Wtf-film: cult cinema and video reviews

Year: 1978  Company: Zeitman-Landers-Roberts Productions / CBS   Runtime: 95′
Director: Curtis Harrington   Writers: Steven Karpf, Elinor Karpf   Cinematography: Gerald P. Finnerman
Music: Artie Kane  Cast: Richard Crenna, Yvette Mimeux, Kim Richards, Ike Eisenmann, Victor Jory,
Lou Frizzeli, Ken Kercheval, R. G. Armstrong, Martine Beswick, Bob Navarro, Lois Ursone, Jerry Fogel
Disc company: Media Blasters / Shriek Show   Video: 1080p 1.33:1    Audio: DTS-HD MA 2.0 English,
DTS-HD MA 2.0 Italian   Subtitles: None   Disc: BD50 (Region A)   Release Date: 06/28/2011
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Produced for CBS television by Zeitman-Landers-Roberts Productions in 1978, Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell may well be one of the silliest of the multitude of demon-fueled horrors to follow in the wake of Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and The Omen.  For my money it’s also one of the more amusing.  For the sake of full disclosure the devil of the title is not in fact the devil, but a barghest – a monstrous black dog from English folklore that here possesses a cute German Shepherd named Lucky.  I’d argue that it’s a distinction without a difference, however, as Devil Dog follows plenty of the familiar tropes of its successful theatrical predecessors.

The story, credited to Steven and Elinor Karpf (Gargoyles), is pretty ridiculous even by the rather low standards set by past devil-on-the-loose pictures.  Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell begins with some shady cultists (led by the lovely Martine Beswick, Prehistoric Women) raising a hell-beast from beyond to breed with a prize-worthy German Shepherd as part of an unbelievable scheme to spread their cult-y ways to middle America one demonic puppy at a time.  I suppose if this film teaches us anything it’s that you shouldn’t buy puppies from out the back of some creepy bastard’s (R. G. Armstrong!) rolling produce stand, but that’s precisely what little Bonnie and Charlie (Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, of Escape to and Return from Witch Mountain fame) do after they find that their old dog has been unceremoniously run over.

Parents Mike and Betty Barry (Richard Crenna and a still-gorgeous Yvette Mimeux) are happy to see the new puppy arrive, but stereotypical Latina-maid-with-supernatural-intuition Maria (Tina Menard, who made an impressive career out minor ethnic roles) knows that there’s more to the critter than meets the eye.  Unfortunately Maria is not long for this world, and before she can get anyone to take her concerns seriously she finds herself spontaneously combusting – a victim of the demon-puppy’s nefarious powers.  Believing the death to be just a horrible accident Mike and the family move on, but as the puppy grows ever stranger things begin to happen.  Neighbors die, the kids take a turn for the weird, and Betty becomes promiscuous, while Mike struggles to deal with the consequences.  Before long he realizes that it’s his lovable dog Lucky who’s to blame, leaving him no recourse but to travel to Ecuador (?!) in search of a solution to his other-worldly problem.

Director Curtis Harrington (Queen of Blood, Night Tide) was none too fond of Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell, a film he felt was too poorly written and under-financed to be a successful horror picture.  He approached the material with cool professionalism all the same, generating some genuine spookiness and suspense along the way.  Through montage alone he renders the possessed Lucky’s movement through a living room uncharacteristically unnerving, while a sequence in which Mike is willed by the dog to stick his hand into a whirring lawnmower blade maintains suspense in spite of its guaranteed-bloodless made-for-TV pedigree.

Otherwise, this small-screen spook fest is held together by the talent of its cast alone.  Richard Crenna is solid as an everyman out of his element, keeping his cool even as the Karpf’s teleplay takes a nose-dive into the absurd.   Crenna had some experience in battling goofy demonic forces by this point, of course, having rid a rural mansion of a pudgy and be-suited devil from a bright and foggy alternate dimension in The Evil earlier the same year.  Yvette Mimeux (Dark of the Sun, The Time Machine) gives another charming and sympathetic performance, even as the writing fails her.  So convincing is her loving housewife that it’s difficult to believe her turn for the wicked later in the film.  The supporting cast is as strong as the rest, from cultists Martine Beswick and R. G. Armstrong (Race With the Devil) to doomed neighbor Lou Frizzell (The Other) and Ecuadorian shaman Victor Jory (Cat-Women of the Moon).

