La criatura (1977)

A dog is man’s best friend, of course, except when that canine beast inserts itself between a man and the loving ministrations of a woman. Rover rolls over and plays the role of symbolic rival and also of real-world threat in the stylish and haunting mind game that is The Creature (1977). This Spanish film spices its gender politics with sexual apprehension and primal taboos. A mature and yearning matron tires of life with her television-hack husband. Perhaps a baby will help; but a scare from a savage dog causes the woman to miscarry. She recovers, adopts a dog similar to the one that frightened the child from her womb, and may in fact be sharing her sensual delights with the bowser. Left to lick his own blue balls, hubby can’t decide if he should take the animal to the pound or go down there and bring home a new bitch of his own.