Rabid Dogs review: Offers a polished sheen to the gritty grime of the original.
Rabid Dogs review
Director: Eric Hannezo
Cast: Francois Arnaud, Franck Gastambide, Guillaume Gouix, Lambert Wilson, Virginie Ledoyen
Certificate: TBD
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Synopsis: After a bungled heist, a group of theives take a woman, a man, and his daughter hostage.
In 1974 Mario Bava’s film Rabid Dogs was derailed after the production company behind it went bankrupt. It wasn’t released for over 20 years, and even then was unfinished and had to have new scenes shot by Lambeto Bava, Mario’s son. It’s still a very celebrated film, but now we have a French remake to that Italian lost & found classic, which is every bit as nasty and pessimistic as its predecessor.
Starting with a bungled heist, we’re immediately hit with a Heat inspired shoot-out of high intensity and nail biting uncertainty. It’s shot spectacularly and puts the film into a very high forward momentum which it takes the rest of the film to winddown. The trio of bank robbers, now lead by the always dependable, and recently inescapable, Guillaume Gouix, takes a young woman hostage (Ledoyen) as well as a father (Wilson) and his sick daughter.
Rabid Dogs review
It’s a sinister and fast paced affair, like a collection of confused thoughts from the hostages themselves. Everyone is suffering from desperation and it sweats from the film itself. Title cards announce the time, and it’s easy to lose track of exactly when we are. The time becomes a constant reminder at what is at stake, given that the father’s daughter needs to get medication within a certain amount of time.
The cast is an incredible collection of powerhouse French talent, and every performance is superb. Every actor manages to drag out some form of empathy by making their character unhinged and explosive. Wilson’s plight is one of understandable necessity, but despite having everything to lose, he may just be the coolest and calmest. Even the villains remind us what kind of pressure they are under, which also adds to the fierceful impact during moments of sudden violence. There’s something very Kitano or Tarantino esque when characters finally snap. The violence is actually shot with a sense of apathy, almost normalising the brutal behaviour.
Rabid Dogs review
Whether we’re stuck in the car or out in the world, there’s this grimy sense of claustrophobia. There’s nothing nice that happens in Rabid Dogs and we see other characters gradually evolving to match their environments. It’s doubtful that you’ll leave a screening without a hundred emotions – all conflicting – from which not even a warm shower will make you feel clean.
If you like soul shattering thrillers and heists in the vein of Reservoir Dogs and Heat, while also faced with an impending sense of absolute chaos, then Rabid Dogs, is a great effort to bring some closure to a film with an interesting history. It offers a polished sheen to the gritty grime of the original. Eric Hanezo is a director to look out for in the future, with this as his debut, hopefully he will find an original tale suited to this painful but wonderful watch.
Rabid Dogs review by Luke Ryan Baldock, August 2015.
Rabid Dogs screened at Frightfest 2015.