It’s a pity, then, that a little more money wasn’t thrown Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell‘s way, as the crux of the story – the spectacular appearance of the eponymous creature in all its horrifying glory – is a failure of hilarious proportions.  Rather than pay for traditional composite effects work, the producers instead turned to the video technology of 1978 for a cheaper solution.  The results must be seen to believed, with Lucky transforming into a floating fluffy and glowing-eyed triceratops-looking thing that is, to be kind, less frightening than was perhaps intended.  At times it appears as though an especially awful ’80s metal video is invading a perfectly normal film.  As such the final confrontation between Crenna and the beast at a chemical works is rightly one of the most memorable moments of the film, even if it’s remembered for all the wrong reasons.

It’s easy to see why director Curtis Harrington never looked kindly upon his involvement in this production, but it’s really not so bad as all that.  The ridiculousness of the monster reveal lends the production plenty of schlock appeal, and the dramatics are all the more enjoyable for their silliness.  All in all this is a fun little diversion that’s more family friendly than the title would ever suggest, and those keen on creature features should find plenty to love.

I have no great confidence in video distributor Media Blasters after their handling of Zombi Holocaust, which may well be the worst-produced disc I’ve seen all year even without getting into the issues of the transfer, but I was still interested in seeing how well they might handle a domestic title for which dubious transfer practices abroad would not be an issue.  To that end I found their Blu-ray issue of Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell to be unexpectedly strong, leaving me to wonder why the rest of their high definition titles haven’t been handled in kind.

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell looks surprisingly good here, transferred in 1080p at its native 1.33:1 aspect ratio.  The low-budget television production only rarely looks so, with the 35mm photography scaling nicely to HD.  Colors can appear a bit muted at times, but other than that there’s precious little to complain about.  Detail is at healthy levels throughout, with some close-ups looking quite exceptional, and contrast is consistently strong.  Film grain is always in evidence but isn’t overpowering, and the AVC encode at an average bitrate of 29.2 Mbps dutifully supports it.  Damage is visible in the form of speckling and debris, much of which appears to have been printed right into the film, but isn’t as heavy as I expected for a film of this budget and vintage.  The brief video-mastered effects scenes are a particularly ugly exception to the rest, with the 35mm source footage having been mastered on video, overlayed with the desired effects, and fianlly printed back to 35mm.  These scenes (there are two) present with more damage than the rest of the film, both the soft and fuzzy blips captured during the first film-to-video conversion and the tack-sharp dust and specks that emerged when the resulting video footage was transferred back to 35mm stock.  The interlacing artifacts and degraded detail and color in these sequences are built right into the source and, as awful as it may seem, look precisely as they should.

Compare and contrast: Facial detail of the excellent (1) and adorable (2) kind versus the absolute worst in vintage 1978 video mastering technology (3). That ungainly black crescent to the right in the final shot is in fact print damage captured in the video mastering process, while to the left of it is a razor-sharp speck produced when the footage was re-printed to film.  Weird stuff, but neat!

The primary audio option is an honest DTS-HD MA 2.0 English track that easily handles the original frills-free recording.  Dialogue and effects are clear, and aside from some hiss inherent to the original mix there’s nothing to complain about here.  I’d say it sounded better than I expected, and is likely as good as its going to get.  Accompanying the English track is a secondary DTS-HD MA 2.0 Italian dub which, aside from the hilarity that can be had from switching between the original English and the looped Italian, seems rather pointless.  There are no subtitles.

Supplements are duplicated from the earlier 2-disc DVD, but have been reformatted (rd: windowboxed) to fit a 16:9 frame.  The biggest draw is a so-called featurette on the making of the film, To the Devil a Dog (SD), that runs a whopping 73 minutes, and features input from producer Jerry Zeitman and stars Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann.  Next up is a 15 minute audio interview with the late Curtis Harrington, to whom this disc is dedicated.  Next is a brief photo gallery of supporting player Martine Beswick, followed by an essay / interview with the actress that plays as a text scroll.  A promotional trailer for the feature and a handful of previews for other Media Blasters properties rounds out the on-disc material.

Well color me surprised.  With the inevitable disappointment of Media Blasters’ Burial Ground blu-ray looming (my copy arrives tomorrow) I was expecting nothing good from this, a disc I picked up simply because it was too cheap not to review it.  Needless to say Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell surpassed my non-existent expectations with room to spare, all the more so because MB actually managed to meet their street date for the title.  Soak in the success while it lasts – if only all of their releases were this good.