The Pack

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The Pack: 6 out of 10: Nature gone wild films are a particular pleasure of mine because they are, by their very nature, silly. The Pack, unfortunately, is yet another attempt to make a serious one. Of all the horror genres nature gone wild is one of the hardest to pull off in a serious role. Recently Liam Neeson’s The Grey pulled this off fairly well but it had the advantage of well Liam Neeson. The Pack has the always stunning Anna Lise Phillips, who admittedly is a discount Radha Mitchell, but alas she is not Liam. The Packs much bigger problem, besides tone and a lack of Liam, is a lack of cannon fodder. A good nature gone wild film needs people for nature to go wild against. The pack has an entire cast of six people. The main plot of The Pack is about a farmer who is isolated, in debt up to his eyeballs, has had all his sheep killed by wild dogs and whose entire family unit is straining to the breaking point. An evil banker comes by and offers him lots of money and debt forgiveness to “give up his land” and go live in a condo overlooking an Australian beach while his wife works at a nice vet clinic in a strip mall down the street. In grand movie tradition he, of course, kicks the evil banker off his land (the same guy he presumably borrowed money from before the movie started) and declares no one will take his land. (Which no one would if he would stop borrowing against it… just saying) This is a well-worn head scratching trope and The Packs version is particularly silly. Anyway, the family is attacked by wild dogs. Wife, who is a vet mind you, forgets dogs have a sense of smell and goes for the stay still and be quiet approach. Dogs slowly walk around the house looking menacingly. And that is about all because once again this is a nature gone wild film with six people. Well filmed with a good cast but it takes itself too seriously and simply lets itself down when it comes to genre standards. There just isn’t that much there, there.