Tuesday, October 25, 2016

2016 October Horror Challenge #68: "The Pack"


This movie quietly showed up on Netflix a little while ago and doesn't have many good ratings, but I've had good luck with IFC Midnight movies ( indie horror) so I decided to check it out anyway. No pain no gain, right?

Despite what the title might lead you (read: me) to believe, this is NOT a werewolf movie. It's about a pack of wild dogs that start attacking people. I live dogs, but I was also chased and attacked by a big dog when I was seven, so if done right, dog-centered horror movies can be scary for me.

I like how this movie sets the scene and atmosphere of nature and isolation by having a soundtrack that consists mostly of nature sounds (leaves, wind, grass rustling, insects chirping). I blame my obsession with nature as a soundtrack for a movie on watching "Deliverance" when I was young. In that movie, the sound of the wind and the river added to the sense that you were trapped miles from civilization, and it works the same way in this movie. I like it. It's like the countryside is another character in the movie, silently watching and waiting.

The opening sequence of the movie totally pulled me in and set the scary scene. I like the main characters as well. They're a family struggling to keep their farm, with a teenage daughter who wants to move to the city and a young son who lives working on the farm. Oooh, tension! This poor family already has problems without having to deal with a pack of wild dogs trying to eat them. I like movies that make me care about the characters even before anything horrific happens. I don't know about anyone else, but I really liked this movie.

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