"The Fear... The Terror... The Nightmare... They Will Never Forget It!"	Year of Release: 1984 Directed by: Claudio Fragasso Running Time: Approx. 86 minutes Rating: R Listing on the A.K.A. Page: YES! Click Here! A Second Opinion: The Cavalcade of Schlock Buy it on VHS at: Tapes of Terror Wanna hear the two songs from this movie? Then buy "The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper" CD Boxset from Amazon.com. My Rating:

Vincent Roberts (a.k.a. Vincent Raven)- Alice Cooper! Rock singer who's come back to his hometown to work on a music video. Coincidentally, a pack of killer dogs is loose in the area. Has his family's dark past finally caught up with him?!

Sandra- Vince's cute redheaded girlfriend. She shoots Vincent when he becomes a werewolf and is the only person to survive.

Jos- The caretaker at Vincent's childhood home. He disappears for most of the movie, but during the filming of Vincent's music video, Jos' body comes crashing through a window.

Jordan, Marilou, Frank, and Angela- Vincent's film crew(?). Jordan tries to fight of the Monster Dog armed with an empty gun. Needless to say it doesn't go too well for him. Marilou has her throat ripped out offscreen by the Monster Dog. Frank is maimed to death by a pack of German Shepards and Angela is accidentally shot by...

The Four Gunmen- Turns out they killed Vincent's father back in the day. Now they've come to kill Vincent because they think he's a werewolf! Vincent blows them all away with a shotgun.

Sheriff Morrison and Deputy Dan- Local law enforcers. Killed by the Monster Dog.

The Old Man- A creepy elderly fellow who continuously pops up spouting dialogue about death and doom. He's always walking around in tattered clothes, soaked in blood. If you haven't yet guessed it, he's the ...

Monster Dog- A sorry excuse of a werewolf. It looks more like a slimy dog puppet than a lycanthrope, which is why we rarely see it. It also has a previously unknown supernatural power. Apparently werewolves have the power to turn loveable canines into a pack of killer dogs! The Monster Dog is killed by Vincent.

