Fantastic Fest 2009 – DOGHOUSE Review

I have to say that Fantastic Fest goers were the perfect audience to enjoy this soon to be cult classic with. DOGHOUSE is a British zombie film that has a truly unique and funny take on the genre.

DOGHOUSE starts out by introducing us to Vince, a divorcee who’s friends are determined to get him back on track. His friends Neil (Danny Dyer) and Mikey (Noel Clarke) come up with the idea to go to Mikey’s home town where the ratio of women to men is 4 to 1, and apparently the women are all gorgeous. They along with several more friends rent a van with a hot driver Candy (Christina Cole) and head off to this supposed heaven for single men.

When they get there, not everything is as promised. The house they’re staying at is a mess, the place is filthy and it’s in the middle of nowhere. Sure there are loads of beautiful women, but they’re all braindead mutants hell bent on killing every man they see. Now Neil, Mikey, Vince and the rest are in for the worst holiday imaginable.

This movie is hilarious. There are some truly laugh out loud horror shock moments that had me rolling. This is a great companion piece to movies like SHAUN OF THE DEAD and ZOMBIELAND. It really knows it’s material and the genre that spawned it, and director Jake West knows how to take Dan Schaffer’s writing and turn it into some thing fun.

The only real issue I had with the film is a passing one. The conclusion to everything just feels a little tagged on. It’s not a bad ending by any means, but it feels like they just didn’t quite know how to bring everything to a close