Review of Like Rabid Dogs

Not to be confused with the almost identically titled masterpiece directed by Mario Bava, "Like Rabid Dogs" is one of the obscurest Euro-crime cult thrillers to come out of 70s Italy, but nevertheless a very worthwhile one for fans to check out. It's not highly original, it's not exceptionally well-made, it doesn't have a stellar cast and it wasn't directed by a famous name in the industry. And yet, just because of all these reasons "Like Rabid Dogs" is so darn entertaining! How's that? Well, it's the type of film that benefices from its bare-boned production values, because it generates a raw-edged and nihilistic atmosphere, while the characters (both heroes and villains) are genuinely insane and the violence is extremely brutal and uncompromising. The film is a modest entry in the also overall modest Euro-crime sub genre of "delinquent rich teenagers on a rampage". Other noteworthy, but almost equally obscure, titles in this category are "Young, Violent, Dangerous", "Terror in Rome" and "The Children of Violent Rome". As you may guess, the protagonists are spoiled kids from rich & influential families that, for reasons none other reason than boredom and the quest for kicks, commit vile crimes like robbery, rape and murder. The trio in "Like Rabid Dogs", two boys and a girl, particularly fancy terrorizing and slaughtering the prostitutes that the father of one of them frequently visits. This gives the investigating police inspector Muzi the unorthodox and rather stupid idea to disguise a female colleague as an undercover prostitute and send out her out on the street unprepared & unprotected. The tone of "Like Rabid Dogs" is very grim and primitive straight from the opening sequence, set at a football stadium where the two bad boys pull off a heist and unhesitatingly shoot a security guard in the face. Immediately after this scene, there's shockingly realistic footage of a woman committing suicide by jumping out of a window from the sixth/seventh floor. We then hear in the police debrief that the victim was the security guard's fiancee, so the first five minutes are already quite sour-tasting and confronting. The film is full of unrelenting rawness like this, including extreme misogyny, merciless executions and homophobia. With his background as director of lewd sex-comedies ("Blue Jeans", "La Ragazzina"), Mario Imperoli naturally doesn't cut back on nudity and sleaze. The gangster trio, for example, has a very open triangular relationship and even the policewoman willingly submits to sleeping with inspector Muzi moments after nearly being raped by hoodlums. Imperoli also tries hard to reflect the contemporary Italian political & social tensions in his film, and he even adds an artsy footnote in the form of an Othello reference, but "Like Rabid Dogs" mainly and primarily just remains bold and nasty exploitation entertainment. Especially the climax will fill you up with that good old-fashioned feeling: "Ha, they got what they deserved!"