REVIEW: MONSTER DOG (1984)
By Elena Anele (*)
MONSTER DOG is a crazy Spanish produced flick where Alice Cooper is the main star. It was released in 1984, directed by Claudio Fragasso (credited as Clyde Anderson) and produced by a well-known man in Spanish Horror: Carlos Aured (BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL, HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB). It was shot in the small Spanish town of Torrelodones.
The movie tells the story of Vince Raven, a famous pop/rock star, who comes back to his hometown. There he will have to face an old family secret and a new danger concerning him and his crew.
The feature is made of music videos, illogical scenes which may pay tribute to other cult classics – including The Werewolf, Straw Dogs, The Turn of the Screw, and many more- and senseless character reactions to what is happening around them.
What I liked the most was the music, composed exclusively by the famous rock star for the occasion, and seeing Victoria Vera playing the role of his wife added lots of kudos to the mad plot.
It may leave the spectator cold if it wasn’t for the tackiness of the portrait and the absurdity of the whole thing. Yes, you will spend the whole movie asking yourself: Why did Alice Cooper say yes to this? What was he offered in return? Did he see the final cut?
The movie is available in Spain on a VOD platform called Filmin and it was released on BR two years ago.
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Elena Anele is the woman in charge of SPANISHFEAR.COM, Horror Rises from Spain and Un Fan de Paul Naschy . A literature and cinema researcher, finishing her postgraduate studies with a thesis about the mystic filmmaker José Val del Omar. She has published in different media and books as Fangoria or Hidden Horror. She has also been in charge of several translations including Javier Trujillo’s complete works, La Mano Film Fest, The Man who Saw Frankenstein Cry and many more.
