Monster Dog (1984) User Reviews

Alice Cooper In One Monster Dog Of A Movie. 1-2-Miss.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 4/10 · 1 September 2022]

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Monster Dog; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.25 Direction: 0.75 Pace: 0.50 Acting: 0.75 Enjoyment: 0.75

TOTAL: 4 out of 10.00

Being a lover of Rock, how excited was I to see Alice Cooper in the lead role of Monster Dog(?) More exuberant than I had cause to be. If you're a fan of Alice's, then don't, just don't watch this movie - you won't like it.

The best thing about this production is the story. Should an aspiring moviemaker read this review, here's a project for you because the narrative should make an enjoyable horror flick. A famous rock star, Vince Raven, learns he's inherited the family mansion and decides to visit. After all, it would make the perfect backdrop for a music video. On their journey, the group get pulled over by local police and warned of a vicious band of dogs in the area. We also begin to learn the secrets of Raven's family. Is there a link between the feral dog pack and Raven? Why do the locals hate him and his family? Moreover, what mysteries await the band and film crew at the desolate mansion? With that synopsis, there are plenty of opportunities to build tension, fear, distrust, and many more emotions. Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi deliver an appealing tale containing a few agreeable elements. I particularly like the dog hunters who turn up at the mansion after hearing Raven has returned. Things get awfully messy when they get out of control. One of the drawbacks of the narrative is the poorly constructed personalities. Everyone is flimsy and insubstantial. It would've been more rewarding for the viewers to have a couple of the principal characters be meatier, especially Raven. The story would have been infinitely better.

Sadly, Fragasso isn't as skilled behind the camera as he is at writing. For one thing, I'm amazed the rock video he shoots at the start of this picture didn't kill Alice's career. To state that it's hideously horrendous would be an understatement. He tries; I'll give Fragasso that. But he failed so badly that I could feel the flesh on my arms creeping as my soul cringed. I think I shook my head in dismay more times in this movie than in any other. And whoever chose that song - well, shame on you. There are a few decent scenes throughout the film, but too few to lift it out of the doldrums. Even though he attempts to create an eerie atmosphere with lighting techniques, you feel more dissatisfied than full of dread. And most scenes overrun, which destroys the flow to the point of tedium. The poor special effects do the movie no favours either. The Monster Dog is abominable. I'd have prefered a man in Wookie costume. And who did the wardrobe? A rock star who loves cheap cardies and jumpers - yeah, right!

But even worse are the performers. Alice Cooper as Raven could've been better. He's not great, but he's better than most of the supposedly skilled actors and actresses. But it must have hurt when the buggers dubbed him with a bloke who sounds like him. I know this is an Italian movie, but surely he could have voiced his own lines, as you can see he's speaking English in the film. I bet he wished they'd dubbed the music video, for which they left in his vocals. The rest of the cast has difficulty in bringing their characters to life. No one is relatable, and you won't care what befalls them. The only person who shines through is the caretaker, and he disappears near the start.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. If you're an Alice Cooper fan, I'd suggest you watch the music videos, listen to his albums, and go to the concerts - but stay away from this barkingly bad movie.

So, the school's out for summer! Well, that gives you more than ample time to check out my IMDb lists - Absolute Horror and Monstrous to see where I ranked Monster Dog - and to find a better bone to chew on.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Alice Cooper fan pans movie

[Frequency270 · 3/10 · 22 November 2000]

I am a fairly big Alice Cooper fan, having over twenty of his albums. This does not keep me from realizing that this is really a horribly boring movie. The only part of it enjoyable to me was the short "Identity Crisises' video in the very beginning. I then preceded to wait over ten years before this song was actually released. The other video/song in the movie is completely forgettable.

The movie inspires no interest in the protagonist, no fear in the antagonist, and is just overall mediocre. It is not so much bad as it is bland, utterly lacking in flavour. If you want to catch a movie with Alice Cooper that I found more interesting, watch John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness".

