Dog Soldiers (2002)

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Rawrrrrr...

Director: Neil Marshall

Stars: Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee, Liam Cunningham

Things you might like:

• The best werewolf film since 1981
• The special effects are superb
• The pacing is neat and tidy
• There are scares aplenty
• Dark and subtle humour
• NO TEENAGERS!

Things you might not like:

• Certain plot elements are sketchy
• A wild amount of blood and gore
• Fast-paced camerawork isn’t for all

Conclusion
Proof that a horror film needs neither CGI nor a huge budget, Dog Soldiers is a gut-gnawing rampage of blood and black humour that doesn’t fail to disappoint.

4 out of 5 family members home for tea

 Errol Stephen Philip Flynn might be hiding in the barn…

***

 Lone campers miles from anywhere in the remote Scottish woods is the cliché that this film opens with, but underestimate it at your peril.  A quick bit of flashy camerawork, a few screams and a splattering of blood later and we cut to Wales, where we pick up the main storyline.

Private Cooper, a soldier on an evasion exercise (part of the Special Forces selection process) is finally caught after over twenty hours outdoors, which makes him the best of the best, yet our recruit fails the selection process because he refuses to shoot a dog for no reason when ordered by the captain in command.  In order to further prove that Captain Ryan is a bit unstable, he shoots the dog anyway before sending Cooper back to his unit.

Four weeks later, and Cooper is part of a squad of six soldiers dropped off in the remote Scottish woods by helicopter.  Led by Sergeant Harry G Wells, they are on a routine training mission, with blank ammunition.  All they know is they have a target to get to, and that they must evade capture whilst doing it – they are up against a Special Forces unit too.  Realising it’s best to wait until nightfall to proceed, they camp down and get a fire going at the base of a rocky outcrop.

Without warning a cow crashes down onto their fire, which naturally upsets them a little.  They quickly discern that the cow wasn’t shot, but mauled to death.  The sergeant quickly sets up a defensive perimeter, aware that there isn’t much else he can do until the morning.  In the cold light of day they follow the trail of blood, all the way to the base camp for the special ops unit – or what’s left of it.  There’s gore everywhere, the radio is smashed and the only one alive is a wounded and delirious Captain Ryan.

From here the pace really picks up – scares and adrenaline stack up as fast as the bullets fly.  Ending up at a farmhouse, the rest of the film follows the resulting siege and the soldiers’ desperate struggle for survival.

Dog Soldiers has one exceptionally strong aspect in its favour - the special effects are first-class, especially when it comes to the werewolves.  Creative camerawork and a deliberate shunning of CGI effects leads to the wolves having an exceptionally solid role in the film.  Because they are portrayed by actors in suits the cast have something to react to directly, and this makes all the difference.  Just to clarify: ‘actors in suits’ is an accurate description of our lupine friends, but discount any ideas about silly costumes – these are most definitely not for kids – they are slavering beasts with matted fur and fury in their eyes.

The plot is essentially strong, although amazingly it is a couple of the human characters who are less believable than the wolves.  This is due to the fact that rather obvious questions are not asked, leaving a couple of holes that may irritate the more pernickety viewer (although you will be annoyed when one character angrily demands an answer to his question, doesn’t get it, and then forgets the whole thing rather than following up a fairly important thought).   Of course, this is forgivable in the circumstances, otherwise the plot would all arrive at once and then the rest of the film would be shooting werewolves – some would prefer this, but it would bugger up the pacing considerably.

Despite this niggle, the actors are all doing a good job.  Their characters are realistic if not exactly deep or likable, but they work well as a team and you can truly believe in their camaraderie.  As already noted in the bullets, it’s also a refreshing change to have a horror film that doesn’t centre around a group of stupid teenagers, thus breaking away from a slew of horror films that all follow that boring, identical, soul-destroying, interchangeable-character plotline that grates more than a Saw film.  In Dog Soldiers there are enough solid twists and clever lines to keep you engaged between moments of genuine shock, violent action and tension that is second to none.  Emotional moments are understandably few and far between, but when they appear they feel genuine and not overdone.

Also included are a plethora of references to other films, but not just werewolf films – Dog Soldiers also throws out rather ingenious references to (amongst others) Zulu, The Evil Dead and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.  There’s also a not-subtle-at-all reference to the Matrix, which serves to provide a much-needed moment of levity.

Altogether, Dog Soldiers is quite a package.  For a slim-budget horror film, not only is it beautifully shot, but the plotline is also far from either implausibility or predictability which makes for very compulsive viewing.  There are a couple of frustrating moments, but these are more than compensated for by the realism and rugged portrayal of men fighting for their lives against the supernatural.  The black comedy is well handled as sporadic relief, and will have you laughing darkly before the next scare arrives.  On the strength of all this, I urge you to shun zombie films, discard both Twilight and proper vampire films and succumb to the fever of the moon.

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