Monster Dog (1984, Continental Motion Pictures)
Yes, my friends! MONSTER DOG!! That old timeless horror classic starring Alice Cooper! Okay, it’s not really a classic. It’s absolute horror trash but in a fun way, I suppose. Not something I’d ever watch again but what Alice Cooper fan is going to resist watching Alice Cooper STARRING in a horror film? I can’t seem to pin down the country of origin for this film. Some sites list it as Spain, others say Italy. It seems more like a collaboration between Italian & Spanish filmmakers. Filmed in 1984, the movie didn’t actually make it to America until 1986 when it was released on video.
What I found to be really weird about this movie is that Alice’s voice is dubbed over by another actor. Was Alice THAT bad at acting? Because they guy they replaced him with is absolutely awful. Alice is a masterful performer so I can’t see how his lines could’ve been any worse than this guy. Maybe Alice was speaking Italian but I can’t understand why put Alice as the star of your movie if you’re just going to take his voice out of the film.
Well, at least his voice is there in the form of two new songs: “Identity Crisis” and “See Me in the Mirror”. “Identity Crisis” is cheesy, campy and not very good but tends to stick in your head… kind of like a lot of Alice’s early ’80s music. “See Me in the Mirror” is also not a career highlight but has a creepy vibe to it that works. These two songs are included on the 1999 four-disc box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper (which I own) but I wonder if Alice actually had a hand in writing these tunes.
As far as the plot goes: Alice plays rock star Vincent Raven who goes back to his old deserted home to shoot a music video with his girlfriend (a drop dead gorgeous Victoria Vera) & crew. There’s some rumor going around that Vincent’s dad was some type of wolf/dog creature that killed a bunch of people decades ago. A wild pack of dogs start offing people and a strange dog creature is seen just as Vincent and the gang show up so a few of the men in town (who killed Vincent’s father) believe Vincent is the same dog-like creature that his dad was and are out to get him too.
Monster Dog is silly 1980s horror trash that’s available for streaming from Netflix so if you’re a fan of low-grade so-bad-they’re-good horror flicks from the ’80s give it a shot.
