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Plot:
A British Squad is sent on a training mission in the Highlands of Scotland against Special Operations squad. Ignoring the childish "campfire" stories heard about the area, they continue with their mis...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:May 16, 2008Cooper: "Go on then Bruce, what scares you?
Bruce: The self-destructive nature of the human condition.
Spoon: You're just taking the piss now.
Cooper: What about you, Spoon?
Spoon: Castration.
Cooper: There's no argument there. Joe?
Joe: Only one thing guaranteed to put the shits up me: a penalty shoot-out.
Cooper: Figures. Terry?
Terry: Watching a penalty shoot-out... with Joe.
Bruce: What about you, Coop?
Cooper: Spiders. And women. And... spider-women."
When Dog Soldiers was released in the UK, six years ago, it came out with so little fanfare that the majority of true, natural born horror fans almost missed it; which would have been a terrible shame indeed, considering the pure unadulterated quality this film contains. Instead, thanks to this film and the Blair Witch Project, my calm and reasoned psyche is now forever scarred in such a way that even thinking of staying in forests at night makes my skin physically crawl off my body in search of the nearest metropolitan area, possibly as some form of independent survival instinct. That's how good Dog Soldiers is.
As I understand it, when you're in the military of any nation, the top brass like to send the squadies out into completely uninhabited areas to play at being soldiers. I believe this is called 'training', or some other military terminology, like 'bunker' or 'second front'. In Dog Soldiers, Sgt. Harry Wells (Sean Pertwee) and his squad of 5 are dropped in the middle of Scotland's woodland on such an expedition, much to the displeasure of every member of the squad, who all had better things to do with their weekend than walk through acres of Scottish timber in the freezing cold.
If only that were the least of their problems... you see, it turns out that there's a reason that part of Scotland is pretty sparsely inhabited, and it has nothing to do with the area's lack of cable access or good satellite reception. Instead, it comes in the form of a number of big, hairy, angry and dangerous inhabitants. Werewolves. Spads of them, in fact. After a couple of less than successful encounters with their furry pursuers, and a more useful encounter with a helpful researcher named Megan (Emma Cleasby), the battered soldiers make it to the only house in the area, there to muster their defences till help arrives.
What also bears mentioning is the presence of a second British unit in the area, some special forces whose encounter with the werewolves is a spectacular failure, and whose only survivor, Cpt. Ryan (Liam Cunningham) is about as trustworthy as one of those 'I wish to deposit 8 Hundred Billion Dollars in your bank account' e-mails. For his own safety, Cpt. Ryan is forced to shelter with Wells' squad and the stage is set for the majority of the film. House. Men with guns. Lots of Werewolves. By the time we'd reached this point a scant 30 minutes into the film, I knew I'd found a new favourite.
Dog Soldiers, a title that is either brilliant or incredibly stupid (I haven't decided which), is director Neil Marshall's (The Descent) first feature film, a horror/action film that happens to be a frisbee full of fun. It's derivative (take your pick: Aliens, Predator, Night of the Living Dead, American Werewolf in London, heck, even Braveheart), but at least it's a wide range of rip-offs - smart, non-insulting rip-offs. And a major plus in its pocket is that Dog Soldiers belongs to the "we stay and fight" school of horror, instead of the "we flee and shriek like Catholic schoolgirls" school right down the road.
As you might have noticed, it's hardly an original premise - it's Aliens, or Assault on Precinct 13, or even Zulu. However, the performance of the various squad members (including Kevin "Lucius Vorenus" McKidd as Pvt. Cooper), as their desperation increases and their ammo runs low keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. And unlike the films it obviously draws references from, sandwiched nicely in between the intense terror and desperation moments are thinly spread layers of black, typically British comedy, like a perfectly made sandwich, if the bread was the terror... and, well, you know what I mean.
Whether it's the back and forth banter of the soldiers as they bicker about meaningless trivialities, or some truly inventive battlefield surgery (I'll never look at superglue the same way again), the bits of this film that didn't have me gripping my seat arms had me rolling in the aisles instead. However, the ushers quickly came in and asked me to stop, so I settled for just chuckling to myself. It's not all wine and roses though. The plot, as I've said, is fairly derivative, and the twists, such as they are, aren't particularly inventive or hard to predict. However, if you've gone to watch this film for plot twists or originality, you're probably missing the point. As a no-frills, unpretentious "survival horror" film, Dog Soldiers provides a nice twist on a popular genre, with a bunch of good acting and some non-CGI-pure-make-up werewolves as well.
Be warned, however, that the effects aren't for the weak of heart or stomach. It can get a little gory at times, and there's internal organs all over the place in some scenes. Also, as you would expect from squadies in this situation, the language is pretty coarse from the get go - some grounded in British slang, some all-purpose swearwords, but all pretty offensive if you don't like that sort of thing.
However, I'd be remiss in mentioning the one other thing in this film's favour before ending this review. Dog Soldiers, as well as being bloody good on its own merits, has earned a special place in my heart for establishing a new cinematic record: 'The Longest Set-up For A One Line Joke (Which Is Really Funny) In Cinema History'. Showing the kind of mutant dedication EarthlyAlien can sometimes display (as well as a lot of time of his hands), I've meticulously timed this joke - there's precisely 96 minutes between the set-up and the punchline. Whoa.
The best Werewolf flick since Ginger Snaps and a fine début by a director who - mark my words - will give a lot to the Horror genre.
Cooper: "Any questions?
Joe: Just the one, Coop. Exactly what is it we're fighting against?
Cooper: Megan, do you wanna run it past the boys?
Megan: Lycanthrope.
Joe: You what?
Cooper: That's werewolves to you and me.
Joe: You're taking the piss.
Spoon: What? It makes perfect sense to me." -
MCT:May 9, 2008
Night Of The Living Dead with werewolves instead of zombies (and set in Scotland not the USA). This film contains plenty of horror, action and humour (and loads of profane language).
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MCT:May 5, 2008
Good music and inventive fight scenes once they get to the soldiers. Sean Pertwee and Kevin McKidd keep it from dropping into the B-movie category.
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MCT:April 27, 2008the scariest, goriest, funniest werewolf movie ever. neil marshall is one hell of an awesome director
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MCT:April 23, 2008
Gritty, Low Budget, Fake Werewolves, What more could any horror loving fan ask for?
Everything a horror should be along with a good degree of comedy. Suprsingly a very good cast is assembled for this movie too which keeps things slightly in the realm of reality.
One of the best UK movies in a long time.
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Comments
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hc100posted 258 days ago -
MUCH BETTER THAN I EXPECTED, BIT OF GORE, HORROR, THRILLS & TOUCH OF HUMOR ALSO! WORTH THE WATCH!
posted 341 days ago -
prob my fave movie, watched it about 4 times! spoon is an absolute legend.
posted 341 days ago -
everytime i see this movie i can't help but want to get into a fistfight with a werewolf, just like Spoon. Why did he have to die?!?! He was my favorite!
posted 353 days ago -
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Watch it and youll know what i mean. Spoon............Is.............Awsome!!!!
posted 699 days ago
