Horror Review : Dogged (2017)-Fitz of Horror

Written by Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror)

What started as a “micro” short film in 2015, Dogged and it’s writer/director Richard Rowntree have won multiple awards leading to the hugely successful kickstarter campaign that enabled Rowntree to start production on the full length feature in early 2016 and have it completed by November the same year.
Synopsis-
“Sam is forced to return to the remote tidal island where he grew up to attend the funeral of
ten year old Megan Lancaster.
 
As it becomes apparent that all is not as it seems in this idyllic rural community, Sam makes a
horrifying discovery about the circumstances surrounding the little girls’ death, and his life
begins to spiral out of control in a macabre descent of paranoia.
 
He must race against tide and time to expose the seedy underbelly of the island – and to save
the lives of those he loves.”
 
“Dogged” is a disturbing folk horror film which taps into our primal fear of what lurks in the
woods.

Dogged is definitely a slow burn kind of film that moves deliberately paced as to build the growing tension, develop the intricate story and foster excellent character development. From the very beginning something in particular catches your attention and wont let go—The score. The music moves you beautifully through the story and actually plays as a sort of extra character in the movie.

As the tension builds for the first half of the movie, the director does not try to hide the fact that certain people aren’t what they seem to be and that there is something very wrong with this sleepy tidal island.

While watching I couldn’t help but see similarities to such films as The Wicker Man, The Strangers, Funny Games and The Sacrament, yet he took those similarities and expanded on them expertly to create an overwhelming feeling of anxiety and being trapped due to the island being cutoff from the mainland via tidal influences.

Dogged is Rowntree’s first feature length film but it seems as though it was directed by a seasoned horror veteran. The cinematography, score, character development and pace are all expertly crafted to create a folk-horror film that will stand up to multiple viewings.

 

They currently have confirmed festival screenings at San Antonio Horrific Film Festival for 21 October (where the film has been nominated for 7 awards, including best feature, best screenplay, best director, best actor and best actress) and for the RIP Horror Film Festival in Los Angeles in November – with more to follow!  Anticipated release of the film is early 2018.
Social media:
Twitter-@DoggedTheMovie @AshMountainFilm @r_rowntree
Instagram-Dogged_the_movie

 

About the director:

Richard Rowntree
Writer, Producer, Director
Award winning film maker Richard Rowntree knew he wanted
to make movies from the tender age of six. He soon
exhausted the small supply of movies his local mom-and-pop
video store had to offer, and began widening his viewing
habits with borrowed VHS tapes from older siblings of his
friends. Although not always suitable or age-appropriate,
he soon fell in love with the world of horror films and
the exhilaration they offered to their audiences.
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Working voluntarily on student productions since the age
of 15, he learned a great deal about filmmaking, and
following completion of his degree in film studies from the
University of Kent in 2002, he went straight to work in
the bustling world of Soho post-production. His
adventurous nature then took him all over the world,
working in different departments to hone his skills and understand more about the filmmaking
process from every angle.
After working on more than 80 feature films and large scale TV dramas (mostly in the art
department), in 2014 he decided it was high time he put all that he’d learnt into action, and
make his first short film. 3 years (and 6 short films) later, and he has now completed
directing his debut feature, “Dogged” – a modern day folk horror film with a difference.
He is a passionate fan of the fantastic film genre and has stamped his own unique visual style
of storytelling on this, his passion project. He is a company director of Ash Mountain Films
Ltd.
What/who are you most influenced by as a filmmaker?
I think every film you watch, whatever the quality, has something you can take from it – whether
it be an unusual colour pallet, a plot twist you didn’t see coming, or even a single shot
choice. In terms of aesthetic, I’m heavily influenced by David Fincher and Stanley Kubrick.
Their visual storytelling is magnificent, often in its’ simplicity and tone. Genre directors
such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg and David Lynch have also played an
important role in influencing me – their back catalogues speak for themselves in terms of
popularity and originality. For “Dogged”, I studied a number of films which bore a resemblance
to the dark fairy tale inspirations that informed the scriptwriting, and of course the classics
of the sub-genre; ‘Blood on Satan’s Claw’, ‘Witchfinder General’, the more recent films of Ben
Wheatley, and the granddaddy of them all, ‘The Wicker Man’.
Follow me on Facebook at Fitz of Horror for all of your horror needs!
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