I Love Your Music But This Movie Is Venomous Poison

[Coventry · 3/10 · 29 January 2007]

Yours truly is one of them sour people who's incredibly annoyed by the trend of inexperienced singers (mostly hip-hop & pop stars) getting lead roles in films just because they're immensely popular among teenage audiences. Although this mainly happens nowadays, lame directors have apparently always been recruiting music idols to make their insignificant movies look a little more appealing. No one less than shock-rocker Alice Cooper is the main attraction of this terribly inept yet hilariously amusing werewolf-vehicle, directed by the same guy who brought us the legendary bad flick "Troll 2". "Monster Dog" is not much better than "Troll 2", though. It's poorly scripted, unimaginably cheesy and almost half of the film is pure padding since there wasn't enough material to fill up a whole screenplay. Cooper's music video for "Identity Crisis" is repeated not once but twice, and there's another entire clip in the middle section of the movie. Alice Cooper stars as – surprise – a successful artist who takes his whole entourage with him for a trip to the region where he grew up in order to shoot a new music video. The sinister place brings back traumatic memories, however, as superstitious locals lynched Vince's father because they thought he was a werewolf. When mutilated corpses are discovered once again, the locals believe Vince is a werewolf too and begin to hunt down the entire group. Don't even consider watching "Monster Dog" in case you have little tolerance for lousy acting and horrible dubbing jobs. The dialogs are all irritatingly monotonous and entire cast is wooden as hell. Our good pal Claudio Fragasso (Clyde Anderson) doesn't even attempt to build up a suspenseful atmosphere, but at least there's some blood and delightfully phony werewolf-mutations to enjoy. The make-up effects are laughable and about the opposite of shocking, but hey, at least they provide the movie with a handful of memorable shlock-sequences, like the shotgun-head kill. Some of the interior settings as well as the fog-enshrouded landscapes look effectively eerie, but they're largely ignored in favor of the hip music sequences. "Monster Dog" is recommended to either fans of brainless & campy 80's horror, or die-hard admirers of Alice Cooper. This last group is probably responsible for the rather big number of 10/10 ratings.

Alice Cooper in Monster Dog

[PhantasmRulz · 13 April 2003]

Monster Dog is a great horror treat for anyone who is a true horror fan. Alice Cooper gives a great performance as Vince Raven. Victoria Vera stood tall, as well, playing the girlfriend of Vince. Monster Dog had a great story to it. It also has 2 previously unreleased songs by Alice entitled, "Identity Crisises" and "See Me In The Mirror." This movie was only supposed to be seen in the Philippines, as was told to Alice, but it found its way into every video store from coast to coast. I'm sure glad it made it to the USA. It is a real treat for fans of Alice everywhere. I spent 15 long years trying to find this movie. Only a best friend of mine and myself remembered it. I finally came across it at a newly opened local video store. I got lucky enough to be able to buy it off of them. This goes to show you that if you never give up hoping to find something you know exist, you'll one day find it.

What's that smell?

[discogoth · 1/10 · 5 December 2001]

Oh man, an average 4.2 rating for this unadulterated turd?? Lemme just say that I've gotta be one of the biggest Alice Cooper fans out there...I've got all the albums and videos, and I only sought out Monster Dog simply because he's in it, but lets be honest here: even if you're a Cooper fanatic, you've got to be mad to think that this movie is even watchable!

It's nothing more than your standard cheesy 80's horror slasher flick, but not even bad enough to be entertaining! It's a Spanish film that stars a rock star who at the time was in the nadir of his career, to just give you a hint of what to expect with this. As if the cliched dialogue wasn't painful enough, the dubbing into English is excruciating, and just why did they dub over Alice's voice as well??

Oh man, the only redeeming quality I can find about Monster Dog is that there are 2 great Alice Cooper songs included in the movie which are only available on the 4 cd boxset, and the videos for the songs within the movie are so cheesy and unprofessional looking that they're a real hoot! Naturally I taped them, but skipped everything else.

Easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen...without liberally using the fast forward button there's no way I would have been able to sit through it.

Actually, now that I think of it, there's a few amusing minutes worth of scenes half way where you get to see Alice running around a mansion blowing people away with a shotgun in full gothic garb, complete with leather pants, victorian poet shirt, blue eye shadow, and poofy 80's hair!

But even that is something that only die hard fans would really appreciate...I can't see anyone else liking anything about the film; in fact, the only person who's weird enough to be able to watch it in its entirety AND enjoy it, is probably Alice Cooper himself!

