I am always willing to see a movie that does something different. My favorite is the one-take movie. Seeing a film that tries something different stylistically can be an enjoyable experience. Last weekend I went to see a horror movie shown from the dog's perspective.
When Indy and his owner move to a remote cabin in the woods, something sinister begins to happen to his owner.
If you want to go in fresh, skip this paragraph. Before I went to see this movie, I had to know one thing: Does the dog die? He doesn't. That would have been a deal breaker for me.
The movie is good. It wasn't great, but I enjoyed it. Even with a few jump scares, it wasn't all that scary. It had many suspenseful, tense moments, but nothing terrifying. Even the old me, who was too much of a scardy cat to watch horror movies, could have handled this one.
Indy the dog is excellent, and a lot has to do with the editing. Indy didn't need to act scared because, if you cut to something scary, you intuit that Indy is: there is a name for this phenomenon, but I can't find it. Indy is the director's dog and was not a trained actor. After the movie, there was a brief behind-the-scenes featurette that showed the amount of work that went into it. It took over three years to make, and they filmed a little bit at a time. It's impressive to see how much work went into the movie.
As I said before, this is shot from Indy's perspective. Every shot is at his eye level, so you are experiencing the events from that low angle. If Indy doesn't see it, neither does the audience. When they get to the house, Indy's owner receives a call from his sister, and a few seconds later, Indy goes to explore. You get the sense that something is up with the house, but, as the audience, you don't get much since Indy doesn't care. It's little touches like this that really add to the film's ambiance.
7/10
Rated: PG-13 for terror, bloody images, and strong language.
1h 12m
