Doghouse

Plot synopsis:
Vince (Stephen Graham) is depressed over his recent divorce. Six of his friends—Neil (Danny Dyer), Mikey (Noel Clarke), Graham (Emil Marwa), Matt (Lee Ingleby), Patrick (Keith-Lee Castle) and Banksy (Neil Maskell), all of whom have their own women problems—decide to take him on a "boys' weekend". They hire a minibus driven by Candy (Christina Cole) to Moodley, a village where the women allegedly outnumber the men 4 to 1. Banksy misses the bus and travels to the town on his own.
Arriving at the town, the boys find it quiet and surprisingly devoid of women. On the way back to the minibus, the men notice a hooded teenage girl (Alison Carroll) being attacked by a man in military uniform. They rush to her aid and in the confusion of the moment, the hooded teen takes the soldier's knife and stabs Neil. They run for the bus dragging the unconscious soldier with them but discover that Candy, their once-hot bus driver has already become infected. More infected women appear and begin to attack them as they retreat to a house owned by Mikey's grandmother. The soldier (Terry Stone) admits that the town has been infected by a biological agent that turns women into cannibals.
The men make another attempt to get on the bus, using the wounded Neil to lure Candy away. However two other infected women had joined her and chase the men back into the streets. They scatter about the village, hiding in a toy store, a clothes shop, and the butcher shop. Patrick gets trapped on a billboard. Neil runs into a house but is taken hostage by a morbidly obese woman who cuts off his little finger and eats it. Neil eventually escapes and is joined by the others, after their own misadventures, in the local church. There they discover a military command center. Matt powers up the computers and they talk briefly to a local politician, Meg Nut (Mary Tamm). She had been involved in the distribution of the toxin disguised as biological washing powder. The soldier finds a control box and explains it is a sonar device designed to emit a high pitched sound that will stun the zombified women once they have evolved further into "Phase 2" monsters that are faster, more intelligent and weirder. The women so change but when the soldier uses the sonar device it is revealed to have stopped working. He is then killed by Mikey's grandmother, before Matt bludgeons the monster-nan to death with a golf club. Traumatized by what he has done, Matt walks off to 'cool it off' and is killed by a "Phase 2" monster which had appeared from the basement of the Church. After finding a nest with women feasting on the bodies of men in the basement, the men barricade themselves on the roof of the church as more blood crazed women break in.
Banksy eventually arrives at Moodley. Although at first he believes his friends to be high on drugs, he soon recognizes the seriousness of the situation and fetches a ladder to get them off the roof. Graham is then attacked by the morbidly obese woman. Banksy leads the surviving group to his vehicle—a small Smart car, however it is not big enough for all of them. As they all argue Patrick is attacked and dies a bloody death. Everyone else heads to the minibus, where Banksy is killed as Vince fights off Candy. Vince blasts Neil and Mikey, who treat their women badly but get away with it, while nice men like him and their dead friends treat women with respect, only to be rejected or killed. He resolves to be more like them. Before they can drive away, the voice of the still-alive Graham crackles over the walkie-talkie. As he makes his way out from the church Graham powers up the stun-device using a high-voltage power supply. With it now working, the men are able to stop the women in their tracks; however, Vince inadvertently drops and breaks it. The infected are once again unleashed and, with the injured Graham in a shopping trolley, the four make a run for it, laughing.

Tags: absurd, cult, comedy, violence, flashback

Review:
Vince (Stephen Graham) is going through the final stages of his divorce and to help him through this period his friends Mikey (Noel Clarke) and Neil (Danny Dyer) decide to take him and a few of the other boys to a remote village outside the humdrum of their London lives to get, in Dyer's own words; 's**tfaced'.
However, when they turn up to the incredibly eerie village of Moodley to find flesh-eating, man-hating, cannibalistic women who want to do nothing more than rip out their internal organs and eat them for breakfast, the boys realise they have bitten more than they can chew and must fight their way through a barrage of blood-thirsty women in the most misogynistic way imaginable.The premise of the film completely reflects the manner in which Jake West approaches this project, with a gleeful nod towards plenty of harmless sexist humour and cheap gory death sequences that are all nice, light-hearted and fun.
Neil, Vince and Mikey are all your typical working-class likely lads out to simply flirt with the opposite sex and drink as much as their body-weight, with Danny Dyer in particular needing to place little effort in recreating his Cockney 'laddish' persona (yet again) on the big-screen.