"I never made anything I was ashamed of"...OH YEAH?

[tom_stratford · 1/10 · 4 January 2016]

Absolutely one of the worse films ever made. A slice of Italian garbage. So cheap no audio was recorded during the filming, like in the silent days, then added after editing. And someone else dubs Cooper's voice to boot! And there he is, the "Star" of the movie, the Iconic Alice Cooper himself, filmed in 1984, just after Cooper was released by Warner Brothers Records for his run of "blackout" albums, {the ones he was so drunk, and stoned on Cocaine he can't remember recording them} as well as yet another stint in rehab. No band, no tours, so why not subject yourself to making a "C" rated horror flick, that lacked any horror, or even anything associated with competent acting, directing, or dialog. So what we get is Cooper sleepwalking through this pile of feces, all with an expression on his face, that seemingly says.."God, how I hate my life"!

Bring an extra large pooper scooper.

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 7 March 2011]

For most of his musical career, Vincent Furnier has adopted the role of horror rock legend Alice Cooper; in Monster Dog, Alice Cooper plays the part of rock star Vincent Raven, opening proceedings with a song entitled 'Identity Crisis' in which he sings about performing as several different iconic characters. I would consider that an ingenious touch, if this film wasn't from the mind of Claudio Fragrasso, the director of mightily asinine crap-fests like Troll 2 and Zombie 4: After Death, and a man who was clearly a total stranger to clever movie-making. The really sad thing is, with Monster Dog, Fragrasso doesn't even manage to do 'dumb' very well either.

You might think I am doing Claudio a disservice, but watch the rest of Monster Dog (or indeed any of his work), and you'll understand the reason behind my bilious comment; when a film about a pack of killer dogs commanded by a werewolf, and starring a rock legend like Alice, proves to be as boring as this, then I'm not going to hold back on the tongue-lashing. The least Fragrasso could have done was make this film gloriously cheesy OTT fun, but he fails spectacularly to even do that.

With no gratuitous nudity, an absolutely lousy creature, and virtually no gore, Monster Dog should be ashamed to call itself a low-budget, Italian B-movie horror. Fulci, Mattei, or D'amato might not have been the greatest directors, but at least they knew to pep up their films with some decent splatter and some naked babes (surely the basic requirements of such fare): the best Fragrasso can offer is a brief glimpse of a woman in her panties and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shotgun blast to the head effect. Worse still, Alice's speaking voice is dubbed throughout and his two songs in the film are diabolical 80s pop/rock garbage, far from classic Cooper.

The general consensus might be that Troll 2 is Fragrasso's worst film, but at least that one entertained me a little with its silliness; watching Monster Dog, on the other hand, is the movie equivalent of treading in a dog turd.

The Worst Movie Ever Made ?

[Zorin-2 · 1/10 · 26 January 1999]

I bought this movie under the title of "Monster Dog" at a pawn shop for 5 bucks saying "Hay, Alice Cooper stars in this,why not give it a try." After I watched it I decided it was not worth the plastic it was made with and the paper it was printed on. It had horrible acting (including Alice Cooper) and really fake looking special effects. Even the people talking in it look like their voices were dubbed. Now I use the movie at Halloween parties for a good laugh because that is all it is good for. Try any other werewolf movie (except for some of the "Howling" sequels) before you waste money on this garbage.

Pure Boredom Pefect for Our 4 Legged Friends!

[dcmsn · 1/10 · 14 September 2008]

Long scenes of weirdos trying to act like they care about whats happening around them when all they do is stare blankly at each other.

The dubbing is just like the Saturday morning Kung fu shows with lips moving and no sound.

Alice looks like one of the woman in this movie just with a BIG witch nose I hope they added that on during makeup cause that baby is huge, It scared the $&%X out of me more than the little kiddie makeup used during Halloween that they used to make this bore fest.

I will say one good thing about this dumpster acting as a movie The Acting was great by the dogs they used! I see 45 Alice fans or just some Carmel covered nuts gave it a 10 that just shows you that Flies vote here to.

I gave it 1 star out of 10 cause they don't have any thing lower.

