind of Claudio Fragrasso, the director of mightily asinine crap-fests like Troll 2 and Zombie 4: After Death, and a man who was clearly a total stranger to clever movie-making. The really sad thing is, with Monster Dog, Fragrasso doesn't even manage to do 'dumb' very well either.
You might think I am doing Claudio a disservice, but watch the rest of Monster Dog (or indeed any of his work), and you'll understand the reason behind my bilious comment; when a film about a pack of killer dogs commanded by a werewolf, and starring a rock legend like Alice, proves to be as boring as this, then I'm not going to hold back on the tongue-lashing. The least Fragrasso could have done was make this film gloriously cheesy OTT fun, but he fails spectacularly to even do that.
With no gratuitous nudity, an absolutely lousy creature, and virtually no gore, Monster Dog should be ashamed to call itself a low-budget, Italian B-movie horror. Fulci, Mattei, or D'amato might not have been the greatest directors, but at least they knew to pep up their films with some decent splatter and some naked babes (surely the basic requirements of such fare): the best Fragrasso can offer is a brief glimpse of a woman in her panties and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shotgun blast to the head effect. Worse still, Alice's speaking voice is dubbed throughout and his two songs in the film are diabolical 80s pop/rock garbage, far from classic Cooper.
The general consensus might be that Troll 2 is Fragrasso's worst film, but at least that one entertained me a little with its silliness; watching Monster Dog, on the other hand, is the movie equivalent of treading in a dog turd.
You might think I am doing Claudio a disservice, but watch the rest of Monster Dog (or indeed any of his work), and you'll understand the reason behind my bilious comment; when a film about a pack of killer dogs commanded by a werewolf, and starring a rock legend like Alice, proves to be as boring as this, then I'm not going to hold back on the tongue-lashing. The least Fragrasso could have done was make this film gloriously cheesy OTT fun, but he fails spectacularly to even do that.
With no gratuitous nudity, an absolutely lousy creature, and virtually no gore, Monster Dog should be ashamed to call itself a low-budget, Italian B-movie horror. Fulci, Mattei, or D'amato might not have been the greatest directors, but at least they knew to pep up their films with some decent splatter and some naked babes (surely the basic requirements of such fare): the best Fragrasso can offer is a brief glimpse of a woman in her panties and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shotgun blast to the head effect. Worse still, Alice's speaking voice is dubbed throughout and his two songs in the film are diabolical 80s pop/rock garbage, far from classic Cooper.
The general consensus might be that Troll 2 is Fragrasso's worst film, but at least that one entertained me a little with its silliness; watching Monster Dog, on the other hand, is the movie equivalent of treading in a dog turd.