DHOGS (2017)

Dhogs (2017)
Directed by: Andrés Goteira
Written by: Andrés Goteira, Enrique Lojo
Starring: Alejandro Carro, Carlos Blanco, María Costas

DHOGS (2017)
Directed by Andrés Goteira
Galician language with English subtitles

A woman has a fling with a stranger after one of her friends stands her up for the evening. What starts out as a pleasurable evening soon takes a turn for the worst.

DHOGS showcases the absolute vile, voyeuristic nature of the human race and looks at how woman are sometimes perceived from the male gaze.

When we see the woman initiate flirtatious, raunchy chat with the businessman, it comes as a bit of a surprise as we don’t often see women being so sexually forward in movies. It’s a refreshing take on the female character but at the same time it feels as though the film suggests her sexual liberalism is giving the green light to the horrors that follow. Whilst you may think this means her one night stand turns nasty, you couldn’t be more wrong, and again it’s nice to see a film that deals with the realism that not every one night stand involves being murdered. Instead, it’s what happens when she leaves the hotel when things start to turn bad in what can only be described as a ‘wrong place, wrong time’ situation.

DHOGS shows the depths of human depravity within two of its three acts as we see the lengths the various male characters will go to to live out their fantasies. It’s pretty traumatic to watch and when a certain plot point is revealed, it feels even more depressing. Is media created to feed the dark desires of the viewer without repercussion? What’s then stopping them from acting it out in real life? These are the types of questions I feel is posed by the film but before we even get to that we have to endure distressing enactments that would make any viewer uncomfortable.

The style of filmmaking seen here is raw and rough, much like the horror depicted on-screen. It gives a sense of realism to the imagery displayed which makes it even more hard to handle at times. This stylistic approach feels as though we’re part of the action, like an onlooker albeit one that cannot put a stop to what happens. It’s like we’re an unwilling accomplice and that be witnessing it, we’re as much of the problem as the antagonists. This approach is blended with the surreal as it feels we’re watching a film within a film, particularly in earlier scenes where the line blurs between character and actor.

DHOGS is by no means an easy watch. It’s a brutal experience that I wouldn’t wish to repeat, but does raise interesting points about human nature. Does what we see form our opinions or does human curiosity and hard-wired desires lead us to our actions? In a film where positive actions are overwritten by bad, nothing is ever as straightforward as it first appears.

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