In a ramshackle Texan boardinghouse, where the imbecilic tenants continuously play pranks on each other, one of the gags runs terribly out of hand and the new arrival kid gets killed. This event is more or less the sole thing that makes a little sense in the entire plot of "Mongrel"; a deservedly rare and unimaginably poor early 80's piece of horror crap that I already regret watching. After the deadly accident, the other tenants start getting killed off as well, and it seemingly all relates to this geeky boy's childhood trauma involving big dogs. Is there a monstrous dog on the loose on the premises (whose growling sounds like a fat 80-year-old farmer with asthma) or is the whole thing just another lousy prank? "Mongrel" is a really, really, really ... REALLY bad movie! The plot doesn't make a lick of sense and, on top of all the incompetence; it's also very boring. The denouement is just absurd and hasn't got that much to see with the events depicted during the first hour of the film. The acting's horrible, the music is atrocious and the art-direction is truly hideous. To end with at least some sort of positive note, the vast majority of the nearly non-existent budget clearly went to the make-up effects.

Set in a rundown boarding house, the occupants simply play jokes each other and get into pointless squabbles. A couple of jokes backfire on them, resulting in one of the occupant's aggressive dog being shot dead and a tenant being accidentally killed. Amongst the tenants, happens to be an up-tight author / book editor who has horrific dreams about this dog and when that happens, the occupants start dropping off like flies.Wowser! What an excessively cruddy experience, but definitely not the worst of its kind. On the scale of corny, clumsy and scummy this clunky trash has got its bases covered. When you're watching it you'll know why it's truly an obscure item! Although there are two notables that won't pass you by and I see one of them has already been mentioned by an IMDb reviewer. A "Deep Throat" pinball machine gets some game time (it maybe would have been more interesting if it focused on it more often) and Mitch Pileggi stars as the boarding house's hot-headed bully who likes to play pranks. I'm sure Pileggi would like to forget it… and he probably has. Now, "Mongrel" is one downright glum, kooky and twitchy oddity that shows up like a poverty-row production, since it doesn't sway away from it's one location - the boarding house and it's put together very shoddily. This goes for the editing between scenes, making you think an add break was coming up. Sloppy is best to describe the film's execution, but at times there is atmospheric photography and the plot idea is decent enough with some out-of-the-blue moments. Just that it's not delivered very well. When I grabbed this flick was actually expecting a creature-on-the-loose kind of tale, but noway is that the case here. It plays out more like a stark comedy with it's quirky and very animated tenants creating a constant racket, but that all changes when it wants the pick up pace with murders occurring with non-suspenseful attacks that are far too hectic and plenty of POV shots of the beast. Was that growling I hear… nah, it was burping. Well, actually I'm sure it was just someone's stomach growling. Yeah, the gargling… no the growling we hear haunting one of the character's minds is laughable. There are many momentary scenes that make you snicker - like that of a dog that's suppose to look vicious, but it doesn't and the landlord suddenly pops out of some scrubs at 4:30am in morning to check up on the building. Now that is one very early starter! The quirky and sometimes rather childish acting isn't great, but I didn't find anything particularly wrong with this amateurish bunch who had something of an irredeemably, awkward script on offer. Robert Burns who wrote and directed the film has he moments and a heavy synthesizer score kicks in when it's lively and non-existent when it's not, but I found the project rather unsure and the revelation to it all is nothing you won't figure out after the *beep* hit's the fan.This unknown little roughie is incredibly lame and quite puerile, but there's a cheap, spaced-out edge that 'few' will like.

Cheeze-Whiz horror flick is set in a slummy rooming house(with a "Deep Throat" pinball machine!! I hope there are at least a few viewers out there who are able to appreciate the honor of seeing this impossibly rare collector's item). The tenants bicker a lot and play lame practical jokes on each other...these jokes ultimately get out of hand, and one of the bunch ends up dead(along with the resident dog). Soon, another of the tenants begins to have harrowing nightmares of a killer dog, and bodies begin to pile-up. Is there a monster dog on the loose, or is this the work of an unseen madman? The mystery is ultimately resolved in a predictable and unsatisfying conclusion.MONGREL is a lousy flick which barely registers as "horror", and is so blood and nudity deficient that I think its makers should GIVE ME THAT PINBALL MACHINE as compensation for enduring such valueless drivel...4/10.Footnote- The Paragon Video release of the VHS for this film features the absolute WORST cover art I have ever seen for any video...it's HILARIOUS!

The only wrong with this movie is that it's not bad enough to be good. Leave it to Bob Burns' luck to make a film that straddles the genres of good and bad. We guessed the plot within 5 minutes. The PROPS were excellent, however. :)