A rich, elderly woman casts black magic spells on her vicious Rottweiler to murder her relatives.A rich, elderly woman casts black magic spells on her vicious Rottweiler to murder her relatives.A rich, elderly woman casts black magic spells on her vicious Rottweiler to murder her relatives.
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Did you know
- TriviaShot in 1981, not released until 1983.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (2010)
Featured review
Not so nice doggie
My review was written in October 1986 after watching the movie on Academy video cassette.
"Play Dead" is an old-fashioned horror film about a killer dog. Though filmed in Texas in 1981, picture was not released until early this year.
Yvonne De Carlo toplines as Aunt Hester, a rich woman who decides to kill off her relatives. Her sister just died after years in a mental home and Hester was always jealous of her, and in love with sis' husband who also died. Bringing a rottweiler dog named Greta home from Europe, Hester gives the animal as a gift to he niece Audrey (Stephanie Dunnam) and via supernatural incantations orders the dog to kill Audrey and other family members or innocent bystanders.
Silly film unfolds leisurely as a police investigation with folksy Det. Otis (Glenn Kezer) padding out the running time with his slow-witted tracking down of clues until the dog slips a dose of lye into Otis' Alka-Seltzer. Pic's finale of Hester ironically getting her just desserts is not very exciting but is played twice, once as a flash-forward during the opening credits and later in its proper sequence.
Director Peter Wittman (who later made the comedy "Ellie") uses stop-motion slow motion footage of the dog during each attack, bu Greta remains unscary, as does the film itself. Acting is okay, with De Carlo a campy highlight. Oddly, Earl Owensby produced his much-publicized but little-seen 3-D horror opus "Rottweiler" (a/k/a "Dogs of Hell") in 1981 also, but neither production was able to extract horror from the noble breed.
"Play Dead" is an old-fashioned horror film about a killer dog. Though filmed in Texas in 1981, picture was not released until early this year.
Yvonne De Carlo toplines as Aunt Hester, a rich woman who decides to kill off her relatives. Her sister just died after years in a mental home and Hester was always jealous of her, and in love with sis' husband who also died. Bringing a rottweiler dog named Greta home from Europe, Hester gives the animal as a gift to he niece Audrey (Stephanie Dunnam) and via supernatural incantations orders the dog to kill Audrey and other family members or innocent bystanders.
Silly film unfolds leisurely as a police investigation with folksy Det. Otis (Glenn Kezer) padding out the running time with his slow-witted tracking down of clues until the dog slips a dose of lye into Otis' Alka-Seltzer. Pic's finale of Hester ironically getting her just desserts is not very exciting but is played twice, once as a flash-forward during the opening credits and later in its proper sequence.
Director Peter Wittman (who later made the comedy "Ellie") uses stop-motion slow motion footage of the dog during each attack, bu Greta remains unscary, as does the film itself. Acting is okay, with De Carlo a campy highlight. Oddly, Earl Owensby produced his much-publicized but little-seen 3-D horror opus "Rottweiler" (a/k/a "Dogs of Hell") in 1981 also, but neither production was able to extract horror from the noble breed.
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- lor_
- Mar 16, 2023
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