A mean prison thriller that goes for the jugular throughout, the Canadian film DOG POUND is in actual fact a remake of the British borstal classic SCUM from 1979. While it's not as powerful or harrowing as that film, nevertheless it packs a punch in its harsh depiction of bullying and brutality within prison confines.

The prison in this film is a juvenile one and the movie is populated by new and unfamiliar faces, but don't let that put you off, because DOG POUND turns out to be a highly effective movie in its own right. The acting is up and down and probably the weakest part of the production, but that matters not when the direction is strong and the writing compelling.

DOG POUND is a slow paced film for the most part and yet it's alive with simmering tension as character relationships develop and things move towards some scenes of violence which are devastating in their depiction. Some of the sub-plots are distinctly underwhelming (with the fate of one particular character not a patch on his counterpart in SCUM) but others hit home with precision force, making this a film I really got into.

Davis is a 16 year old caught with narcotics. Angel is a 15 year old sentenced for assault and car theft. Butch is 17 year old who assaulted a corrections officer. All three are sent to Enola Vale Youth Correctional Center. Davis and Butch are targeted by bully Banks and his guys. Butch has anger issues and fights back.

The actors are a little older than the characters. It's a noticeable difference and an important difference for this particular movie. As a prison movie, it rehashes all the standard characters. The leads Adam Butcher and Shane Kippel are pretty good. This is a fine prison movie but there's nothing new.

My review is going to contain SPOILERS. DO NOT read it if you haven't seen the movie yet. This movie was incredibly moving and sometimes very intense. At the end of the movie I felt very empty because I was hoping for a different ending but I see the ending as a sort of Martyrdom for my favorite character, Butch. In this movie I see Butch as a defender and unsung hero. He never committed violence unless he was pushed and provoked by someone else. For instance in the beginning when the Correctional Officer was abusing him, he defended himself or when the crooked trustee bullies who ruled with abuse and terror, where terrorizing him and his friends and he took care of them and gave them a taste of Justice. He also defended and protected Davis by dealing with them. When Angel was murdered and Davis was raped and committed suicide Butch reached his breaking point from the injustice and that nothing was done about it and he incited a riot during the hunger strike for the death of the two boys. What I got from this movie is not that Butch, his friends and the majority of the inmates are the bad guys but that the crooked and abusive officers and inmate bullies are. When Butch saw that nothing was going to be done and that officer Goodyear refused to answer for his crimes and say what happened, he decided to take justice into his own hands, in the only way he was able too. I was hoping that the movie would end with Butch making Officer Goodyear and all the other crooked officers answer for their crimes and that he would escape. I was very frustrated with the ending but I think it served to give Butch martyrdom in his fight against corrupt bullies whether they are in the form of corrupt and abusive correctional officers or violent and abusive inmate bullies. One of my favorite movies of all time and the meaning of it will stick with me for a long time.