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Directed by: Neil Marshall Starring: A bunch of guys Remember James Cameron’s blockbuster Aliens? What if instead of giant acid-filled condoms, you had a pack of werewolves as the monsters? And what if the story was set in Scottish woodland instead of a space colony? Well, then you’d have Dog Soldiers. The story behind Dog Soldiers is incredibly simple. A military training group comes under attack by a mysterious enemy during a training exercise. As the soldiers are killed off, the remaining group flees to an isolated cabin in the woods, where they make their last stand against the ferocious band of lycanthropes. Dog Soldiers was made on a relatively small budget, and it often shows itself in the production values. However, the direction by newcomer Neil Marshall is quite effective in hiding the financial constraints of the film, with quick editing, tight framing and dark lighting to protect the costumes and effects from becoming too obvious. This style does have its price though, as the film becomes exhausting at times with its relentless pace and action, with little time for the audience to recover from each encounter. Another flaw with the film is that the actors often fail to distinguish themselves from one another, which becomes problematic because of their similar costumes and appearances, resulting in a faceless mess of soldiers being assailed and slaughtered. There is a degree to which this is effective though, because the film provides some criticism of the heartless, anonymous lifestyle of military culture and its relationship to the rest of society. There is also a dark streak of humor present in the film, which helps lessen the severity of the tempo and action. In one scene, a soldier is lying on the floor of the cabin with his entrails spilling out of his belly, and the resident’s dog begins to pull on his intestines like a chew toy. The gore effects are obviously fake, and never become truly revolting or offensive. Despite its flaws, Dog Soldiers is an interesting film, and illustrates the talents of a promising young director. For fans of horror and action films, it’s a great outing, never taking itself too seriously or degrading too far into camp. vertov fucked around with this message at 18:49 on May 3, 2004 |
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May 3, 2004 18:40
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 15:14 |
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Dog Soldiers is the best werewolf movie I can recall seeing, but mainly because other werewolf movies generally are suck rear end b-movies. PROS: Nice werewolves The werewolves are big and scary, and are just shown as moving silhouettes in short cuts to begin with and doesn't give away too much, which works nicely to keep them scary. The newspaper headlines. ***The black/white photographs shown in the end (in the credits I think) are REALLY cool and deserves a mention. CONS: Too much army bullshit The first 20 mins of character introductions are just uninteresting and foul. And the very first scenes (with the dog) are totally unnecessary and a mood killer.
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May 12, 2004 14:51
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You don't see a lot of werewolf movies anymore, which is a shame. Dog Soldiers is quite good for a low-budget b-movie, but the plot is incredibly predictable and the actors all look alike. PROS: Very nice werewolves Sean Pertwee Nice style CONS: Incredibly predictable Not so original Actors look and sound the same 3.5/5 Oh, and in the scene the OP mentioned, the dog is pulling on the bloody bandages, not the intestines.
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May 12, 2004 17:10
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An excellent movie. I love horror movies, especially if they don't take themselves too seriously without camping it up. Dog Soldiers knows exactly what it's doing. And just what is that? The unlikely fusing the modern-day "gritty war drama" genre with the classic horror genre. There's shaky undercranked handcam work, rapid-fire military orders and maneouvres barked out, and talk of footie, birds, beer and bollocks all within a minutes of the start. It's like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and a thousand other such movies and shows in how it's presented. I loved the first 20 minutes of this movie, because they actually made the squad feel like real people. They're people most British guys know, stereotypes of the lads down the pub, and it made me actually care about these guys. It obviously doesn't translate well across the Atlantic, where people seem to see "generic British soldiers," and that's a shame, it feels like a real slice of life from a British squad for the first 20 minutes. After that, these characters, somewhat unusual for the horror genre, are stuck into the action. And of course, they don't react like you'd expect, even if the plot itself is somewhat familiar. A prime example is the boxing scene towards the end, which I'll leave to your imagination. Suffice to say, after countless Howling sequels, two American Werewolf vacations, Silver Bullets, Ginger Snaps and all the rest, I found it extremely interesting to see a completely different set of protagonists. While they were macho military guys, they were far from generic cigar-smoking rear end-kickers. All they want to do is get out of the loving training exercise and get home to watch the footie. It's a real fresh take on an old genre. And pretty funny too. All for a low, low budget. And Sean Pertwee puts on one hell of a role. 4.5/5, excellent movie, if not to everyone's taste. "If we do happen to make contact, I expect nothing less than gratuitous violence from the lot of ya. Because we're firing blanks doesn't mean we have to be thinking nice thoughts. So you remember, you keep the fire down, right, you get stuck in and you kick their loving teeth out, or I guarantee you, Joe, they will be eating your bollocks for breakfast, sunshine."
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May 21, 2004 01:26
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the best part of this film, for me, is the part where "a soldier is lying on the floor of the cabin with his entrails spilling out of his belly, and the resident’s dog begins to pull on his intestines like a chew toy." though, actually, i think he's pulling on the bandages. because i know if i was in a similar situation, my dog would do the same thing. there's not a lot of werewolf films out there these days, but this was a pretty good one. 3.5.
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May 21, 2004 06:35
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quote:Scar Trek came out of the closet to say: I really really really liked this movie but that scene was so unfair. He loving kicks its filthy loving rear end fifty thousand million ways to sunday, BUT NO HE DIDN'T loving USE SILVER WHEN HE JABBED IT ABOUT THREE TRILLION loving times in the loving throat, SO HE loving DIES.  4.5/5
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May 21, 2004 07:36
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I picked this movie up at WalMart the other day. I couldn't believe they had the dvd in a bin for 6.88. Cheap price for such an awesome movie. Definately one of the best warewolf movies in the bast. I've heard people complain about the warewolf effects before, but I don't know what they're talking about, I thought they looked pretty cool. Also as a filmmaker I enjoyed how the movie came off, with lots of handheld and quick shots. I loved that feel. I also loved the dabs of humor in there also. The dog with the guts had me rolling on the floor. 4/5
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May 21, 2004 17:15
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I liked the first half of the movie. I really hated the last half once they started to show the werewolves. In the first part, you never see them, you can tell they are fast and strong motherfuckers from the first kills but once they show them, they all become slow and stupid. Too many sequences with werewolves just standing there looking dumb. What happened to their fast and furious ways of the first half? And to their superhuman strenght? They should have keep the werewolves "hidden" like in the first part instead of exposing them and all their flaws. 2/5 Pros: Decent first half. Above average actors for this kind of movie. Cons: Too many clichés. Terrible werewolves effects/costumes.
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May 21, 2004 20:22
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 15:14 |
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Good werewolf flick. Whoever said the characters seem the same is sorta right. They come off as most buddy soldier movies for the first part, but the movie swings out of it pretty fast. You start to recognize the individual soldiers and their personalities toward the end, but of course, half of them are dead by then. The werewolves do come off as stiff when in full frame. I sorta forgive this, mostly because it seems to shift into a survival/action movie rather than really trying to terrify you at that point. The movie does have some horror cliches, but does a fine job minimalizing and explaining them in sensible ways. The only really bad ones that come to mind is the gun jamming in one scene, and a fair plot hole I can think of the woman who rescues them in the beginning says she was looking for them as a way out. Since she had access to the car, it seems silly that she wouldn't just drive off. If she was helping Ryan capture one, why didn't they capture them during the day?
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Sep 6, 2004 04:27
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