PodBill Just what I expected

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

TheBlueHairedLawyer After the family dog is squashed like a pancake in the road, the children are devastated. When the sister falls in love with Lucky on her birthday, a sweet puppy, the family takes him in... until sad and horrible things begin to happen that lead the husband to believe that the puppy might be a Pagan demon possessing his family and killing people.Okay, I'm not gonna lie, this film was pretty dorky... but come on, it's still pretty funny if you watch it without taking it too seriously. It has some eerie soundtrack that you've gotta give 'em credit for, half-decent acting and this doddering geek of a neighbor who gets into a fight over the family's new dog in a really funny display of anger. Watch it with an open mind, it might not be as bad as you think.

Paul Andrews 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.

weho90069 Having been a fan of the delightfully decadent Martine Beswicke (née Beswick) for many years (ever since I first caught her in "Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde*), I've always wanted to see "Devil Dog" -- and it's odd that I would have missed it when it was first aired, because I would have been a hardcore TV-movie junkie at that young age. but miss it I did (must've been out trick- or-treating that night). I'm glad I waited-out the DVD (great print!) and finally got to see this TV-movie in pristine glory. Other Martine fans out there (you know who you are) will delight in the opening seven minutes or so. First, La Beswicke (in a spectacular set of high-heeled, ankle-strapped, f*ck-me pumps) along with a couple of her diabolical disciples stroll through a dog breeder's complex shopping for the right "Rosemary" to give birth to Satan's canine offspring. They're all dressed in black suits and drive a sinister, black station wagon (how cool is THAT!?!). There's a brief, but droll exchange with the breeder who wonders aloud what these big-ticket, officious types want with "Lady", a highly prized German Shepard puppy-machine he's used to pop out blue-ribbon winning litters in the past (only the best for the Prince of Darkness, you know...). Martine sets him straight in her characteristically exotic line delivery, "we're NOT adopting a CHILD, you know!..." Could this be a public service announcement for a PETA ad campaign? But I digress...Cut to a close up of what has to be one of the neatest Satanic portraits I've ever seen. The horned Master is rendered in shades of pea-soup green with a snake coiled around him. Could this be an episode of "Night Gallery"???Pull back to find the enormous painting (which I wish I HAD!) hanging above an altar in a barn where Ms. Beswicke, in red robes, is conducting a black mass. Pull back further to reveal a pentagram in a circle drawn in the ground, where "Lady" the pooch is leashed to a stake. Martine makes some invocations and tosses some "thing" into the space between her and the dog which explodes on contact with the ground (ooh! ahh! Special Effects!). The sparkler spooks the dog, naturally, and all you can feel is compassion for the canine (oh, poor doggy!). We get some great close-ups of Martine, who looks fabulous, btw, and deserves much credit for managing to recite all the dialog with a straight face. Nobody quite does "evil" like Ms. Beswicke; she really gets into the part and seems to relish it (atta girl!).Mention must be made of Martine's purple-clad coven, who manage to recite back all the mumbo-jumbo she's been saying (which indeed must have taken some bit of rehearsal). A windstorm begins, heralding the appearance of The Black Prince (or his dog, anyhow). We get another giggle-inducing moment when the camera cuts to one of Martine's minions who has chosen to attend the function in his sunglasses. The tension mounts. As credits announce the production, Martine swoops down from her altar and escorts her denizens outside the barn, leaving "Lady" tied to a stake in the middle of the pentagram (presumably to await impregnation). Soon a huge shadow of a dog passes over them all, and into the barn. Martine shuts the doors and throws a captivating smile (as her credit appears). What goes on inside is merely hinted at, but WE KNOW, don't we...!?!?!?!Later we learn it is the big, black station wagon that kills the Barry family dog which means they'll be in the market for a replacement (hasn't anyone heard of having more than one dog at a time? Oh well...). A terrific actor (Victor Jory?) portrays the devil-worshiper/grocer-on-wheels who just "happens" to show up outside the door of the Barry family and bestow on them the prize puppy of "Lady"s litter. He leers malevolently at Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann (the Barry family children) like a gleeful child molester turned loose in an orphanage, offering them first ripe, red apples (shades of Snow White!) and then a puppy from the litter of a rather worn-out looking "Lady" which he just happens to be carting around in the back of his awning-draped caravan. There are so many "warning" messages in this film! Don't sell dogs to satanists! Don't let your children near leering mobile grocers! Don't adopt puppies from leering mobile grocers who may be satanists!, etc. But it's the innocent, gullible Carter-era of the 1970s and none of these folks have a clue about what's going to happen to them...Other reviewers have focused on what comes next, so I'll spare you my interpretation, except to point out that the wallpaper in the Barry household (look at the dining room and the kitchen, for example) is far scarier than anything that "Lucky" the adopted spawn of Satan can conjure up. Rent (or purchase) at once for a night of fun with friends. Pair this up with Susan Lucci's dreadful demonic health-spa film, "Invitation To Hell" or possibly another canine car-wreck like "Won Ton Ton: The Dog That Saved Hollywood" (if you can even find a copy!). Keep the popcorn flowing!

Cjp I remember Devil Dog playing on TBS almost 20 years ago, and my older sister and her friends watching it and laughing all the next day. It's not that bad for a made-for-TV horror movie, but it is derivative (mostly of The Exorcist) and businesslike, for lack of a better word. It won't blow you away with artful cinematography or great acting, but it's not a waste of time, either. It's the kind of movie you watch to kill a couple of hours when you aren't in the mood to think too hard.However, if you go into the movie looking for some laughs, you won't be disappointed. The early scenes, with Lucky the Devil Dog as a cute little puppy with Children of the Damned eyes are hilariously non-threatening, and the climactic blue-screen effects of a giant black dog (with horns!) are pretty side-splitting. And keep an eye out for the cloaked Satanist in Maverick shades toward the beginning.Not a great horror film by any stretch of the imagination, but I wish they still made stuff like this for TV.