Good concept, poorly executed.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Curtis Harrington directed this made-for-television horror movie about a group of Satan worshipers who get a dog, which eventually gives birth to a litter of puppies. One such puppy is taken in by a family and soon the husband (Richard Crenna) realizes that something isn't quite right with the dog. Before long his wife, daughter and son are possessed and strange things are happening around the neighborhood including murder.DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL is a fairly entertaining movie, which could have been even better had it not ran for 95-minutes. The film really starts to drag towards the end and I couldn't help but think it would have been much better had it had a 75-minute running time. WIth that said, there's enough going on here to make it worth sitting through and especially if you enjoy these 70's television movies.I honestly thought the best part of the movie were the performances with Crenna delivers a very strong one as the father who starts to see everything around him fall apart.. Yvette Mimieux is also very good in the role of the wife and I especially liked how she played the possessed character. Both Kim Richards and Ike Eisenman are good in their roles as the children. As I said, everyone does a very good job playing "normal" as well as the possessed parts and this adds to the film's charm.The demonic dog is rather laughable but at the same time it looks just right for this type of 70's horror film. There's a nice music score and there's no doubt that Harrington delivers a well-made movie. One just wishes that the running time had been shorter or that the screenplay had gotten to the point of the dog a lot quicker. Still, DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL is an entertaining movie.

Okay I wasn't expecting much but for a premise about a clean cut all American middle class family adopting a dog that is literally the son of Satan you can be forgiven for thinking this was going to be a story that is so tally mental it might have something going for it . Alongside the star billing of Richard Crenna there might have been some saving graces but this is a flat and disappointing TVM The problem with DEVIL DOG is that it lacks any kind of bite . Graphic violence wouldn't be allowed to be broadcast but even so very little of anything much happens . The devil dog manages to hypnotise another dog in to doing that old party trick of pulling a table cloth off a table leaving the plates intact , hypnotizing a Mexican housemaid who like all Mexican housemaids is called Maria and hypnotizing the master of the house and that's nearly all the demonic spirit it unleashes on to the World . Honestly if they were getting menaced by Cliff Richard they'd probably be in more danger . In short even for a TVM this so called horror is fairly toothless

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell starts as happily married couple Mike (Richard Crenna) & Betty Barry (Yvette Mimieux) arrive home & find Skipper their Dog lying dead on the road outside their house, it's their ten year old daughter Bonnie's (Kim Richards) birthday & she is devastated by the news but as luck would have it an old man with a cute litter of puppies just happens to be driving by. Instantly taken by the cute puppies Bonnie & her brother Charlie (Ike Eisenmann) decide to have one & replace Skipper, mum & dad agree & the new puppy is named Lucky. However their is something wrong with Lucky, something evil & the housekeeper knew it but she dies in a mysterious accident, then the Barry's neighbour turns up dead as does one of Charlie's teachers. Mike sees his family change from a loving wife & caring children to cold Satan worshippers. Action is needed & Mike is convinced that Lucky is the spawn of Satan & that he must somehow defeat it...This American & Canadian co-production was directed by veteran Curtis Harrington & was made for television & it originally aired on Halloween the 31st October 1978 & subsequently was picked up for release on video around the world. Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell is as silly as it sounds, a Dog possessed by an evil demon who doesn't actually do that much expect wreck a family. The script takes itself far too seriously & ends up being very dry & quite dull, something as obviously as absurd as Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell should have been written with a sense of humour & an awareness of it's own stupidity which might have made it a bit more fun to watch but as it is Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell is a pretty boring & underwhelming viewing experience. From the very wooden character's to the restrained exploitation elements to the general lack of purposeful story Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell is a bit of a chore to sit through. No explanation is given as to why the Barry family are chosen by the Satan cultists anyway, there's no great reasoning behind the Devil Dog or what it is trying to do, sure it changes the personality of three people & kills three other's but for what purpose exactly? The script's central message is about how evil can corrupt & destroy family values, as seen in the breakdown of the Barry family & that there is nothing more important than the family but even this moral preaching comes across as laboured & ineffective. To try & make the Dog threatening there are a few unintentionally funny scenes like when it tries to hypnotise Mike into putting his own hand into lawnmower blades or when Mike catches his family holding a Satan worshipping ceremony at 3 in the morning but seems quite relaxed about it all the same! At over an hour & a half it drags too with a not worth the wait climax that amounts to nothing more than Mike putting his hand up to the Devil Dog to banish it back to hell.There were quite a few made for television horror films during the 70's like Gargoyles (1972), The Night Stalker (1972), Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), Killdozer (1974), Killer Bees (1974), Trilogy of Terror (1975) & the Stephen King adaptation Salem's Lot (1979) but surely Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell has to be the weakest one out there. As expected there's no violence or gore & when the Devil Gog does show up in it's true form it's a rather silly & sad looking monster. The effects work is pretty poor too with some terrible blue screen work. The US DVD release of Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell comes with an audio interview with it's director Harrinton who makes no attempt to hide his hatred & contempt for this saying he was just a director for hire & he considers it his worst film. There you go, who am I to argue?Probably shot on a low budget on a tight schedule Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell is typical bland made for television fare, competent I suppose but forgettable. This was the third time Kim Rchards & Ike Eisenmann had played brother & sister in a film. The acting is fine I suppose but the seriousness of the production makes the whole thing very dry & dull to watch.Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell is a bad film, a bad film featuring a demon possessed Dog that doesn't really do a lot & isn't scary or threatening at all. Not worth wasting your time on to be honest.

I went into this expecting something along the lines of a dog version of The Omen; but got only silly schlock in what can only be described as a really dull seventies horror TV movie; this fact made even worse considering how many great horror films were stemmed from TV in the seventies. The plot is extremely simple and focuses on a family who take in a German Shepherd after accidentally running it over. However, the dog turns out to be a minion of Satan and starts causing trouble for the family. The film is directed by Curtis Harrington who directed a string of trashy horror movies; including Queen of Blood and The Killing Kind, takes up the directorial reins here and isn't able to make anything out of the incredibly weak material. The plot is a mixture of complete stupidity and total boredom, and for the first half of the film barely anything happens. The special effects are also horrible; and don't get any slack for the fact that the film is a TV movie as I've seen TV movies with better effects than this before! The dog itself has its own little subplot but even that doesn't add any credibility to the film. I don't doubt something decent could have been made out of this material; but there was nothing decent on this occasion and Devil Dog is a terrible movie.