Typical horror movie about possession with a surprising twist : a devil dog , including chills , thrills , turns and eerie events . A family buys a dog , not knowing are in great danger due to that is a minion of Satan , resulting in chilling , frightening and horrible consequences. Stars Mike (Richard Crenna) and Betty (Yvette Mimieux) , just an average American couple. They have a home. A car. Two kids , Bonnie Barry (Kim Richards) and Charlie (Ike Eisenmann) and one lovable dog...possessed by the Devil . As mummy becomes a cold- hearted nymphomaniac , and children turn two nasty geeks , and is only normal the unfortunate daddy . Man's best friend is now man's worst fiend...There's More To The Legend Than Meets... The Throat! .. His bite is definitely worse than his bark.
Frightening film in which terror has four legs with plenty of thrills , chills , scary scenes and astonishing attacks . It's a so-so but passable spooky terror/monster/exorcist movie . Resulting to be a blending of diabolical cult , monster movies , dog flick , witchery and exorcism . Horror tale with usual ingredients as possession , violent events , grisly crimes and poltergeister phenomena . The plot is plain and simple, a family adcquires a weird dog unware that packs a terrible and malicious curse , resulting in fateful and disastrous effects . This film is played absolutely straight , making it one of the most ill-conceived attempts at a scary movie I have ever seen on TV . The problem I have with this movie was just the ridiculously dumb and absurd premise . Not a very good film, but acceptable and passable it would have been a better conclusion . And made in similar style to ¨Dracula's Dog¨ (1977) by Albert Band with Michael Pataki , Reggie Nalder . But this ¨Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell¨(1978) has better cast than ¨Dracula's Dog¨. As main and support cast are pretty well . As the heroic father well played by Richard Crenna , the possessed mother finely interpreted by Yvette Mimieux , and remaining cast as Kim Richards , Ike Eisenmann , Lou Frizzel , Ken Kercheval , Martine Beswick , R. G. Armstrong. And this was the 3rd time Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann have played brother and sister -at the time- in a movie . In fact , they were an attractive couple who performed some films together such as Escape to Witch Mountain , Return from Witch Mountain, Race to Witch Mountain.
It displays a thrilling and suspenseful musical score , as well as appropriate and atmospheric cinematography in television style . The motion picture was professionally directed by Curtis Harrington , though it has some flaws , shortfalls , and failures . Curtis was a craftman who made films in all kinds of genres . And in Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) Curtis Harrington providing tension and suspense enough . Curtis Harrington was a good artisan in B-territory . In 1961 he made a strong and impressive feature-film debut with the nicely moody and quirky Night tide (1961) with Dennis Hooper. His follow-up features were a pleasingly diverse , idiosyncratic and often entertaining bunch , and included the delightfully campy Shelley Winters vehicles as Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) , What's the Matter with Helen? (1971) ,the perverse The Killing Kind (1973) and the immensely fun Ruby (1977). Moreover , Harrington directed a handful of solid and satisfying made-for-TV offerings: The cat (1973), Killer bees (1974), The Dead Don't Die (1975) and the terror animal Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) , as well as TV episodes from The Twilight Zone, The Colby , Dynasty , Wonder woman , Hotel , among others . Rating : 5.5/10. Decent and acceptable horror picture in spite its shortcomings and gaps.
