Beast With A Gun 2002 Horror Movie Review

“Beast With a Gun” (also released as “Mad Dog”, among numerous other titles) is a repulsive example of Italian cinema at its worst. This film stars the genuinely creepy Helmut Berger as “Mad Dog,” a career criminal who enjoys murder and mayhem just a little too much. He and some henchmen escape from prison and seek revenge on those who put him behind bars.


His chief foe is Police Inspector Santini whose own father (the judge who, coincidentally, sentenced Mad Dog) and sister eventually become hostages. The resulting hand-to-hand fight scene, which concludes the movie, is both bloody and gratuitous.


Technically the film is directed and photographed fairly well (excepting the credit sequence and some arty shots so popular in Italian cinema of the period), and the acting of the principals is above average for the genre. One interesting problem was in keeping the action in the final fight scene straight, as the director for some reason chose to dress both Mad Dog and the Not-So-Great-Santini nearly identically, which made for several confusing moments (or maybe I was just bored).


While I have seen many more poorly crafted films, the utter lack of morality and needless violence, especially toward women, made this painful to endure, and totally worthy of a single star.