Nature vs. Nurture. It’s an age-old argument, right? There are those who say killers are born that way and there are other people who think that killers are created. There’s evidence to support both arguments, but, as seems to be the thesis in writer/director Randy Van Dyke’s Like Dogs, sometimes it just doesn’t matter. Bad shit is going to happen . . . like witnessing an experiment which sees kidnapped victims being treated and fed LIKE DOGS.
Just how long can a person tolerate such cruelty? And to what overall effect upon their personality? Throw that whole Nature vs. Nurture argument right out of the window as a behavioral experiment goes tits up thanks to the targeting that two university students have experienced when they wake to find themselves in a cell with a dog collar locked around their collective necks. Someone is doing this for a reason!
Lisa (Annabel Barrett, Miranda Veil) and Adam (Ignacio Matynia, Break Every Chain) find themselves kidnapped and chained to cells while being treated like animals for being disobedient by people in full-fledged Hazmat suits. As the film opens by throwing us right into the situation, we are just as disoriented as they are upon waking up. Just what the hell is going on here is anyone’s guess as these two kidnappees find themselves, like us, without answers and clueless as to why they are being yelled at, fed dog food, and treated like abused dogs.
Complete with hallucinations and grimy altercations, the experiments they are faced with will stretch them in ways they can’t imagine. Watching the torment go on and on can be grueling, but just wait for the moment when the tables turn and when it does . . . DAMN! Er, ouch, I mean.
While vague in the beginning, audiences soon are given the pieces that ultimately form the central image in this tale of twisting fates and dog leashes. Van Dyke (Non-Stop to Comic-Con, Pink Lemonade) keeps the atmosphere deadly and bleak and, thanks to solid production design, we are never too far from the icky feeling as Lisa and Adam form a plan to escape and survive the on-going abuse.
Co-starring Ryan Tran (Return to Me), Shay Denison (Adam’s Package), and Katy Dore (Masters of Sex), it turns out that “science” can reach unimaginable limits when emotions come into play. While the film struggles a bit to connect all of its emotions in order to get the audience on board with its particular brand of madness, the twisting tale will please fans who crave a bit more blood in their diet thanks to a bloody scene of head-rotating madness.
From Terror Films, Like Dogs is available on Digital October 1. Watch as revenge itself goes to the dogs!
MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 90 mins
Director: Randy Van Dyke
Writer: Randy Van Dyke
Cast: Annabel Barrett; Ignacyo Matynia; Ryan Tran
Genre: Horror | Thriller
Tagline: Sit. Stay. Survive.
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor: Terror Films
Official Site:
Release Date: October 1, 2021
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: A behavioral experiment treating humans like animals goes awry when a University Student manipulates the research with deadly results.
