A Dog Called Vengeance
I first became aware of Antonio Isasi's A DOG CALLED VENGEANCE on a trailer compilation and thought it looked fucked up enough to be interesting. I found the movie as part of a cheap boxed set called "Tales of Voodoo" which was odd as the trailer didn't seem to have voodoo of any kind, just a mean dog chasing a dude and a lot of machine guns. But the set does have some very cool box art.
Jason Miller( Father Karras from THE EXORCIST) is a political prisoner in an unnamed South American prison hellhole, While on a chain gang he manages to escape only to be doggedly pursued by a bounty hunter and his awfully wily canine. He is captured but on the return trip back to prison, he kills the bounty hunter only to find himself still being pursued by the determined dog. This dog is one focused son of a bitch. The bulk of the middle of the flick has some pretty grueling and intense chase scenes. One in particular has Miller buck naked fighting the dog in a small pond. Miller is pretty fearless in this scene and it's very uncomfortable to watch as his dick and balls are flopping around the whole time just waiting to be severed. Both the dog and Miller are into the scene. Along the way to freedom Miller is helped by a woman who seems to have a grudge against the regime that imprisoned him. She even gives him some "sympathy for a guy who has been locked up a while" sex. But that doesn't last as his old friend the dog shows up. Once he makes it to the city he hooks up with some others who are planning a coup.It turns out Miller is a mathematician who has memorized a code that holds key useful info for the rebels. The flick does slow down a bit from its previous pace as we learn about Miller's ex who is now cooperating with the dictator in charge. Basically it's a lot more exciting when the dog inevitably shows up. Obviously Isasi intended for the dog to be a metaphor for the regime or perhaps Miller's past but it also works as a pure action plot device. Isasi manages to make a pretty good low budget action flick that also seems to have a point. The dog scenes are great and the gun battles are well done too. The quality of the dvd itself is fairly awful but watchable. Clearly it comes straight from vhs and even has the occasional tracking problem. I found myself actually liking the dog for his devotion to duty and all around bad ass-ness although I doubt Asasi intended that. I was a bit confused about the rebels and their planned coup and the dubbing didn't help but I wasn't bothered enough to get bored. All in all, a pretty good drive in picture.