ATOMIC DOG

The Yates family has just moved from Los Angeles to a small town near an old and abandoned nuclear power plant. One night, their little dog disappears without a trace and when they find her weeks later, she is at death's door and has given birth to two adorable little puppies. From this moment on, the happy family will have to deal with the ferocious father of the puppies, a crazy radioactive dog that lives in the old plant and wants to take back his puppies at all costs. "Atomic Dog" is a film released at the end of the nineties that tries, in vain, to instill terror by exploiting the theme of the killer dog, turning what is man's best friend into the greatest danger to fear. But the result is that of a sloppy film that, due to its nature as a television product, doesn't even give us one at least violent scene and fails in any way to create a hint of tension. The film, directed by little-known Brian Trenchard-Smith, doesn't seem to want to be just entertainment for the viewer, but seems to want to convey some moralistic morals on the theme of family love. In fact, in the film you can easily distinguish two opposite but in some ways equal families: on one side there is the good Yates family, classic and unlikely happy American family that lives in a world dominated by peace and harmony; while on the other side there is the canine family, led by a ferocious radioactive dog that seems a threat to humans, but that in the end just wants to create a family of his own and live in peace. The biggest mistake of the film can be found precisely in the main element: the dog. In fact, the animal seems anything but a threat, it does almost nothing to be dangerous (the meanest thing it does is fight with a pillow and a doll), it has nothing scary and in no way manages to convey anxiety in the viewer's mind, something that instead managed to do great the rabid dog of "Cujo" or the cybernetic dog appeared in Yuzna's total flop "Rottweiler". Another negative aspect is found in the second main element of the film: the Yates family. The family members all fall into the stereotype and turn out to be terribly unpleasant, starting with the extremely irritating and bragging child that everyone would want to see dead or mauled by the dog after only five minutes and that instead you have to put up with until the end of the film. Moreover, many characters assume a decisively unlikely attitude that in reality would not have happened at all in the world (like the child who calmly decides to leave home to follow the "ferocious" dog and go live with him in the dangerous abandoned nuclear power plant). Furthermore, the biggest disappointment comes with the final showdown with the atomic dog that, instead of waking the viewer from the boredom of the entire film, terribly sinks into moralism and becomes annoyingly saccharine. In conclusion, "Atomic Dog" is a shabby television product, boring, predictable, saccharine and in several aspects irritating. It has nothing to do with horror but rather seems like an episode of the television series "Lassie". Absolutely to avoid.