Doghouse | 2009
Doghouse
"Doghouse" is a 2009 British slapstick comedy horror splatter film. A group of male friends travel to a remote town for a "boys' weekend." Upon their arrival, they discover that all the women in the town have been transformed into ravenous man-eaters.
The protagonist, Vince, is depressed over his recent divorce. His friends—Neil, Mikey, Graham, Matt, Patrick, and Banksy—decide to take him on a "boys' weekend." They hire a minibus driven by Candy to Moodley, a town where women allegedly outnumber men 4 to 1. However, Banksy misses the bus and travels to the town on his own.
Upon arriving, the men find the town quiet and surprisingly devoid of women. On their way back to the minibus, they notice a hooded teenage girl being attacked by a man in military uniform. They rush to her aid, and in the confusion, the hooded girl stabs Neil with the soldier's knife. They drag the unconscious soldier with them as they run for the bus, only to discover that Candy, their attractive bus driver, has already become infected. More infected women appear and begin to attack them, forcing them to retreat to a house owned by Mikey's grandmother. The soldier admits that the town has been infected by a biological agent that turns women into cannibals.
The men attempt to get on the bus again, using the wounded Neil to lure Candy away. However, two other infected women join her and chase the men back into the streets. They scatter, hiding in a toy store, a clothing shop, and a butcher shop. Patrick gets trapped on a billboard, and Neil runs into a house but is taken hostage by a morbidly obese woman who cuts off his little finger and eats it. Neil eventually escapes and reunites with the others at the local church. There, they discover a military command center. Matt powers up the computers and briefly talks to a local politician, Meg Nut, who was involved in distributing the toxin disguised as biological washing powder. The soldier finds a control box and explains that it is a sonar device designed to emit a high-pitched sound that will stun the zombified women once they evolve into "Phase 2" monsters. The women do change, but when the soldier uses the sonar device, it is revealed to be broken. He is then killed by Mikey's grandmother, and Matt bludgeons the monster-grandmother to death with a golf club. Traumatized by his actions, Matt walks off to 'cool down' and is killed by a "Phase 2" monster that appears from the church basement. After finding a nest of women feasting on the bodies of men in the basement, the men barricade themselves on the church roof as more bloodthirsty women break in.
Banksy eventually arrives in Moodley. Initially, he thinks his friends are high on drugs, but soon realizes the seriousness of the situation and fetches a ladder to rescue them from the roof. Graham is then attacked by the morbidly obese woman. Banksy leads the surviving group to his vehicle—a small Smart car—but it is not big enough for all of them. As they argue, Patrick is attacked and dies a bloody death. The others head to the minibus, where Banksy is killed as Vince fights off Candy. Vince blasts Neil and Mikey, who treat women poorly but get away with it, while nice men like him and their dead friends treat women with respect, only to be rejected or killed. He resolves to be more like them. Before they can drive away, the voice of the still-alive Graham crackles over the walkie-talkie. As he makes his way out from the church, Graham powers up the stun device using a high-voltage power supply. With it now working, the men can stop the women in their tracks; however, Vince inadvertently drops and breaks it. The infected are once again unleashed, and with the injured Graham in a shopping trolley, the four make a run for it, laughing.
The film received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 48% rating from 23 reviews, with the consensus calling it "An amateurish, unfunny, and unscary British horror comedy that could be accused of misogyny." Mark Adams from The Sunday Mirror described it as "A nicely gory comedy-horror flick that is a diverting bit of lads' entertainment." Other reviewers disagreed. Jason Solomons of The Observer called it "A dim zombie movie." Catherine Shoard of The Guardian wrote, "... undeniable misogyny and a definite creative bankruptcy. So is it fun enough to compensate? Just about," giving it a rating of 2 stars out of 5. Michael Dwyer of The Irish Times gave it only 1 star out of 5. Critics noted that the film's release closely followed that of "Lesbian Vampire Killers," another 2009 British comedy horror film with a similar premise, and complained that ideas were borrowed from "Shaun of the Dead."
