Freakdog (2008) Reviews

• All in all a very good horror movie

  mcconnell19782008-08-25

  I've just watched this at Frightfest festival and to be honest I think it's a really good movie. Ticks all the boxes for me for what a good horror should have... Blood (tick), gore (tick), deaths (tick) a hot lead (tick, tick) and a few twists in the plot (Tick!).All in all this surprised me in how good it was. I've heard the budget isn't brilliant (Rumoured to be around £2million) and if this is the case then they've done a great job!) Also is it true that this was filmed totally in Belfast??? If this is the case then I would never have guessed - every location had me fooled into believing it was in America!! I'd give this 8/10 and in saying that when it is released nationwide I'll probably go back to watch it again (i'm weird like that - i enjoy watching a film for a 2nd time once I've seen the twists played out the first time round!) Go see it it's well worth the visit!

• Surprisingly Good

  claudio_carvalho2013-08-18

  The dedicated medical student Catherine (Arielle Kebbel) is invited by seven colleagues to go to a bar to party. The slow Kenneth (Andrew Lee Potts), who works at the hospital morgue, has a crush on Catherine and asks whether he can walk her home. Cat declines to the invitation, but her colleagues humiliate Kenneth. However, he shows a footage in his cellular showing the student Sean (Martin Compston) stealing drugs from the hospital pharmacy. Sean convinces his colleagues that Kenneth is a liability to their futures and prepares a drink with drugs to give to Kenneth expecting to delete the footage from the cellular. However Kenneth is epileptic; he has a seizure and enters into coma. The students drop Kenneth on the street to avoid any connection with them. When Catherine learns that the doctor will disconnect the apparatuses from Kenneth, she decides to use an experimental cocktail of drugs in Kenneth. Soon she discovers that the drugs instead of healing Kenneth, has a side effect that is causing an out-of-body experience to him. Further, Kenneth is using his power to revenge against the students that caused his brain damage and put him in coma. "Freakdog" is a surprisingly good horror movie with an original story. Arielle Kebbel has good performance and is convincing in the role of Catherine. Unfortunately Kenneth is poorly developed since he is the key character. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Dominador de Corpos" ("Controller of Bodies")

• Decent enough but not exactly memorable

  kannibalcorpsegrinder2014-03-24

  After inadvertently putting a young man into a coma, a doctor tries to resuscitate him with a powerful new drug being tested at the hospital only for his murderous spirit to possess passers-by and kill them one-by-one for putting him there. This one managed to be quite enjoyable even if nothing really sticks out afterward. The fact that this is based so much on a familiar, over-done plot-point of having the perpetrator seek revenge by body-hopping from one person to another going after the ones who placed him there is a tired, overdone cliché that really seems quite ludicrous the way it's presented here as being done through the tell-tale sign of a bloody nose after-the-fact, which manages to feel quite lame and ludicrous as yo be the overall source of the possession it really feels quite shorthanded. Though it does manage to have a rather credible back-story in the attempt to tie it in with the out-of-body experience from the experimental drug treatment, the fact that it's never explicitly stated how it's possible to do that makes for a really lame-duck explanation. As well, there's very little thought put into the film's final twist in terms of connecting it to explaining how the various crimes were committed, as this one manages to attempt something interesting in the final minutes only to undermine everything that's happened beforehand with the story to wrap everything up in how it played out, so in the end re-writes itself out of it's original storyline and produces a huge gap in logic rather easily. That said, there's still some good stuff here in the brutal deaths doled out which are quite fun and enjoyable in how shocking and nasty they get, as well as the concept of how it does these acts come about. Though it goes for mere shock value instead of playing about with suspense in these cases, it does work on the brutality stakes more than the actual scare factor. As well, the final matter of dealing with the body is quite ingenious and really unique, looking for a new way to actually deal with the threat that's never been done before and manage to work itself into the story rather nicely, in spite of the problems it perceived into the storyline. These made the film watchable and enjoyable, but it does have a few problems. Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and heavy drug use.

• Skip this.

  sleeping_gorilla2012-10-04

  Spoilers Freak Dog is about a group of assholes who party on stolen pharmacy meds and murder a dangerous mentally deranged necrophilliac. Now in a coma, the man gets his revenge by possessing thief bodies and killing them slasher-style. This movie is an example of how a talented cast and fun concept can be ruined by inept direction and a poor script. Not even the best actress could sell "this guy is killing people by possessing our bodies." to a cop. The problem is the characters keep trying to convince people of the ludicrous plot line, rather than actively try to stop the killer. Bad writing. The characters do stupid, cruel things, and keep doing them. For instance, after Cat administers a miracle drug on Kenneth, he nearly dies. So of course the next day she goes back does it again! WTF? Sadly, this is a talented group of actors, including Andrew Lee Potts and Sarah Carter. They do their best with the nasty unbelievable characters they are given. In his brief appearance Potts steals the show, he manages to be creepy and a little sympathetic. It's too bad all the little nuances of his performance don't echo through this movie. Carter always enhances those around her, (check out the otherwise terrible Falling Skies) and she is tragically misused. Overall, this script needed a rewrite that allowed the actors freedom to do their job and act. How great would it have been to have each actor do their own impersonation of Freak Dog? Instead it's spends way too much time trying to explain it's pseudo-science. The only saving grace in the script is that at least the people who shouldn't believe the plot, don't. Another distracting element, is that most of the cast is European, and it's clearly shot in Europe. Yet too much effort is made to make us think it's set in the US.

• An Awesome Teenage Horror Mystery!

  kyleallen_92009-02-17

  I just watched this movie, titled as Red Mist. I see now why it also has the name Freakdog, its what the teens in the movie called the outcast, and by the way an excellent performance by Andrew Lee Potts(Return To House On Haunted Hill) as the flicks villain. This movie featured three very hot chicks, Arielle Kebbel(The Uninvited and The Grudge 2), Sarah Carter(Skinwalkers and A Date With Darkness) and MyAnna Buring(The Descent and Doomsday) and others who all work at a medical center. In this movie, a group of popular friends target a loner and when a prank goes too far, he winds up in a coma. When one of them regrets what happened to him, she injects him with a experimental serum, that has killer side effects. Soon enough, the ones responsible for his accident begin to die one by one, but the worst part is he can be in anybody. The remaining friends work to find a way to stop him, but they find out, that you cant always trust your friends in this horror thriller. I really enjoyed this movie, i wish that it would of been out in theaters, i would of definitely gone and seen it, plus I'm a huge fan of Arielle Kebbel, her movies always rock.(John Tucker Must Die and American Pie: Band Camp). So, i definitely recommend this flick to die hard horror fans!!