Like Dogs (2021) Movie Review ‘Never Gets the Shock Value it Wants’

Humans Chained Up Like Dogs: A Behavioural Experiment Gone Wrong

Director: Randy Van Dyke

Writer: Randy Van Dyke (Screenplay)

Starring: Annabel Barrett, Ignacyo Matynia, Ryan Tran, Shay Denison, Katy Dore, Nicole Bleacher

Plot: A behavioural experiment treating humans like animals goes awry when a University Student manipulates the research with deadly results.

Tagline – Sit. Stay. Survive.

Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Like Dogs starts when Lisa (Barrett) is abducted by a group of strangers, finding herself chained up in cubical like a dog, feed dog food and ordered to follow instructions. She finds out she isn’t alone in the experiment with Adam (Matynia) also chained up.

When the truth about the experiment to light, everything you thought you knew, will be turned on its head, with a brand-new way of seeing what is happening.

Thoughts on Like Dogs

Thoughts – Like Dogs is an experimental therapy movie that is filled with twists and turns, it is filled with miss-direction from the start. This story starts off making us believe we are watching one film, but takes a sharp turn into showing us something completely different. Which is filled with a moral dilemma, which does end up taking away from a lot of the early film points. By the time we get into the deeper side of the film we find that the story does feel too busy, not getting enough focus on what the actual experiment truly is. Only for it to end up with an unsatisfying set of motivation behind what has driven the characters to make their decisions.

This is a film with performances that don’t stand up to the highest level, with the confident side of the characters being great. But when it comes to doing the routines, nothing feels like it is where we needed it to be. This is a film that is trying to be edgier than it is, leaving everything down one factor, instead of having the twisted ideas it wants to.

Final Thoughts – Like Dogs is a film trying to be edgy, only to fall into a weak motivation mindset.