★★.5 out of ★★★★★
🩸🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by L.C. Holt.
In the latest installment to the cringe-inducing horror sub-genre, Home Invasion Horror, we get a fair-to-midland entry with a little heart. Think Funny Games, but less terror, suspense, and sadism. Just some light torture and some fun cameos.
Watchdog follows a weak and sheltered CPA, Travis (Chaney Morrow: Haunt, Wrong Turn, and Malum), as he’s rescued from a parking lot assault from a vagabond veteran, Drew (Wes Robinson). Travis, eternally grateful to Drew, decides to invite him home to meet the wife, share a meal, and have a few brews.
Drew plays the quiet (read: sometimes the sound mix was so low you could barely make out his dialogue) and sullen vet. He’s a man’s-man with a dark series of stories to tell about his corrupt upbringing and his equally flawed time in the military. But, at his core, he’s a sadistic serial killer.
Drew immediately begins to prey on Travis’ wife Anna (Celeste Blandon), and he simultaneously begins to prey on Travis’ weaknesses and hidden desires and wants for enhanced manliness. Amplifying Travis’ inadequacies are Anna’s shrill and abusive parents Irene and Robert perfectly played by indy horror stalwarts Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) and Mark Patton (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and Swallowed).
Travis is continually reminded that he’s not good enough for his wife, that he didn’t earn their home, and that his professional is least masculine one he could have chosen.
Drew quietly and calmly begins his night of terror with Anna and Travis. The problem is his brand of home invasion sadism is really quiet, languid, and largely devoid of tension. More importantly, Anna and Travis aren’t terribly likable characters. Whether they escape Drew’s somewhat unexplained sadism doesn’t hold a lot of emotional resonance. You do however care about what happens to Anna’s parents Irene and Robert. Ultimately it’s their comeuppance that draws the audience into the story and not the intended target, Travis and Anna.
Watchdog is fairly well shot and contains some decent bits of practical gore. Its problem is that languid pacing that really takes audiences out of the tension that’s normally brought to the home invasion genre. Obviously Drew, as the serial killer vet, is rather despicable and audiences will cheer for his demise, but the fact that Travis and Anna hold little emotional interest for audiences is, in part, one of the film’s biggest flaws.
Come for the home invasion and stay for horror legends Felissa Rose and Mark Patton!
Watchdog is likely Rated R and recently played at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.