Navigation

Doghouse (2009)

Dir: Jake West

Vince (Stephen Graham. “Snatch”, “Public Enemies”) is going through a nasty divorce and needs some good old brotherly love from his mates.
So his best friends Neil (Danny Dyer, “Severance”, “The Business”) and Mikey (Noel Clarke, TV's “Dr Who“) arranges for Vince and four other friends, Matt (Lee Ingleby), Patrick (Keith-Lee Castle), Graham (Emil Marwa) and Banksy (Neil Maskell) to take a boozy lads holiday to an isolated village called ‘Moodley’ where the women outnumber the men 4 to 1 and where they can stay at the house of Mikey’s Nan.

But when they arrive at the forest-ringed village they find the 4 to 1 ratio of women to men has grown a bit wider as it seems the only people alive in ‘Moodley’ now are the women…mutated, psychotic, man-hating, cannibal women. And they're very hungry….

Hold the phone! Stop the presses!
Jake West has not only made a good film at last…he’s made a very good film!
After the tragic, embarrassing, Goth guff of “Razor Blade Smile”, the inane, swamped by crap acting, boredom of “Evil Aliens” and a 3rd sequel to a franchise that was stillborn from birth anyway, “Pumpkinhead 4” (though I confess I avoided this), the admittedly hard grafting Mr West has finally directed a film that’s actually worth all the hard work he obviously puts into his projects.

I’ve always been hard on Jake West as his films always came off as the worst example of what low budget British horror movies can be like.
Even when British horror (in talent if not funding) was starting off on it’s welcome 21st century re-birth with the likes of “Dog Soldiers”, “The Descent”, “28 Days Later” and “Shaun of the Dead” West could only come up with cable TV style disappointments like “Evil Aliens”, which was ruined from the start (seems West never learnt from his “Razor Blade Smile” casting folly with Eileen Daly…who should have remained a gorgeous still photo) by having pseudo Goth non-actress Emily Booth (who is damned attractive and does seem like a very nice lady, but that doesn't make her an actor) head a cast of equally naff ‘thespians’ to kill the film stone dead every time someone opened their mouth.
All seemed lost.



But now, because Jake has finally got some good writers and actors to create his genuinely interesting visions with, he has delivered a great horror-comedy romp that can stand proudly next to many other recent British horror successes.
With his biggest budget yet and solid actors to deliver some choice dialogue West gives us a fast-moving, astute, wonderfully politically incorrect splatter comedy that offers great no nonsense entertainment.
And away from the fun, gory, action it is the acting that makes the film so watchable.

Professional cockney wide boy Danny Dyer is in top form as the blatantly misogynistic Neil and although Dyer at first seems to be playing up to his mostly off-set (he actually very rarely plays such arrogant roles in his films) laddish oath persona, that he sadly seems to bring out for interviews and DVD commentary tracks, the screenplay (by comic book writer Dan Schaffer) gives him some great chances to break down this persona and Dyer astutely handles his character’s shifting perspectives.
Perspectives that deliver one of the best lines in the film (in a film full of great lines) when the new caring Neil is criticised by his friends, “This is not the time to stop objectifying women”!

The ever welcome Stephen Graham (who sadly seems even more of an oath off-set than Dyer going by the DVD extras) makes Vince extremely likeable and Graham brings his customary drive and energy to the role mixing humour and small moments of drama perfectly.
Noel Clarke seems to be revelling in the chance to play away from children friendly TV shows and also brings that same essential drive and energy to the film.

Of the rest of the cast Lee Ingleby (who made a memorable debut in the superb ‘finger gun fight’ sequence in an episode of classic cult sitcom “Spaced”) is given the choicest role as the comic/film memorabilia shop owner Matt and does a great job. He also delivers a lovely signposted nod to the ‘are they zombies’ arguments, that films such as “Doghouse” still bring up between fans, when discussing an “Evil Dead” comic with a disrespecting school boy. As just as they were really possessed people in “The Evil Dead” not zombies, the cannibal women in “Doghouse” are infected by a virus and not actually zombies. Let a “28 Days Later” battle commence!

