The Pack

The Breed, Burning Bright and now The Pact! The list is growing, movies where people are trapped inside the house with the enemy surrounding the place and finding its way in, are plenty, but how many out there, are good? I never cared much for The Grey, I am a huge Liam Neeson fan, but still, that one was way unrealistic, probably even for a sci-fi film. So, as horror has it lately, bring on the indies, the low budget projects, the little gems, movies that manage to take you by surprise and offer a good 80-90 minutes worth of thrill and suspense. Now don't get me wrong, The Pack is no masterpiece and it does have its holes, but still, it was a pleasure watching it. No real explanation will be offered, typical, I know, and this one builds very little to itself as it jumps straight to action. I think they worked OK as a family, the dialogue was decent, the acting good, effects simple tho hitting the spot and a good execution to a quite used plot. More to say about it? It is shorter than most, just 80 minutes here of watch, doesn't bring any new elements to the story, doesn't act dumb either, so all in all, I graded it a 4. It was better than most, not a bad movie, just a decent watch! Cheers!

The dad shoots one of the wolves through the front door. The wolf whimpers and then there's silence. The dad slowly opens up to find blood on the porch but no body. Keeping the door open, he does the ever-typical move of assuming it must've ran off and died by turning around, shrugging, before being tackled from behind. Dumb, dumb, dumb. And all too typical. An earlier part isn't quite as dumb because he wouldn't've been able to outrun the wolves, but still, it's unrealistic to just stand there and not even try. I'm talking about the agent taking a leak in the woods after his visit to the house. Most of all, how hungry would these animals be after a full meal of the agent in the latter part of the day. Almost the entire movie takes place over the course of only one day and they just keep picking individuals off: the old couple at the beginning just the night before, then the agent in the afternoon, then the cop that night.

This may not be the best of its kind (no pun intended), but it is a very decent low budget effort. And it has a couple of surprising moments in it (twists), that are nice. The acting is OK, again always considering this is a low budget affair. The effects are nicely made and work for this movie too. I watched it at a Festival and while no one was too excited about it, there weren't too many people who felt it was a waste of their time either. Of course the movie has it's clichés too and before we get a few nice turns we also get what we expect. It's teenage problems combined with the supernatural, with a tick of family issues thrown in for good measure.

The Pack is pretty much a home invasion movie where feral dogs instead of masked marauders play the intruders attempting to gain entry into a barricaded house of terrified inhabitants. As to why the pack is attacking, the following explanation, which occurs before the opening credits, is given: "Around the world, packs of dogs roam freely. Killing at will. Now they have developed the taste for a new prey......" And that's it. From there, the audience is launched into the 1st action sequence. Then the starring family is introduced, the pack launches into another separate attack, afterward making their way to the family & all hell breaks loose. Although simply scripted, the overall production is well done. The photography is pretty, the performances are fine & the choreography of the dogs in action is well staged. Very good gore make-up FX too. And again, that's it. Overall, a very good time killer for horror fans on a boring night. Recommended.

"Predators usually hunt in packs" Films made with incredible big budgets, full of stunning special effects and well-known, famous actors, understandably attract the most attention. Sometimes one forgets that it's not only these qualities that'll entertain a movie lover. A fascinating story and the build up of a certain atmosphere is also needed. Something that's grossly overlooked sometimes. "The Pack" is an Australian low-budget thriller (I wouldn't call it horror) made with a budget you certainly can't compare with some films made in Hollywood and with not so famous actors. And also, there aren't any dazzling special effects. You can also say that the story on his own isn't that big of a deal and it's not impressive when it comes to originality (ever heard of "Cujo" or "Burning bright"?). But damn that vibe, the threatening tension and that survival instinct. You can smell the sweat in your living room. Yes, when it comes to atmosphere, you can say they've crammed it in this short but powerful (90 minutes only) film, filled with animal terror. The makers of this movie didn't waste much time, because before you know it a poor sheep farmer is killed with his guts scattered around a sheep-stable. The responsible ones are a pack of wild dogs or wolves, moving in a militaristic manner. Guess they were sick of hunting defenseless, stupid sheep. Not much of a challenge for them anymore, so they developed the taste for a new prey, as indicated at the beginning. The end result is a kind of "home invasion" film like "You're next" but with animal predators. Whatever the ultimate reason is for their aggressive behavior, isn't explicitly explained. Are they just fierce, wild wolves? Or are they a mutated breed of dogs and the result of an intersection that went wrong? Or are they demonic creatures? The latter came to my mind when watching a scene in the movie. It seemed as if a prowling carnivore went up in smoke. Or was this due to the flickering lights and shadows? And that's the only flaw in this film. The fact that it all takes place in the evening, makes this film pretty dark. Pitch-dark conditions with deep black wolves running around, isn't an ideal situation. So you really had to guess sometimes what was going on in the darkness. There were also some improbabilities. I doubt it that a predator with such instincts and a sense of smell won't notice a human scent when walking past him or her. But at the same crawling around with a shining flashlight apparently can be done unnoticed. Further, nothing but praise for this Australian film. I start to appreciate horrors from Down Under more and more. Especially after watching "The Babadook" and "Wyrmwood". Everything feels like "back to basics" and priorities are set differently. There's much more focusing on suspense and tension without many bells and whistles. A straightforward movie experience without annoying intros and explications. The actors performed as expected. A typical family consisting of a stubborn family man Adam (Jack Campbell) who wants to keep his farm at all costs, his wife Carla (Anna Lise Philips) who tries to make ends meet with a veterinarian practice, daughter Sophie (Katie Moore) who's fed up with living on the countryside and Henry (Hamish Philips), the teenage son, future veterinarian and notorious kleptomaniac. The cast is fairly limited. The only people you'll also get to see are the farmer and his wife at the beginning, a banker who came over to talk about their payment problems and a cop on patrol. A short but intense contribution. It wasn't really horror, because the horrific massacres weren't visualized explicitly. Only some bloody close-ups are shown. For the most part you'll only see the bared teeth of the predators. This combined with the intense threat and the exciting cat-and-mouse game between man and predators, made sure it became an exhilarating and exciting thriller. And that's more than enough, mate! More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT

