| Doghouse | |
|---|---|
Doghouse Theatrical Poster |
|
| Directed by | Jake West |
| Produced by | Michael Loveday Terry Stone |
| Written by | Dan Schaffer |
| Starring | Noel Clarke Stephen Graham Danny Dyer |
| Distributed by | Sony |
| Release date(s) | 12 June 2009[1] |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Doghouse is a 2009 British horror comedy and splatter film.
A group of men travels to a remote village in England for a 'boys' weekend'. Upon their arrival, they found out that all the women in the town had been transformed into some kind of man-eating (literally so) cannibals.[2]
Contents |
Vince (Stephen Graham) is depressed over his divorce. Six of his friends, all faced with their own women problems, decide to take him on a trip to a village called Moodley where the women are meant to outnumber the men "4:1" for a "boys' weekend".
Arriving at the town, the boys find that it seems way too quiet and still. An exploration around the town reveals that something is amiss - "Where are the women?". The boys decided to head back to the bus and look for another joint. Along the way, they notice a hooded girl , they reach for change to give to her but she is suddenly tackled by a man in military uniform. They rush to her aid and in the confusion of the moment, the hooded teen takes the soldier's knife and stabs Neil (Danny Dyer) through his hand and the friends begin to realize what is happening. They run for the bus dragging the unconscious soldier with them but Candy, their once-hot bus driver has already become infected and blocks their escape.
More infected women appear and begin to attack them as they retreat to Mikey's nans's house. They conclude that the virus only affects women, Neil puns it must be "bird flu" and airborne since Candy had not even left the bus. The soldier (Terry Stone) admits that the town has been infected by a biological agent that turns women into man-hating cannibals.
The men make another attempt to get on the bus, the group nominate Neil to lure Candy away since, quoting himself, "women love him". They manage to distract Candy long enough to get on the bus but only to be scared down from it by two more of the infected. They scatter about the village, hiding in a toy store, a clothes shop, and the butcher shop. Patrick gets trapped on a billboard. Neil runs into a house after having outsmarted a couple of women-things, thinking he is safe but is knocked unconscious. He awakes, the prisoner of a morbidly obese woman who cuts off his little finger and eats it, all in the spirit and symbolism of castration (Sigmund Freud).
Eventually our boys are chased into the village's Church and ironically, discover a military command centre. Matt, the resident geek, powers up the computers and they talk briefly to local politician Meg Nut. They realise Meg Nut had been involved somehow in the distribution of the toxin disguised as biological washing powder. The soldier finds a control box and explains it is a sonar device designed to emit a high pitched sound only women can hear and only works on Phase 2 monsters leaving them stunned. The clock chimes and all the infected turn into "Phase 2" monsters which are faster, more intelligent and weirder. Apparently, the device did not work as the soldier is killed by Mikey's nan who wields a pair of gardening shears. Matt bludgeons the monster-nan to death with a golf club as the friends hold back a protesting Mikey. Traumatized by what he has done, Matt walks off to 'cool it off' and is killed by a "Phase 2" monster which had appeared from the basement of the Church.
The boys decide to try the basement as a route of escape only to stumble into the 'Nest' of the infected where the bodies of men had been piled up for food storage. The group is chased out of the basement and onto the Church's roof.
Banksy eventually arrive at Moodley. Oblivious to what has been happening, he believes his friends to be high on drugs. They send him to fetch a ladder to help them escape from the church roof. Noticing the infected for the first time, Banksy finally understands the seriousness of the situation. Graham is knocked off the ladder to the ground by the obese woman, who then proceeds to jump off the roof, onto him. Banksy leads the surviving group to his vehicle but the ride turns out to be a buggy or a small Smart car, definitely not big enough for all of them. Tempers flare and Patrick tries to get all of them to see bigger problem. As he speaks he is attacked and dies a messy, bloody death.
Banksy is killed at the minibus. The remaining three Vince, Neil, and Mikey, finally got aboard the minibus. There, Vince has an epiphany and begins a speech. He berates Neil and Mikey who treat their women poorly but get away with it when men like him and their dead friends, behave how women say they want, only to be discarded or killed. He has had enough of it and from then on, his life is going to be "what you see is what you get". As they finally escape the town, the voice of Graham crackles over the walkie-talkie. He had been dragged to a pile of bodies and left for dead in the 'Nest' under the church. The boys are determined to go back for him. As Graham makes his way out from the church he discovers the control box and machine behind the stun device and reconnects the power. With the working stun device the men are able to stop the women in their tracks. Neil plays around with it for a bit and throws the device to give the Vince a turn at it, but he missed and it breaks. The infected are once again unleashed and pushing the injured Graham in a shopping trolley, the four make a run for it, laughing.
The film was written by Dan Schaffer, directed by Jake West.[3]
The film received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 48% rating from 23 reviews counted.[4] Mark Adams from the Sunday Mirror described this film as "A nicely gory comedy-horror flick that is a diverting bit of lads' entertainment." Other reviewers disagreed. Jason Solomans Observer called it "A dim zombie movie." Catherine Shoard of the Guardian wrote "... undeniable misogyny and a definite creative bankruptcy. So is it fun enough to compensate? Just about" and gave it a rating of 2 stars out of five.[5][6][7]
Michael Dwyer of the Irish Times gave it only 1 out of 5 stars.[8] Critics noted the films release closely followed after Lesbian Vampire Killers, another 2009 British comedy horror film,[8] and complained that ideas were borrowed from Shaun of the Dead.
The film was released in the United Kingdom on 12 June 2009 and was released in the U.S. as a video on demand production.[9]