While Dave Schaffer's script contains many easy-going humorous gags to keep your attention ticking over while the next axe, gnome or sword heads to try and end the boy's misogynistic ways and eliminate the male chromosome all in one.'Doghouse' is nowhere near the heights of Pegg/Frost's rom-zom-com-supremo 'Shaun of the Dead', but it isn't the worst film you will see this year.
Trouble is is that the village of Moodley has seen the female population turned into an army of man-eating "zombirds" out for male flesh.No doubt about it, Doghouse will not so much divide in two the horror/comedy faithful, it will dissect them into little pieces and continue to do so for quite some time.
Some scenes are horror delights, they may come with a quip or a tongue in cheek reference, but there is some fine blood letting stuff here.In the cast you have Stephen Graham, Noel Clarke and Danny Dyer.
I was at the first screening of Doghouse in the West End last night, attended by the director Jake West and stars Danny Dyer and Noel Clarke.Anyone going along to this and expecting anything other than what they know they are going to get are going to be disappointed.
After travelling to a remote village for a weekend of drunken debauchery and male bonding, a group of friends come under attack from the women of the village, who have turned into bloodthirsty cannibals as the result of a top-secret biological warfare experiment carried out by the army.Those looking for a stylish slice of quirky Brit comedy/horror in the vein of Shaun of the Dead, be warned: Jake West's Doghouse is aimed squarely at the lad-mag reading, post-footy, post-pub, post-curry crowd, and as such, the level of sophistication is not exactly high.
Don't expect clever word-play, irony, post-modernism, surrealism, or satire; do expect tit jokes, loads of swearing, mindless violence, and puerile gags about shagging zombies, all of which could have been tons of fun, if only the film's characters hadn't been such an unlikable bunch of 'blokes' (fully deserving of everything they get), and director Jake West hadn't forgotten to develop his plot beyond a repetitive string of silly chase scenes and gory battles.Although Doghouse is far from the worst British film in recent years to attempt combining laughs with scares (that honour goes to the abysmal Lesbian Vampire Killers, closely followed by The Cottage), I really was expecting a lot more from the director of zany splatterfest Evil Aliens, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The basic premise—a blood-drenched battle of the sexes—is an interesting variation on the standard zombie plot, the design and execution of the female creatures is impressive (each has its own distinctive look and personality), and the gore is well executed; but with the comedy being so moronic, the narrative rapidly going nowhere, and not one sympathetic person to root for, Doghouse is definitely something of a disappointment..
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Over rated as I thought it was, Shaun of the Dead has spawned a barrage of imitation brit horror comedy type films, the latest of which is this from a director for whom this appears to be his most high profile work to date.
Due to it's limited release, it might not get his name remembered as much as he'd hoped and hopefully he'll make something more memorable (and better.) Which is odd considering the host of big new names in British talent involved, including Danny Dyer, Stephen Graham, Noel Clarke, Terry Stone and Neil Maskell, as well as an all too brief appearance from Billy Murray as a mutated army colonel.This is quite funny in parts, but mostly just succeeds in being really loud and silly, with unlikeable laddish characters and iffy make up/prosphetics on the female 'zombies.' I got the feeling it had been aimed at a target audience different from mine.
its an OK film to sit with a few mates and a few beers and laugh at the stupidity of the characters and the situations they get them self in.the name comes from the fact that all the characters are in the doghouse for going away for the weekend when there wives or girlfriends don't want them to go.something goes wrong (what!
Great Britain pretty much reigns in this area at this moment, by the way, with other famous and acclaimed titles like "The Cottage", "Shaun of the Dead", "Doomsday", "Severance", "Lesbian Vampire Killers"  Seven thirty-something friends have planned a weekend of heavy drinking and macho talking, so that they can help buddy Vince get over his divorce.
DOGHOUSE is a British stab at the comedy horror genre, featuring a group of guys who go off on holiday to a remote woodland locale and find themselves at the mercy of some zombie-type creatures.
It's a film that's more than happy to reveal its inspirations, which here seem to be the likes of horror classics such as THE EVIL DEAD as well as more recent fare like SEVERANCE, which also starred Danny Dyer.As such, the story is entirely predictable and almost everything that happens has been done before, and probably better.
It's surprisingly entertaining given the pedigree of director Jake West, who has made some real tosh over the years (I'm thinking of EVIL ALIENS in particular).The cast is littered with familiar faces and more than a few decent actors (Stephen Graham, Noel Clarke) and Dyer plays one of those laid-back, likable lead characters that he always seems to adopt.