'The Pack' doesn't have the eye candy 'The Breed' has, nor does it have the same star power as 'The Grey,' but it's an enjoyable, slightly tedious wild animal flick. While it doesn't have the eye candy 'The Breed' has, it's also not nearly as ridiculous, or laughably ignorant either. Unfortunately, it's not going to get the audience that film had, because sex sells - even Taryn Manning. Yuck! The acting (The Pack) is tolerable. The main couple do a fine job, but they lose points for adding the typical, annoying, ignorant teenage daughter, who you hope gets taken out early - but you know she'll be around until the end. Seriously, would the film have been any worse if the married couple had one child? Of course not. Maybe they went for realism? Because, honestly, how many couples are smart enough to stop at one child, right? 'The Pack' isn't on the same level as 'The Grey,' and it doesn't do the horror genre the same justice as 'Cujo,' so I can't see many hardcore horror fans being too impressed. There's only so many ways this film can go, and it ends up dragging on, even at 84 minutes. The dogs even looked bored around the 60 minute mark. But if you need something to watch, and you have to choose between 'Lumberjack Man,' 'The Gallows,' or 'The Pack,' do yourself a favor and choose the latter. Random Ramblings of a Madman: Wild dogs can be frightening, and these dogs do a fine job, but at the end it's just a pack of wild dogs. Now, if it had been a pack of wild Krackoons - the daughter would have been the first to go.

My quick rating - 5,1/10. Was much better then expected by reading the summary. Basically a family on the brink of losing their house in the middle of the outback is suddenly under siege by a "pack" of attack dogs. Yes, it does sound somewhat stupid by that but taking a simplistic idea and doing something with it (without cheating and using a 200 million dollar budget) is something to be said. The acting is good and seems very matter of fact. The characters just had believable qualities that helped the story along. The pace was done well and of course turns into high gear when the animals go into full attack mode. Speaking of, the effects were fine and not overdone are bad cgi laden. Overall not a bad unknown little flick that has a couple decent scares.

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source: The Pack

I'm a bit of an outlier on this, I guess, but I really liked this movie. It's a short (less than 90 minutes) and taut Australian horror movie about a family trapped in their farmhouse by a vicious pack of wild dogs. It's suspenseful and at times exciting. It's hard to take seriously, of course - but I'm not sure that horror movies are meant to be "taken seriously." The basic point of the movie is made pretty quickly, when a couple on another farm are killed by this pack, and then Adam (Jack Campbell) discovers a whole flock of mutilated sheep on his property. That was our introduction to the family who are the main characters. Mom and Dad (Mom Carla is played by Anna Lise Phillips) are in danger of losing their farm because they can't pay the mortgage and the bank is about to foreclose. Adam's a farmer whose livestock (as we've seen) are being killed by something, and Carla's a veterinarian who doesn't have enough business in this isolated area to make much money. Daughter Sophie (Katie Moore) is actually delighted by the prospect of having to leave, since she desperately wants to live in the city, while her younger brother Henry (Hamish Phillips) has never experienced anything but the farm and can't imagine living anywhere else. So the dynamics of the family are set up pretty well, and the movie moves pretty quickly into the primary story - how is this family going to survive once the attacks begin one night? I did, in fact, really like this. I thought it moved along nicely, the attacks that were shown were just graphic enough without being over the top gory, and director Nick Robertson made what I felt was very effective use of lighting in the film. Lights would flicker on and off because of a previously mentioned problem with the fuse box and that added a sense of drama and mystery and an edginess to the story. So, yes, I am a bit of an outlier on this - but I thought it was a really good and effective horror movie (8/10)