A convict escapes from a prison convoy, killing a hunter in the process, only to be relentlessly pursued across the arid landscape by a cyborg canine, hell bent on avenging the death of its handler. Unusual sci-fi horror follows the plight of William Miller mistakenly incarcerated after being caught in an illegal immigrant sting with his girlfriend – the pair apparently part of an elaborate game of risk where participants perform daring adventures to compete with other players. But when his girlfriend is apparently raped by the evil detention centre boss (a typical sadomasochist portrait of villainy by Spanish horror veteran Paul Naschy), Miller finds himself in a nightmarish situation, haunted by fractured hallucinations, and the real game begins.
Throughout the ordeal our hero endures countless narrow escapes from the steel jaws and tenacious predation of robot-dog, even running afoul a lonely farmhouse wife who sees an opportunity to satisfy her pent up sexual urges when he emerges from the wilderness, naked and despairing. As the connubial cougar becomes more incoherent, his parrying gives way to plundering, tucking in wholeheartedly, akin to a doomed man's 'last supper'. If it hadn't already proved its R rating (decapitation and dismembering befall one poor escaped convict), then the MILF seduction scene surely qualifies.
Barren wilderness and semi-industrial wastelands paint an acrid post-apocalyptic anachronism of hopelessness and despair. Even the finale, where the hero comes full circle to avenge his injustices, does the film offer little respite from the hedonic procession of brutality and cruelty in which director Yuzna seems to engage with a sort of carnal cinematic relish. The point-of-view visual effects borrow heavily from the originality displayed in the far superior "Wolfen", but with much less technical agility.
It's primitive and an at times unattractive, but it must be said, memorable even if only for the disorganised miscellany of ideas and sensational showcasing of animatronic special effects.
Throughout the ordeal our hero endures countless narrow escapes from the steel jaws and tenacious predation of robot-dog, even running afoul a lonely farmhouse wife who sees an opportunity to satisfy her pent up sexual urges when he emerges from the wilderness, naked and despairing. As the connubial cougar becomes more incoherent, his parrying gives way to plundering, tucking in wholeheartedly, akin to a doomed man's 'last supper'. If it hadn't already proved its R rating (decapitation and dismembering befall one poor escaped convict), then the MILF seduction scene surely qualifies.
Barren wilderness and semi-industrial wastelands paint an acrid post-apocalyptic anachronism of hopelessness and despair. Even the finale, where the hero comes full circle to avenge his injustices, does the film offer little respite from the hedonic procession of brutality and cruelty in which director Yuzna seems to engage with a sort of carnal cinematic relish. The point-of-view visual effects borrow heavily from the originality displayed in the far superior "Wolfen", but with much less technical agility.
It's primitive and an at times unattractive, but it must be said, memorable even if only for the disorganised miscellany of ideas and sensational showcasing of animatronic special effects.