Devil Dog :The Hound of Hell Movie Review

Trailer here.

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell is a 1978 made for TV horror movie directed by Curtis Harrington and starring Richard Crenna, Yvette Mimieux, Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann.

At Lakeland Kennels, a lady looks for a dog. She has people with her. They want a female dog, ready for breeding. They pick one called Lady. They want the dog for a Satanic rite. They call up the devil and the dog is cursed. Cut to Mike Barry(Crenna) and his wife Betty(Mimieux). They have two children, Bonnie(Richards) and Charlie(Eisenmann). Their dog called Skipper gets knocked down by a car and killed. Bonnie is very upset. One day, Bonnie and Charlie are playing outside when they see a man with a truck. He has puppies in the back of it. The mother is the same dog who had some Satanic rites performed on it.  Bonnie wants a puppy and the man gives her one. He drives off. The family call the dog Lucky.

The housekeeper Maria doesn't like the dog. She talks to Mike about it. She tells him that the dog gives her the chills. She begs him to get rid of it. She ends up getting set on fire and that's the end of her. Mike is being snubbed by Lucky. He thinks that there is something different about the dog. The dog stares at him and tries to make him put his hand into the lawnmower blade. Mike resists it. He realises that the dog is evil. The dog leads the kids up to the attic. Afterwards, the kids change. Betty discovers blood and she asks them about it and they tell her to butt out. Betty calls Mike and she asks him to come home. She is scared of Lucky. The dog follows her around.

When Mike arrives home, Betty is acting strangely. A neighbour has a dog and Betty talks to him and tells him that she wants the dog gone because it is barking at Lucky. The neighbour refuses and coincidentally, the dog ends up dead. The neighbour thinks that it was Lucky. Mike tries to talk to him about it. Betty and the kids are against the neighbour and he ends up dead. A teacher from Charlie's school calls around the see Mike. He tells him that Charlie is not himself. He thinks that Charlie needs help. Unfortunately, this teacher gets hit by a car. What could be causing all of these accidents???

Surely it isn't Lucky the dog....

Mike finds Satanic stuff in the attic. He wonders what is going on. His family seem to be doing something strange in the attic. Mike goes to the doctor for a checkup. He tells Betty that Lucky needs to leave. She reacts badly. He takes Lucky off in his car and he brings his gun. Her drives it out into the middle of nowhere and he tries to kill it, but to no avail. He abandons it. When he arrives home, it is there!!!! Mike visits a woman who knows all about occult stuff and she tells him that the dog could be possessed by a demon. He has to destroy it. He goes to Ecuador to find a man who knows about the demon. The man tells him that a symbol painted on his hand should do the trick. The dog will be sent back to hell if he sees it.  Mike returns home and he shows the dog the symbol. It sends him back to hell. The family return to normal but they know that there are more devil dogs out there....

This was fun. I liked the idea of the devil dog. It is a TV movie, but it entertains all the same. There are no real scares here, of course. There aren't really any creepy moments. It is light on the horror, but it is enjoyable. I found it to be a decent watch and I think that it will pass away the time quite nicely. I will give it a 5/10.