April 8: Zoo Lover’s Day — You know what that means. Animal attack films!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Upton is an American (non-werewolf) writer/editor in London. She currently works as a freelance ghostwriter of personal memoirs and writes for several blogs on topics as diverse as film history, punk rock, women’s issues, and international politics. For links to her work, please visit https://www.jennuptonwriter.com or send her a Tweet @Jennxldn

A late ‘70s film about abandoned canines on a remote camping area called Seal Island who revert to a feral pack existence and terrorize the asshole humans on vacation who left them to starve after summer vacation. A few innocent people on a camping/fishing trip fall afoul and get eaten, but those are the breaks when your species is so cruel. Lesson? Be kind and carry treats. 

Director Robert Clouse (Enter the Dragon) does quite a good job creating tension, although I did find the subplot about the dad trying to get his nerd son laid a bit weird. Who goes to an isolated island for that?

Strange subplots aside, a few scenes in The Pack feel a bit like the siege scenes in the original Night of the Living Dead. A lot of people have genuine fear of dogs and Clouse exploits this to the max. It’s a statistical fact that a criminal on the run is less afraid of a cop with a gun than a police dog. Dogs can be our best friends, but the instinct to fear an unrelenting predator lies deep with human DNA. The scenes with the blind man and his faithful hero guide German Shepherd are suspenseful and had me rooting for them. 

Joe Don Baker plays a down-to-earth wildlife expert named Jerry thrown into a situation where he must protect both himself and his son, the locals (including a blind man) and his new girlfriend and her son. I thought the film was going to go into Jaws territory but was pleasantly surprised at the originality on display here. There’s even one scene where one of the pack attacks a car that I’m almost positive inspired U of M’s Steve King to sit down and write Cujo. 

All the dog stunts in this film are great. Especially noteworthy are the scenes where there are multiple dogs of different breeds and temperaments all following the in same instructions simultaneously. I’ve been to a dog’s birthday party, and I can tell you, getting them all to sit still and look in the same direction for a photo takes time and patience. One can only imagine the time it took the trainer (s) stage some of the scenes in this film. 

The film’s star dog gives (a collie mix) a great performance in the end scene, where he wants to learn to trust humans again, but he’s still not quite over the trauma he’s been through. The dog’s behavior in this scene is absolutely spot on and will be familiar  to anyone who has ever worked with traumatized rescue dogs.  The mixture of apprehension and desire for food is both heart-breaking and a little scary. 

The late ‘70s were the peak era of primal fear films. This under-seen film stands proudly with the best of them.