Watchers

A secret government laboratory, which has been genetically engineering animals for combat, unaccountably explodes, allowing two creatures to escape: a super-intelligent golden retriever that only wants to be loved, and a super-nasty hairy beastie. The dog befriends a kid called Travis, who's basically a good sort; but because the beastie has been trained to kill, Travis is soon surrounded by dead people with missing eyeballs. The obligatory mad scientists run around attempting to catch their creations, and don't care who they walk over in the process, so pretty soon it's 'young boy and wonder dog against the world' time. Produced under the guiding influence of Roger Corman, this low budget adaptation of Dean R Koontz's novel is a Boy's Own adventure all the way, a cross between Lassie Come Home and Predator, with a terrifically evil performance from Ironside. The script is enjoyably laughable, and the special effects are reassuringly tacky. Good cheap nonsense.