Cooper + Werewolves + Italian director + 80's = Orgasmic

[filmbizarro · 7/10 · 31 January 2008]

Gonna start with saying this: Yes, it IS sad that Alice Cooper's voice is dubbed over, BUT they chose a good voice and it actually fits pretty good.

I watched this movie yesterday and I was surprised, didn't expect it to be that good. Alice Cooper played the role good as hell, and the feel of the movie reminded me of movies I watched growing up. It's pretty easy to tell that it's an Italian director, but that's not bad, cause they can usually make a movie visual in a way that Americans can't.

The werewolf-look might not be the best around, but they did what they could with what they had. By showing it as little as possible, but still showing it, they made it seem like it looked cooler than it probably did.

I'm a huge werewolf fan, a 80's horror fan, Alice Cooper fan, gore fan, and a fan of a lot of other stuff in this film, and I wasn't let down. (Don't let the "gore fan" part trick you though, it's not a gory movie, but it has a couple of blood scenes) 7.5/10 (Giving it 8 on the vote above)

Good and Cheesy

[horrorluvr3123 · 5/10 · 10 January 2011]

You know it never ceases to amaze me the how people don't do their homework. Everyone who comments on the dubbing of the movie needs to understand that Italian films, especially from the 70's and 80's, were shot in each actors natural language then dubbed later to whatever language was needed. So each actor during filming was speaking his/her language. Most of the time actors couldn't understand each other within a scene. A lot of times they didn't even record sound! Its embarrassing that people don't even look into these types of things, and then they comment on it.

This is a bad movie but in a good way. Its cool to see Alice Cooper try his hand at acting, but you see why he never hit it big in the movies. Monster Dog is silly 80's trash, but I loved it.

Could Have Been a Good Movie

[CMRKeyboadist · 9/10 · 27 December 2005]

I first saw this movie years ago back in 1987 and I remember this movie had an original feel to it and had some memorable atmosphere to the movie but seeing it again just recently has shifted my view on this movie. This movie stars Alice Cooper as a rock star (of course) going back to his families old house to film a music video. He brings his crew (who all seem mentally challenged) and expects to have a good time. What they don't realize is there is a pack of wild dogs slaughtering people along the country side and these dogs are led by the Monster Dog. The main problems with this movie is extremely bad acting, bad music, Alice Coopers voice is dubbed over, and very bad special effects (except a hilarious scene when a bald guy gets the top of his head blown to pieces). But you can over look this because the movie saves itself with some decent atmosphere. I can't place it but this flick can be creepy at times. Anyway, if you know before watching this movie that is it going to be bad than you will probably enjoy this.

Monster Dog, or Leviatan, was an okay Alice Cooper horror movie

[tavm · 6/10 · 21 July 2018]

In continuing to review werewolf movies in chronological order, here's another obscure one from 1984 starring rocker Alice Cooper. He plays a rock star coming to his childhood home in order to shoot a music video with his crew with his girlfriend among them. He has a secret concerning his family and there are many dogs around the place that aren't very welcoming. I'll stop there and just say that I enjoyed this pretty much although the story didn't always make sense much of the time. And since this was an Italian production, all the voices were dubbed for the English-language version including Cooper's. His own voice is present during his two musical sequences which were perhaps the most entertaining parts of the film. No great shakes but Monster Dog, or Leviatan, is worth a look especially for Alice Cooper fans.

A Monster Log

[shawnblackman · 5/10 · 1 October 2016]

An Italian 80's horror film starring Alice Cooper. I think he offered to do this on the pretense that it was only going to be distributed somewhere overseas. Oops. This one has Cooper going to an old mansion to shoot a rock video. There is two songs of his that he performs in faux videos that I don't think he released on anything else so if you are a fan check it out.

The town is rampant with wild dogs all attacking everyone where we later learn they are being controlled by a werewolf. The violence is mild in this one.

The film is corny as hell but fun to watch. Alice Cooper doesn't do too bad of a job.

A MUST SEE FOR ALICE COOPER FANS!!

