Dhogs Review: Director Andrés Goteira brings the weird to this year’s Frighfest with Dhogs.
Dhogs Review
Director Andrés Goteira’s Spanish film Dhogs plays at this year’s Frighfest and the film opens with two definitions, both of which make up the film’s title – Dog: dog, submissive and faithful, and the other being Hog: dirty and perversive animals. They both appear in the film, but not necessarily how you’d expect.
We’re then introduced to a slew of characters and the game is quickly afoot. Dhogs is an unusual piece; the film follows three different stories that peer into the animalistic nature of human beings, these stories all converging by chance. However, what makes this more interesting is that these stories are being viewed by a group of spectators: an audience, if you will. And we get to watch the audience watch these stories too. It’s a very interesting perspective to take, with debut-director Gotiera taking a unique viewing point here and looking at this story through this very different, very unusual angle. Dhogs wears its influences on its sleeves, with Gotiera tipping his hat to old Westerns.
For a feature debut, Gotiera makes quite the impression. This is a fascinating, brutal and harrowing look at the truly vulgar nature of humans. I mentioned that both the submissive dog and the perversive hog feature in this and it’s the various, animalistic humans that live up to these mantles – dogs and hogs don’t all walk on four legs, it seems. The narrative unfolds in an unusual way, one that is off-kilter and unpredictable, but also just as convoluted. The film’s biggest downfall is that, in trying to tell a story that acts as a metaphor, it becomes a little too convoluted for its own good – with these various arcs and viewpoints all conflicting with one another – and it can become a little jarring to follow at times.
Dhogs Review
However, it’s still deftly fascinating. Gotiera never shies away from showing just how despicable humans can be, through some unsettling and violent imagery and action. Humans are dark. And, frankly, a little messed up. Gotiera explores this well, create a film that is disgusting and dark and unsettling – but all in the best of ways. This is one of those films that will make you feel icky after seeing it, where you just want to go home and take a shower because of how nasty it is and how nasty it makes you feel.
The camera-work and the direction are slick too; there is a sinister ambience permeating the dark, sleek cinematography and the orchestration of tension and unease is superb. Dhogs isn’t for everyone, it’s nasty and dark and an esoteric exploration of the animalistic and sordid behaviour of humans. But it’s damn good.
Dhogs review by Awais Irfan, August 2017.
Dhogs is currently playing as part of the Horror Channel Frighfest 2017 programme.
