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2005 - 91m.

If The Breed proves anything it's that horror maestro Wes Craven needs to stop lending his name to a bunch of low-budget genre flicks (his name is plastered on the box here even though he's one of TEN credited executive producers) and actually get back to directing some damn movies. Though glancing at his upcoming film list at IMDB it doesn't look like that's due to happen soon as his next two upcoming projects are a Shocker remake and a second People Under The Stairs movie.

This isn't to say this "killer canine" movie is a completely bad; it's just an uninspired flick that offers little in the way of scares or suspense. Plus, there's a reason there's just not that many of this type of horror movie out there (Cujo is probably the best known and there was a brief handful of them in the late 70's with The Pack and the creatively titled Dogs) as it's hard to wring much suspense out of scenes of domesticated dogs baring their teeth, leaping in the air at people and barking - it's just not that scary, even if you've had a bad experience with one of our four-legged friends in the past.

Things start off okay as a lost sailing couple come across an island and decided to dock in order to get directions. Not too long after they've come aground, she's attacked by some ravenous creatures, which are shown in quick flashes and with growling sound effects rather than outright showing that the attacking beasts are common dogs. It's a smart move by debuting director Nick Mastandrea as it doesn't suffer from the goofiness later attack scenes will due to being shot in a straight-ahead (and quite unconvincing) manner.

From there we're introduced to a group of twenty-something's who are flying out for a weekend at an island cottage that brothers Matty (Oliver Hudson) and John (Eric Lively) inherited from their Uncle. It promises to be a weekend of heavy drinking, swimming and exploring the nearby forests. It also is John's attempt to get the school-minded Matty to have some fun. This is soon to change however when, after we get a lame attempt at false scares involving token African-American character Noah (Hill Harper) when he goes into the dark basement to figure out the fuse box, one of the girls, Sara (Taryn Manning, who also sings in Boomkat, a band she formed with her brother Kellin) is bitten by a wild dog.

In between montages of summer fun, Manning's character acting oddly as she eats way too hearty a breakfast and stares into space and tales of a nearby seeing eye dog training facility that was shut-down due to a rabies outbreak (an obvious, and lame, attempt by scripters Peter Wortmann and Robert Conte to explain why the dogs are attacking in the first place), the group soon finds themselves under siege by a pack of dogs that don't take kindly to people being on the island. Oh, and just to add to the silliness, Sara seems to have a psychic connection to them.

Sporting multiple scenes of harmless looking canines leaping at the actors and the packs of dogs chasing the cast members through various situations (they even swim after Lively when he tries to pull back their plane after the tie-down rope is bitten clean through), The Breed musters up very little in the way of thrills. Then again, it may be because it's really hard to wring suspense out of the premise. It gets tiring seeing the cast put into moments of minor peril and if it wasn't for the goofy Matrix inspired bow and arrow moment or a pretty cool scene involving a merry-go-round it would be "business as usual" in what amounts to yet another mediocre horror flick. However the whole finale with its handful of "huh?" moments almost brought its rating down half-a-star.

Michelle Rodriguez is the biggest name in the cast of minor young actors and comes across the best of the bunch while Manning has a hard look about her that's more distracting than anything but it's truly Harper and his poor use of facial expressions and line delivery that brings down what's otherwise an acceptable cast. Mastandrea does fine calling the shots but is probably better off sticking to the "assistant director" title he's had on such films as Scream, Walk The Line and the upcoming remake 3:10 To Yuma. (Chris Hartley, 8/29/07)

Directed By: Nick Mastandrea.
Written By: Peter Wortmann, Robert Conte.

Starring: Michelle Rodriguez, Oliver Hudson, Taryn Manning, Robert Conte.