New Release Review: LIKE DOGS (2021)

Most horror movie enthusiasts are pretty open to all types of sub-genres in the films that we watch. We have the weird, the strange, and of course the disturbing ways that all of them unfold on screen. For the most part, we are willing to give any horror movie a shot, no matter how bad it might be. It’s the thrill of a new movie and the anticipation we get from the scares or suspense it might give you that peaks our interests. We want to be so captivated by the storyline that we are completely invested for the entirety of the film.

Having said that, I watched the soon-to-be-released film “Like Dogs” and didn’t get any of that from it. This film focuses on Lisa (portrayed by Annabel Barrett) who is captured to be part of a “behavioral experiment” to treat humans like dogs (hence the name). During this whole ordeal, she is put through torture, ridiculed, and even trained to get to be as obedient as a dog. Not to mention the added accessory of a shock collar to keep her in line.

Soon after she realizes she isn’t the only one trapped in this kennel from hell as she is soon introduced to Adam (portrayed by Ignacyo Matynia). The two quickly bond over the insanity that has happened to them while being held captive. I will say that this movie tries a bit had to be like a hybrid of the first “Saw” movie and “Human Centipede” with its mix of one-room shots and experimentations. One thing that really took me out of it while watching this was how the beginning of the film barely had any setup for the story. It mainly focused on artistic shots with blurred backgrounds as the main title credits showed up.

The odd thing about the Lisa character (which will be explained more later) is that she speaks to her captors like she is very irritated at Starbucks and the barista got her order wrong but can’t stick around for them to fix it because she has a busy day planned. Anytime she is being told where to go to the bathroom or the food she has to eat she immediately responds with a “You’re joking!” or “Not going to happen!”. Not to mention that there is a weird “meet/cute” happening between Lisa and Adam as if they were set up on a horrific blind date. The sparks fly but of course, they are easily extinguished by a horrific character in a hazmat suit, who continuously gets joy out of torturing the pair with a cattle prod.

Another odd aspect of this movie is not only how smiley and flirty Lisa is towards Adam while they are prisoners, but the fact that every time she falls asleep she is fantasizing about a random guy making love to her in a kitchen while he only wears an apron. The odd fantasy she has while asleep unfortunately has a horrible twist to that was a bit of a shock. I will say that I get that she is into Adam while she is awake but a makeshift dog kennel isn’t the place to get those digits.

One of the biggest “twists” of the movie shows that while Adam is trying to help him and Lisa escape, he is knocked out by her revealing that there is more to her story than meets the eye. We are quickly shown that Lisa and the people holding them captive are working together on a university behavioral experiment, in which Lisa is running the whole thing. This controlled environment she and her colleagues created is in hopes to find out how much a human can be pushed towards obedience.

Her colleagues/student friends are George (portrayed by Ryan Tran) and Erika (portrayed by Shay Denison), who have been the ones behind the scenes running everything while Lisa has voluntarily involved herself as a test subject. We also find out that George is the one who is taking things to the next level by scaring them while wearing the hazmat suit. This follows with what has to be one of the weirdest bathroom scenes in a movie that I have ever seen. Lisa is using the bathroom while Erika is outside her opened door stall chatting with her and monitoring her as means to make sure she is “following the experiment”. They are quickly interrupted by George who teams them both and uses a nearby urinal. I can only assume that this is an attempt at comedy with a “Three’s Company” style of humor.

The wrap-up to the 3rd act of the movie personally felt forced as they quickly reveal 2-3 different things simultaneously and felt as if they were trying a bit too hard. The reveal of Lisa being a bit more psychotic and with a shady past, injuring the university professor who is in charge, as well as George’s obsession with Lisa seemed to happen too fast. Not to mention of course the sub twist of the film revealing that Adam was only chosen because Lisa had a mad crush on him from a distance and felt that this was a way for them to meet, as well as bond.

Another odd thing about the wrap-up of this film is the devious switch of George who finishes off the university professor as a way of portraying his love for Lisa and his final plan to impress her by capturing all of her ex-boyfriends who have wronged her. He then forces Lisa to choose who she wants to live while Erika (her best friend) and Adam (the man she supposedly loves) both have shock collars on set to kill. Being the “evil genius” that George proclaims to be, he has switched the button response to hit the opposite person she will choose. In an angry rage, Lisa chooses Erika since she “ruined” her chances to be with Adam by telling him the truth of the experiment after George captured them.

Because of this Adam is the one to take the punishment because of the previously mentioned switch of button responses. This causes Lisa to switch her collar to be shocked and break the controls for George to try and save her. This of course causes George to put Adam back into being shocked while he tries to save Lisa. During this time Adam is taking the shocks he pleads with Lisa to tell him why she did this to him, but she never does as he dies in front of them both. There is a green button with a pleasant “ring” that happens after he dies from the shock collar that kind of takes you out of the moment a bit. George pleads with Lisa to be ok and kisses her for him to get part of his lip bitten off as she and Erika escape.

The final minutes of the film starts with a speedy chase as George follows the girls but they get the jump on George, leading him to be tied up to take his punishment via the irony of the cattle prod. In an extra twist, we see Lisa enjoying George’s death and telling Erika to watch only to then smack her in the face with a large wrench. She then beings to go on with her evil speech of using Erika’s identity to escape and thanking Erika for her “sacrifice” to keep Lisa safe. This all ends with Lisa (now Erika) strolling out of the building with Erika’s clothes and glasses, smiling while the destruction of the building happens behind her.

Overall I feel this film had its ups and downs but there were some parts I did enjoy. The gore of the university professor’s meeting her end and of course the way that they get revenge on George were all played out well. Both deaths were also filmed very well and excited nicely. In regards to how the entire movie was filmed, I really did enjoy the cinematography of the movie and the sets in which they shot in. The kennel area in particular was a great place for some of the movie to play out.

The biggest enjoyment for me though while watching this movie was the performances of Annabel Barrett and Shay Denison. I felt that these two stole the show and outshined their co-stars quite a bit. Don’t get me wrong, the entire cast was great but these two really stood out to me. The range of emotions and quick switch to insane by Annabel Barrett and the innocent but lovable shyness of Shay Denison seemed to work very well for their performances. This is even more true when both of them were on screen together.

Now the big question is would I recommend this movie. The best way I could answer that is simply by saying yes but with some hesitation. I am a big believer in enjoying any horror movie, no matter how bad it is. In this case, it was pretty bad but there are a few gems in there. While this movie won’t sit or stay in your collection, it is worth at least one watch.

“Like Dogs” from Terror Films releases digitally this Friday Oct 1st