[l_imdb-32 · 11 October 2004]

One of the BEST--BAD movies of all times: Bad acting (except Cooper), bad script and BAD effects. The good news: It's an excellent movie to watch on a rainy afternoon and throw popcorn at the screen. The plot is predictable, but still a fun romp. The film features 2 songs that were unreleased until 1999 -- a nice musical treat. The character of "Vincent" (wonder where they came up with that name) is perfect for Cooper: we almost believe that he could be like this in "real life." Personally, I appreciated Cooper's career choice to stay in music, however, the movie gave him an outlet to stretch his acting creativity beyond Shock-Rock Theater. If Mr. Cooper made another movie, I'd pay 8 bucks to see it. Even if it were as bad as this one.

Singing at the moon.

[lost-in-limbo · 4/10 · 5 April 2008]

Reputation alone this should be a stinker, even with the presence of rock singer Alice Cooper and the video case artwork being quite striking. Anyhow I went in expecting just that, and sure enough it's low-barrel straight-to-video schlock, which I actually didn't mind. This shoestring Spanish werewolf horror production feels like nothing more than a Cooper vehicle, especially with the time spent on him in some music video clips ( for two previously unreleased songs entitled, "Identity Crisis" and "See Me In The Mirror."). Yep that's right; he plays a popular musician (Hell at least he's true to character!) who returns back home to shoot a music video clip, but the town is plagued by murders caused by stray dogs, or something much worse. The concept isn't too bad, but the leaden script and muddled story dispatches any chance of demonstrating some quality with cheesy daftness, padded stretches and senselessly prolonged plot inclusions. Instead on relishing in suspense, and build up (despite some minor tension and sudden twist near the end) director Claudio Fragasso goes for nightmarish moodiness, as a smoky, darkly lit atmosphere of fog, and light filtering engraves itself into the forebodingly isolated location. There's no better place to stage these things than in rundown, shadowy mansions. Although it works, the direction comes off clunky, and uneven. An eerie, stinging music score splices up well with the on-screen atmosphere, while the soundtrack is an unshakable winner. Now the special effects… yeah they're hokey. However there's a terrific head explosion and plenty of blood splatter, but when it came to the beast's make-up. It's shonky. Even the dogs in picture look bewildered when the werewolf finally makes its grand appearance. The transformation sequence is wickedly cheap, but amusing. The acting is downright disposable and flaky, but Cooper's comfortably sound turn holds your interest and the ravishing Victoria Vera is tolerable.

Ouch. That was bad.

[Elijah-12 · 4/10 · 24 April 2000]

'Monster Dog' is a 1984 werewolf horror movie starring Alice Cooper. If that doesn't trigger any 'crappy movie' alarms, then something is wrong with you.

It's pretty bad, but somewhat standard for 80's low budget horror. The performance is wooden, the horror is marred by bad special effects, and most of the action scenes take place in a blur of camera motion.

Not the worst movie of all times, but still a stinker. Worth it for the atrocious opening music video which only Alice Cooper die-hard fans are likely to remotely like.

Don't touch it, even for Alice

[tom-1908 · 1/10 · 15 April 2006]

I am a huge Alice Cooper fan. I go to at least one gig on each of his UK tours, and he is the best live act I have ever seen. I own around twenty of his albums on CD. I also generally like bad movies, horror movies, and bad horror movies. In fact, I enjoy nearly every film I ever watch, regardless of genre or quality.

I did not enjoy Monster Dog. Not even a little bit. It was excruciating.

This is, quite simply, the worst film I have ever seen. Not so bad it's good; just so bad. So very, very bad. Not one single person involved with it was even remotely competent in any way. The dialogue sucks, the acting sucks (to the point where they frequently don't even have good cue pick-up), the pacing sucks (partly because of the aforementioned lack of cue pick- up), the cinematography sucks, the effects suck, and there aren't even any hot women. It is excruciatingly boring. There are two Alice numbers on the soundtrack, one of which is half- decent. Download them and save yourself the hassle, because they are the only reason to watch this picture.

Can A Movie Be This Bad and Exist!!!!