Especially if the guy tells a bad version and doesn't really try to make it funny.That's the problem with Doghouse – I've seen it too many times and rarely as lazy or as unfunny as this one.The first 5 minutes of the film is spent trying to introduce us to "the lads", and show us that they are each individual guys with differing personalities and issues of their own.I made the mistake at the time of writing them all down, so in honour of my stupidity I am determined to pass the names along.Vince, Neil, Graham, Mikey, Patrick, Matt, Banksy, Ruth the bus driver.The reason why none of that matters is that there are only that many characters so some of them can get killed and others can grow up and have life changing experiences.Mostly though you hope they get killed.I might have been a touch more friendly to this if it hadn't been shamelessly trying to mine the same vein pioneered by Shaun of the Dead, and then copied far less successfully by Lesbian Vampire Killers.
Moodley is a sleepy backwater town in the UK with seemingly no inhabitants, initially Not to be too precious, but a bunch of female zombies show up, all walking like they are doing the robot and wearing easily identifiable outfits:The Nurse - The Nun - The Bride - The bondage outfit girl - The fat chick (Ha-Ha)Well Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of Who Cares?The lads are suitably distressed and alarmed, and when they run into a fellow gent who is on the run from attack he tells them to stay in town, as the woods are even more infested.There isn't really much more than that, the guys run around, make "woooahhh" faces, there is some eye candy gore for the teens to say "gross", and some attempted humour that I would describe as juvenile, except sometimes juvenile is funny, but not here.And just when you thought that things couldn't get any worse, they try to shoehorn a reason for the infestation.
If you like a bit of daft zombie/man V woman/dog soldiers Shaun of the Dead type film you're in for a treat..
His friends who are in the Doghouse as each of them have a argument with their, Girlfiend, Wifes or last night's date.There all end up in a bar and they decide to have Guys weekend to a take trip to country side to cheer up Vince who getting a divorce On way to the country side the bus stop as there are two dead sheep's in the road, the bus driver Candy (The only Girl there) moves the Dead Animal out of the away (As none of the guys wanted to do it)Then someone's phones rings with The match of the day ring tone, everyone looks at there phones, after two calls Neil tells them give him their phones and put then in a bag that they leave on the Bus.When they get to Moodley they find out all the women have been infected with a virus that turn them into man-hating cannibals.
When they reached there, they found that the village is haunted by female zombies and boy, they are in for a ride.I'd call this more of a comedy than a horror film.
The comedy and gore blended so well that sometimes, I felt that it was not scary at all.All in all, I think this is something that is truly underrated, most probably because it is a British film and not everyone out there would enjoy watching actors speaking it a 'queer' accent other than those of Americans.8/10.
The closest the film comes to establishing links between the characters and the monsters is to have one of the heroes realize that one of the monsters is his ex-girlfriend, while the other is his "nan", though neither of these threads are pursued for more than a few seconds.The makeup and gore effects are well done, but you just keep wondering how much better they'd be if they were in the service of a smarter script, wherein these men were battling their own relationship "demons" made literal instead of a horde of hissing creatures with little personality and virtually connection to the heroes.And some things just don't add up, the key one being the little town itself, a quaint little "village-y" crossroads in the middle of nowhere.
Deciding to take a trip to a small town, a group of friends attempting to help a friend get over a divorce finds the area overrun by women mutated by a virus into ravenous cannibals that only target the men they find in the area and must band together to escape from the town in one piece.This turned out to be another rather enjoyable modern British horror/comedy effort.
I'll state right from the word go what is glaringly obvious in that "Doghouse", the latest film from British horror movie director Jake West won't win any awards for being original or innovative.
After all a movie where six male friends organise a lads night out in a remote English village to help a fellow pal and now divorcée get over their marriage ending, only to find them selves savagely set upon by the female population which have some genetically mutated in to man eating cannibals.
You know what, I'm a little tired of hearing so much crap about Jake west and his movies, give the guy a break, he makes (and its only my opinion) pretty great independent British horror movies, sure Razor Blade Smile was a movie with ideas way above its budget, Evil Aliens was the same, but lets be honest they were (yet again my opinion) gory, funny, silly and brilliant fun (if the combine harvester scene alone doesn't raise a smile from Evil Aliens, then its safe to say you are really not gonna like his movies) Doghouse falls into the same category.
