Hellhounds

"Hellhounds" promises a feral frenzy of canine carnage, but delivers a limping, lifeless creature of a film. The concept of werewolf bikers is undeniably intriguing, but the execution is as flat as a deflated balloon.

While the film struggles to muster any genuine scares or suspense, there's one bright spot amidst the gloom: Eva Hamilton. Her performance is a lone wolf in a pack of mediocrity. Her character is captivating and it be interesting to follow this character further with a better script and higher budget.

Unfortunately, her talent is squandered in a film that seems more interested in showcasing questionable CGI than crafting a compelling story.

The plot is predictable, the characters are flat, and the horror elements are more laughable than terrifying, reminding me of "Jeepers Creepers: Reborn". The titular hellhounds, when they finally do appear, are disappointingly generic, lack any real menace, and look like cheap Spirit Halloween costumes.

If you're a fan of Eva Hamilton, you might find some enjoyment in "Hellhounds" for her performance alone. But for everyone else, this is a film that can safely be skipped.

Ok, it wasn't a great movie, technically speaking, as it was lacking in the special-effects department, and there were some loose ends in the story that made no sense.

BUT- I really liked the biker-angle. I liked how the hero (such as it is) wasn't the studly-looking guy, but the long-haired biker. He was a refreshing character, in full control of his "curse" and played off the villainous (yet gorgeous) she-werewolf. There is a female protagonist, but she is mostly there to have someone to explain the plot to. The synapsis made it seem like there would be more Silver Bullet conflict, but there isn't, as it becomes werewolf vs werewolf. Some gratuitous boob shots in the bar, and a sex scene with the villains are there to spice up things, as well.

In the middle of a gang war, a bounty hunter meets up with an enigmatic biker to try to track down a renegade abducting loners to serve a werewolf running wild in the area, and when their paths cross and his lycanthropic powers aren't enough to stop her must resort to extreme measures to stop them.

This was a really problematic and not that worthwhile of a genre effort. The few positives to be had with this one stem from the idea that the war that takes place here between werewolf-based biker gangs features some solid action. This is all mainly set up in the final half where it starts to really let loose with the creature action as the two sides finally manage to come together for the first time setting up the big showdown which is quite a bit of fun. With multiple bodies getting ripped apart, some cheap but decent enough transformation scenes that allow for the werewolf designs to get centerstage, and a few decent brawling scenes with the multitude of werewolves getting involved, this segment brings out the action well enough, and with some solid nudity as well make for the films' positive points. There are some big problems on display here to hold this one down. The main factor against it is the main focus on an Action/Thriller setup for the gang war that's not in the slightest bit interesting. Rather than bring about any kind of genre-based thrills to this and keep things exciting, the continuing setups and divergent plotlines featured throughout here are just way too scattered on outside elements to be all that interesting when it shifts between the bounty hunter strolling through the area with the biker, the strange woman taking the kid through a strange series of trials, and all sorts of talk about this biker-gang war that's nowhere to be seen as it's already happened. This all manages to keep the werewolves off-screen for most of the first hour of this one and it grows tiring waiting for something genre-based to happen. The other drawback here is that, with so many congruent subplots and sidestories featured here, this one is massively confusing and nearly incoherent at points. The fact that there's so much going on in the first place is a big hurdle where it takes so long for the pieces to fit together that it can lose interest long before you realize the connecting tissues to everything. However, the secondary issue with everything here is that, since it's almost impossible to tell who's who with barely any names given to anyone until after we've been with them for a while, the purpose of what's going on makes little sense in the beginning stages. The ease with which the hunter and biker get together is never explained, the connection with the other werewolf and her turned follower fitting in makes no sense, and then buying that they're all on opposite sides of a battle with the psychopath they're all chasing down is all as if it came from a separate film entirely. Combined with some shoddy CGI for the werewolf effects, these are all that hold this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, a sex scene, and brief drug use.