[G_Mac85 · 1/10 · 2 September 2004]

I really don't know what the hell to say. Yes Alice Cooper's voice is over-dubbed, and everyone else's if I remember correctly. This movie is so fuzzy to your site Alice Cooper's look like trees and Monster Dogs look like Alice Coopers. One great part is where one of Alice's band mates gets his head blown off by either and gun or the Monster Dog (I can't remember). In either occurrence, the effect is of the utmost comedy, and if you enjoy bad cinema, like my friends and I, you will enjoy that segment. The whole movie actually is quiet enjoyable if your life's mission is seeking out ways to funkify your taste and comfort level. Such a horrid movie, so low budget, so Alice Cooper, so amazing I found this at the rental place and enjoyed watching it with a continuous chuckle. The worst movie I have ever seen, and that's saying a lot from a guy who's seen over 28 Gary Busey films and Battlefield Earth!

This movie is terrible

[thewildrat · 1/10 · 31 March 2020]

This movie is one of the worst horror movies I've seen. I am surprised Alice even took this on. The best part of this movie was The Alan Parsons Project music. All the acting and the dialogue was terrible.

Sometimes I'm James Bond...sometimes I'm Billy the Kid...

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 4 June 2016]

I can still hear that damn song in my head!

Alice Cooper writes and performs two songs (and two music videos) for this ultra-ridiculous low rent horror film about a dog pack on the prowl. Alice also stars (yet is dubbed), and doesn't have to stretch himself in the role of Vince Raven. Vince is a rock star who returns to his hometown to film one of these videos, and gets caught up in the local folklore regarding werewolves, and the legacy of his father getting killed by a vengeful mob.

All you really need to know about "Monster Dog" is that it was written and directed by Claudio Fragasso, the same fellow who brought all of us "Troll 2".

Forewarned is forearmed.

"Monster Dog" is an incredibly awful attempt at horror, despite Fragassos' best efforts to create atmosphere, with liberal use of fog. But it works precisely because it's so bad. It generates some real honest to God laughs with its crummy acting and its crummy dialogue. The plot is utter nonsense. The effects (by Carlo De Marchis) are very, very bad. So bad viewers will be busting a gut when they see the "monster dog" of the title. The songs are catchy, and the women are all attractive.

People who love a "good" bad movie will be entertained. Alices' fans will have a head start.

Seven out of 10.

not a bad piece of cheeze(spoilers)

[lthseldy1 · 3/10 · 12 August 2003]

I enjoyed this movie...... not to the fact that I might sit and watch it over and over again but it was fun, not as bad as I thought it would be. I loved the song "Image", now I do re-wind and listen to that song a few times. I laughed at the over dubbing though. But can you imagine Alice's voice being overdubbed by a helium sounding voice? Thank God this voice sounded much like his. It could have done better without the blond psychotic bimbo though and i was more than happy at her demise towards the end. Here she is interrupting Alice's video "Looking in the Mirror" when she walks like a zombie like she's forgotten her lines. I have no idea why they had these three cowboys in the movie though what is this Alice Cooper meets Billy the Kid and his gang ?I don't know.... I thought that he had a band with him though instead of a bunch of college jocks. Common, they didn't have hair past their necks, well Alice didn't. I guess he's trying to clean up his image with this one.

Better Than I Expected

[hackraytex · 9/10 · 1 April 2020]

I grew up watching werewolf, vampire, and frankenstein movies so I knew what I was getting into. What intrigued me was a movie with Alice Cooper. I never was a fan of his music but I did not know he had made any movies until I found this one. I checked IMDB and learned that he has quite a resume' of movies, etc. Also he did a few where he was not playing himself. I was impressed as to how well he played his part like an old pro. Of course, I heard that his stage act involved a lot of acting so he was a very experienced actor. He is about 71 now but I hope he will try a few more because he did a good job here. Well done, Mr. Cooper.

Alice Cooper-The Master!

[CupidGrl · 7/10 · 1 April 1999]

Monster Dog is a great movie.Great plot.Great music.Alice Cooper,which everyone knows,is a underrated actor.Some chilling music scenes,and when it comes down to it,if you're an Alice or just horror fan,rent it.

Why?

[ricekrispy-34340 · 1/10 · 25 March 2017]

Why would anybody OK this script for production? Why would anybody actually watch this movie in its entirety?

Why am I writing a review for a movie that should be banned from ever being viewed? Because I'm a colossal loser. And so are those who enjoyed this piece of garbage.h