loveskulls

...and I'm saying that as an obsessive fan of Kill List--as in, watched it dozens of times. Another reviewer here claims that if "rips off Kill List" and that is simply wrong. True, it features two hit men, one English, one Irish. They run into trouble on the job and the subgenres switch from crime drama to folk horror, but the dynamic between the two principals are completely different, plot doesn't come close to resembling Kill List and, while it can be argued that it's not as good as Kill List, it isn't a bad film by any means. Performances were impressive, especially Billy Clarke's Pinner, the plot was fairly original, and while it isn't terrifying, there are a couple of nice creepy moments.

To be honest, I might have been disappointed if I paid full-price at a theater, but to watch it I Shudder while recovering from a bug wasn't a bad way to kill 90 min or so.

The bullying? Sure. The dialogue? Have these people ever had a conversation with a teen in the past 40 years? The dialogue is cringeworthy, no high school student would use elementary playground level insults like this. There would also be plenty of cursing. It's written like a 50-something man or woman who has never been around anybody under the age of 40 OR by a very sheltered fifth grade girl in a strict private Christian school, who ends it by asking WWJD?

BTW--and this is not fat-shaming, it's a fact: a snotty 110 lb bully would not stand a chance in a fight with a plus-sized girl. Once I saw that ridiculous "fight", I gave up. I get that this is a well-intended, moral lesson for kids...but kids aren't going to buy it. It's inauthentic, and completely unrelatable. The best way to save this would be to cut it to 10 minutes with the protagonist pounding the bullies in the last five minutes. Because in the real world, that is all bullies understand.

...and Kat Kezele deserves a feature length film. For a character as seemingly complex as Sierra, 45 minutes is just a maddenly tease, an unsatisfying glimpse into those soulless, blank eyes. What was the relationship with her recently dead mother? Was her death the impetus for Sierra's depravity? What is going on with her clingy father? Their relationship is clearly unhealthy: is her father smotheringly overprotective because he knows Sierra's true nature and wants to keep her home so he can monitor her behavior, or is something more sinister between his obsession with Sierra? And why is it called "Dog"?

Kat Kezele is the reason to watch this, as maddening as this movie with it's underdeveloped script, underdeveloped characters and unexplained behavior and motivations of all the characters, Sierra, most of all...but her performance is impressive and the only reason I watched to the end. With a 90 minute runtime and decent writers, Dog (oh and some sort of explanation WTF "dog" refers to), this could be a very decent thriller.