Now these movies are by no means high art, but they do offer a great lads (hate that word, brings to mind, nuts reading, wkd drinking morons) night in movie, Jake West knows his market and he aims well, and the guy can direct, his movies always look bigger and better than his budget allows.
Doghouse (2009): The Good, the Bad and the NastySynopsis: A British film about a group of men having a "get-a-way" for a member of their pack that is getting a divorce.
And they don't let you down.The cast are okay in their roles, and look like they had fun making the film, but the narrative just doesn't gel, and it turns into a strange mish mash of comedy, horror, and drama.It doesn't work, and it goes from bad to worse.If you love the Brit flicks 'Sex lives of the potato men' and guest house paradiso' you'll love this.It's a shame, because with the acting talent, and the premise, it could have been a good camp film.It's boring instead..
Like all good horror stories, you have to wait for the gore in this movie but when it arrives, it vomits onto the screen!
If it wasn't for that I would of turned it off within the first 5 minutes.The idea behind the film was okay, the ridiculous scene with Danny Dyer and the fat zombie female, seriously who would even find that funny???Now Noel Clarke in a skirt that was funny.Just not believable at all, the rating maybe a little harsh as I didn't turn the film off but would not recommend to anyone..
Finding the movie at a local DVD shop for £1,I got set to go to Danny Dyer's doghouse.The plot:Wanting to escape their women troubles,mates Vince,Neil,Mikey,Graham,Patrick and Banksy decide to run off on a "lads weekend" to a village packed with pubs,and where women outnumber the men 4:1.
As they start to fear that their night out plans are over,a women appears,who turns out to be a murdering,man eating zombie.View on the film:Going for a night out with the lads to zombie town,the screenplay by Dan Schaffer makes the dialogue a perfect fit for the blokes,with their blue coloured humour capturing the banter of the guys,even as they are trying to outrun killer zombies.
Travelling to the village in a jolly mood,Schaffer turns the jokes down to give the title an unexpected dark Horror side,spilling from some of the main characters meeting their dogs dinner,as Schaffer gradually builds the bond between the friends,with the zom-women getting their hands on the immaturity of the boys.Taking on any man or zombie that challenges him ,Stephen Graham gives the movie a working class grit as Vince,as Graham smoothly hits Comedy pot-shots with Noel Clarke's wonderfully nervous Mikey,whilst making sure Vince hits the zombies with a ruthless punch for survival.
There seemed to be a big set up for the character with posters all around the village asking residents to vote for, as well as the militia orders and comms that are linked to her.The film is good but the ending isn't quite fulfilled, it feels like there is something missing, perhaps a finale or some kind of summarising outro but no, there is nothing, I even sat through the credits hoping for something but nothing appeared leaving me a little miffed.
I thought this was going to be rubbish – I was very wrong.This is a low-budget Brit lads horror/comedy movie and is succeeds on every level.Mark Kermode might say that this film is an indictment of Lads Culture and Misogyny on a wider scale – but we all know he's a pretentious bore who simply regurgitates the lowest form of current popular belief (I say might because actually I have no idea and am in fact making this up – but that probably is what he'd say).Essentially its Lesbian VampireKillers but with Zombies – some scenes were ripped out of Sean of the Dead, but hey so what, this film isn't pretending to be anything other than fun.Some seriously funny lines well delivered.It's as if Hammer house horror was produced by the carry-on team and updated for the 21st Century (they say c**t quite a lot!!) Terry 'Turbo' Stone crops up in this flick, probably due to its low budget, personally I'd prefer not to see him in anything else ever again but hey ho, what you gonna do when you need a thick-set guy for not much cash???
This film is fun - watch it, you'll like it (unless you're a zombie!!).
Its a classic get the boys round pizza and larger night in.All the actors play there part really well and you get the impression you are watching a bunch of blokes who have known each other for years.Dyer is his usual self which is exactly what the part needed plus even in a film about zombie hairdressers stephen graham show's what a great actor he is.
Friday night in with my girl, zombie movies and popcorn a real gore fest.I thought this film had great casting, now I am not a Danny Dyer fan or Noel Clarke but they did a great job in this film and the chemistry between them and Stephen Graham (first class Brit Actor) was spot on.
Danny Dyer is a little bit too blokeish for my taste, but he's one of those characters you find yourself liking anyway.It's true that Doghouse is highly derivative of other zombie movies, but I believe that (and the influence of horror comics) was the idea.