I first heard about this film from my old 1996 Blockbuster Video_tm Guide to Movies and Video. The capsule review stated that, "Cooper and his band are attacked by a giant mutant German Shepard. Everyone's a music critic." Well shows how much those blockheads at Blockbuster really know. I think they got they're facts mixed up, since there are a pack of killer German Shepards in this movie (said dog pack also has a few other breeds including Dobermans), and a weird looking "werewolf" puppet, but no "giant mutant German Shepard" is to be found! But in any case, this movie is... well... entertaining! Here's a little more background for you. Monster Dog is a Spanish/Puerto Rican/American co-production, and the whole movie is dubbed over in English. I'm not sure, but I don't think Alice Cooper is well versed in the Spanish language (I could be completely wrong on that though!) so why he's dubbed over is beyond me.
On top of that, there's two cheesy music videos in this film for two previously unreleased Alice Cooper songs, including, "Identity Crises" and "See Me in the Mirror." Then you have the director... oh no... it's... CLAUDIO FRAGASSO! The he-bitch that's half responsible for Troll II! Luckily he had more of a budget on this one, so the final product is fun to watch. The movie begins with our first music video, immediately after the long and boring opening credits. The damn song will get stuck in your head guaranteed, and the video itself is hilarious. Imagine Alice Cooper, dressed in a tux (James Bond), then dressed as a cowboy (Billy the Kid), then dressed as Sherlock Holmes, and finally Jack the Ripper (ok, the last one I can believe). After the music video, that Vincent was apparently watching in his van, we get to meet him and our cast of fodder... I mean characters.
They're all going up to Vincent's childhood home to shoot a new rock video! Meanwhile, as Vincent reminisces his strange childhood with his girl Sandra, we get a look at the old Vince Roberts mansion. The caretaker of said mansion, Jos, is preparing a huge welcome home party, when he suddenly hears a noise outside. He walks out the front door only to be surrounded by a pack of growling canines! What happens to poor Jos? Well, we never really find out. But forget all about him for now because he'll pop up later on. Back on the road, Vincent is stopped at a police barricade. According to Sheriff Morrison and Deputy Dan (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!), there's a pack of killer dogs loose in the area. Since Vincent knows the Sheriff, the two of them talk briefly about old times and we find out that this whole dog situation has happened before! Coincidence?! I think not!
Vincent moves on so that the Sheriff and Deputy can meet their demise at the jaws of a slimy dog puppet! Further down the road, Vince ends up hitting a German Shepard and quickly puts it out of it's misery with the aid of a large rock. Suddenly, an old man appears, telling everyone that they're "doomed" and that they're all going to die. Afterwards, the old man runs off into some bushes and some growling is heard. Thinking that the killer dogs just took down the old man, Vincent and Sandra go look for him. Instead they find that pesky slimy dog puppet and run like hell back to the van. Vince and the gang eventually arrive at his house and of course, Jos is nowhere to be found. So what does everyone do? They eat sandwiches while Vince grabs a shotgun and searches the house. That night, as everyone's sleeping soundly, Angela has a nightmare, in which the old man has killed everyone in the house, and Vincent turns into a werewolf! She tells the whole dream to everyone, and when Vince hears the werewolf part... he does not look amused.
Later we find Vincent sitting in a rocking chair, reading a book about werewolves. Sandra thinks he's crazy, but Vince decides it's high time he told her about his past. You see, years ago, a pack of ferocious dogs went around and killed peole in the area. Some villagers got restless and put all the blame on Vincent's father who apparently had lycanthropy (a.k.a. werewolfism, which, according to Vincent and his deluxe werewolf guide, is a heart disease). The villagers hunted down Vince's dad, stabbed the poor bastard to death with their pitchforks, doused him with gasoline, and lit him on fire! So this definitely didn't take place in America, because we have something called police and due process. Angry mobs with pitchforks were a dime a dozen two centuries ago, but those days are over!
Anyway, Vincent tells Sandra to go to bed and he'll be in later. Instead she walks downstairs and checks out the family portrait. As she takes a closer look, she let's out a gasp! In the bushes off to the left of everyone, is a creepy werewolf creature (and just typing about it sends chills up and down my spine!). Daylight soon arrives and it's time to make the music video! After some goofing around, everyone sets up in the den (with the aforementioned creepy werewolf family portrait). The whole shoot is going well, until Jos' body comes crashing through an upstairs (indoor) window. Said corpse lands right on top of Angela, who goes into shock and wanders off outside. We never do find out what happened to him so let's blame it on the Monster Dog.
Meanwhile, Vince runs out after Angela armed with a shotgun. After he leaves, a hearse-like vehicle pulls up. Four armed men step out and sweet talk Sandra and the others. How could you not believe the sincerity of a man who loves beer?! It turns out that the gunmen are there to kill Vincent (turns out they're the exact same people who killed Vince's father years before) because they believe he is controlling the killer dogs (a power that werewolves have and never really put to use I suppose). Back outside, Vincent finally finds Angela and ushers her back to the house. They get to the front door but it's locked. Vince tells Angela to stay put and runs around to the back door. The gunmen, thinking Vincent is at the front, open the door and end up shooting Angela (very impressive gunshot wound F/X by the way)! Realizing their error, the gunmen have a brief moment of sympathy.
Then three of them go after Vincent upstairs on the roof! Basically, Vincent easily blows them all away (one guy is shot in the head and damn it looked good!) while everyone else is still being held hostage downstairs. Suddenly, the pack of killer dogs charges in and attacks everyone in the room. Frank is ripped apart mercilessly while the last gunmen catches himself on fire. This scene made me laugh out loud. Here's the play by play. A German Shepard lunges at the lone gunman, so he grabs an oil lamp and smashes it in the dog's face! Somehow though, the gunman catches on fire and the dog doesn't! HAHAHAHAHA! Suddenly, something begins rapping on the chamber door. It's not Vincent Raven, nevermore, but the Big Bad Wolf (you can tell that hours of thought went into that, can't you?).
The Monster Dog bursts into the room but only stays just outside the doorway, shrouded in fog (mostly because the filmmakers don't want us to get a good look at their monster). Jordan decides to act bravely albeit stupidly and decides to take the slimy beast on. He wraps a sweater around his one arm, grabs an empty gun and charges. He immediately shoves his arm in the werewolf's mouth and is soon dragged away to his death. How dare a character with my good name do something so stupid! While Jordan is snacked on, Sandra and Marilou run upstairs (another hilarious scene's coming up!) with some dogs in hot pursuit. The two girls lock themselves in a room, but some of Marilou's hair gets stuck in the door and a dog starts yanking on it! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
She gets loose and flops down on the floor with Sandra. Their moment of quiet and safety is soon ruined when the Monster Dog smashes through the nearby wall and... disappears. Yep, the head pops in and back out quickly for no apparent reason! Sandra gets up and opens the door to check the hall and Vincent suddenly appears (ok, time out movie. Why are you trying to get the audience to suspect Vincent?). The three survivors make their way to the gunmen's hearse-like car and hop in. But wouldn't you know it, there's no keys in the ignition! So Marilou is left behind as Vince and Sandra go up to the roof to retrieve the keys from one of the recently deceased gunmen. One of them is still alive and tries to kill Vincent, but Sandra shoots him. Afterwards, they hightail it back downstairs, hop into the car and drive off. Ah... safe at last. Or so they thought! Marilou's corpse flops forward just before Vince is attacked by the werewolf. Sandra leaps out of the car and watches as the it swerves down the road out of sight. Moments later, a gun-shot is heard.
Sandra goes down the road and discovers the car, flipped over and empty. The old man suddenly grabs her and mutters a few lines about Vincent being the new king of darkness and tells his tale. Apparently Vincent's father had bitten this old man in the neck, turning him into a lycanthrope! After the old man croaks, Sandra finds Vincent in a clearing. As Vincent lycanthropizes, he tells Sandra to shoot him before it's too late. The effects used for Vince's transformation are laughable at best, so prepare to giggle a lot. Eventually Vincent become the new Monster Dog and is shot by Sandra. But why is it that Vince is fully clothed after he dies and returns to human form? So Sandra's the only person left alive and she walks away, laughing nervously and crying at the same time.... then we get a reprise of "Identity Crisis!" Looking back, this movie is one of the worst in the werewolf genre, but god it's fun to watch! Where else can you see a dubbed over Alice Cooper fighting the forces of evil? I must give the filmmaker's some credit because credit is due. The movie is very atmospheric, and has lots of good lighting and fog that create a dark and creepy mood. And that painting in Vincent's house... just creepy as all hell! Damn it! I'm scaring myself again!