Everyone else does a grand job and there is a nice support role for movie hard man Terry Stone, as a mysterious soldier, who has certainly improved since his work in “Rollin’ with the Nines” and handles some top comedy scenes perfectly. He also gets to have a fun (if gory) reunion with his “Rise of the Footsoldier” co-star Billy Murray, who has a fun cameo. A cameo that has extra comedy value for UK viewers thanks to the ‘Injury Compensation’ adverts he does…because judging by his state in “Doghouse” he must be up for some big ass compensation.

The film looks good and professional too. Again a big jump from the amateur school play horrors of “Razor Blade Smile”. Some nice use of music, effective cinematography and well staged action ensure we have little from a technical viewpoint to take us out of the movie.
The only real negative points are some very false looking rooftop/house sets used for some sequences.

The ‘Zombirds’ are fun and varied and are essentially played as a genuine threat despite the black comic aspect of many of them as far as appearance goes.
The film has lots of fun playing with genre conventions while adding slapstick silliness, genuine excitement and crude laughs to the plentiful blood and gore on display.
Said gore may not be constant and never reaches crazy levels, but all the FX are well crafted, nicely messy, highly effective and perfectly edited (by West) into the action at just the right time, to boost the film when needed.

The screenplay may not be original and we have to face it that “Doghouse” owes a debt to “Shaun of the Dead”. But thankfully West and Schaffer play out many of these similarities with “Shaun” rather differently and even their own ‘let’s pretend we’re zombies’ sequence manages to become its own beast and delivers some good laughs, for longer than the similar scene from “Shaun” did, even if the basic concept is much broader in its humour.

Where the film really becomes its own film is the delightfully rare and un-pc way it mixes the ‘zombie’ action into the basic idea of 21st century men being emasculated, trained and played by many of the women in their life and more explicitly the way they are made to behave and think in today’s metro sexual environment.
Much of the dialogue from Neil (even if some occasionally crosses the line into ignorant insults) amusingly picks out the trouble men have at trying be a tame, loyal and caring partner to their women while at the same time also having to be tough and manly to keep their ladies from getting bored and frustrated, a bit like wanting your poodle to double up as a guard dog.
And how men find the time to be good old fashioned fun loving blokes whilst all the time being told they have to be responsible and mature is a problem right at the heart of the plot’s basic set-up.
But it’s all done in a fun way, and while women in the film come off pretty bad (the women in the guy’s lives are shown to be just as screamingly driven and scary as their later ‘zombie’ counterparts) the film also takes a few swipes (via Dyer’s Neil and his various ‘zombie’ encounters) at frustrated men going too far and turning into disrespectful idiots.

But at its heart this is an explicitly male dominated film, mainly aimed at a male audience and full of ‘reclaiming your balls’ posturing and speech making. All of which not only works as far as entertainment goes but is wonderfully rare and welcome.
Hell, an example of this is that the screenplay has West’s aforementioned lead actress Emily Booth (despite her pretty prominent billing) only appear as an unrecognisable ‘Zombird’ and is given no dialogue at all. Instead she simply snarls and waves some lethal looking scissors around. But this could be her best performance ever, so everyone’s a winner.

A few plot mechanics are laboured (what little isolated English village has a Goth/Alternative shop, a large toy store and its own dental practice and mortuary?) and the ‘virus’ plan is never fully covered which makes for a few head scratching plot moments.
Plus the ending suffers from a foolish slow down of pace as it plays out a rather silly scene involving Dyer and a button and the finale seems very rushed and gives us a rather abrupt ending. Seems they ran out of film or something, as some kind of epilogue would have finished things off perfectly.
These small problems aside though, “Doghouse” is a straightforward, well acted, good time, horror-comedy blast delivered with a professional sheen but still with a rough ‘n’ tumble exuberance that keeps the energy flowing and the fun coming.
Definitely check this out. And if Jake West can deliver a couple more films like this…All is forgiven.