Fantasia 2010: Jake West’s Doghouse

Shaun of the Dead set the bar high in terms of expectations from British horror comedies, and no film since has even come close to meeting those expectations. Until now, that is. With Doghouse, director Jake West (Evil Aliens) matches Edgar Wright’s contemporary classic zom-com, low-brow joke for low-brow joke and severed limb for severed limb, keeping pace right up to the (non) conclusion, where it inexplicably falls completely off the rails and ultimately disappoints.

The film, which had its Canadian premiere at Fantasia, is about six buddies hoping to console their recently divorced pal Vince (Stephen Graham, Snatch, Gangs of New York) by planning a wild weekend of drunken debauchery in a small village where one of them used to visit his Nan in the summer. These are your typical, everyday guys: a couple of alpha male macho men, one of whom thinks all women want him, the gay guy in a committed relationship, the neurotic sensitive guy henpecked by his wife, a comic book geek, and the lout who misses the hired bus and spends over half the film trying to reach his friends. As is normal when a bunch of guys get together, harmless misogynistic banter ensues and doesn’t stop, even when they reach their destination to find that all the female inhabitants have become zombies and are definitely very man-hungry. The rest of Doghouse is spent trying to survive while attempting to unravel what has happened in this little hamlet. Amputations, beheadings, and eviscerations are doled out with much hilarity interspersed.

The script, by newcomer Dan Schaffer, is smart, with many of the so-called “zombirds” embodying typical male fears: commitment (the bride), domination (the witch), and, er, haircuts? It plays with modern stereotypes by laying them out in their most raw form. The chemistry between the cast is particularly strong, too, with Danny Dyer (Severance, and whose name is attached to 17 films in 2010-11) and Noel Clarke (Centurion, TV’s Doctor Who) providing two standout comedic performances. But it’s with the gore gags and arterial sprays that Jake West excels. The man has a knack for painting a set red, so to speak, and for 88 of Doghouse‘s 89-minute running time (minus the credits) viewers are treated to the best British horror comedy in years. If not for that one minute, Doghouse could have been the perfect crossover genre film.