Dean R Koontz has a lot of fans among readers of horror fiction but I'll state for the record now that I am not one of them. I don't know why, no disrespect intended, but the books of his I have read just didn't hit the spot for me. I guess you can't please everyone all of the time, and in this case I am one of those who Deans work has passed by. I can't say a lot bad about it, but try as I might, I just cannot get into it and feel at home there either.

But, I had high hopes for this. It has Michael Ironside, whom I like immensely on screen ever since seeing him way back when I was a boy in such treats as V and Scanners. The story sounds great as well, a scientific experiment which has boosted the intelligence of a cute l'il doggy, and has also produced an unstoppable killing machine. It goes wrong, both dog and killing machine escape, and the scene is set for the movie.

There are a few problems though. Far too much focus is given over to the dog and it's genetically enhanced intelligence. The monster, which is also supposed to be supra-intelligent, is reduced to little more than a mindless killing machine. I have read the book of this, and the monster is a much more fearsome prospect there rather than the weak, vacuous bundle of rage that we get here. There just isn't that feeling of our protagonists being stalked by something clever, which can plot and anticipate, which can emote and know what they are thinking. In some movies the bad guy being that alien, totally inhuman, black pit of death works, here it detracts from the story.

It's not that this is a bad movie, just that the cutesy, hyper intelligent pooch seems over emphasized and robs us of some of the darker sides of the story. That might not even be a bad thing, the clever canine is enjoyable, it just gives us a movie which is somewhat different to what we might have expected or hoped for.

I can't really knock this, it does try hard, and does move along at an acceptable pace. In it's own little way it is enjoyable although it does have something of a made for TV feel. It's another of those films that is worth watching but probably isn't going to be any more to you than a bit of casual fun, it's unlikely to rock your boat or make it into your favourite movies list.