Dog Soldiers | Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd | THEE BEST WEREWOLF MOVIE TO DATE!!!

Dog Soldiers | Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd | It's okay.

DVDs:

Dog Soldiers

	Dog Soldiers Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd 20th Century Fox, 2003 average customer review:based on 238 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This lean, efficient horror flick stands well above most bloated blockbusters. Dog Soldiers follows a military squad on a training mission in the Scottish wilds, where they run into a pack of werewolves. There's nothing fancy about the plot--the soldiers hole up in a farmhouse and desperately try to fend off the werewolves until dawn--but the script is full of smart dialogue and clever ideas, the direction is dynamic, and the performances (from Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee, Emma Cleasby, and Liam Cunningham, among a solid cast of relative unknowns) are strong and committed throughout. Dog Soldiers pays homage to Night of the Living Dead, Aliens, and The Evil Dead, among other films, but the references are woven into the fabric of the movie. An unpretentious, tension-inducing flick like this is a pleasant reminder that even crude special effects can be more evocative than expensive computer flashiness. --Bret Fetzer

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THEE BEST WEREWOLF MOVIE TO DATE!!!

'Dog Soldiers' is a 2002 British film directed by Neil Marshall and stars Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham, Emma Cleasby, and Sean Pertwee. The film was released direct-to-video in the States and has built up a large cult following.

Our story starts off with a few broken scenes. The first shows a couple camping in the Scottish wilderness. They are suddenly and violently attacked by something unknown.
The second shows the main protagonist, Private Cooper, on some kind of training course for the purpose of joining a Special Ops. military squad. Upon completing the course, he is ordered to kill a dog by the commanding officer, Capt. Ryan. He refuses and subsequently fails.
The final cut gets the movie moving. Some time later, Cooper has joined another squad that is conducting a training exercise in the Scottish highlands. They come across the remains of a rival team(who is part of the same exersice)that had been slaughtered. Oddly enough, the soul survivor of the attack is Capt. Ryan. As they are examining the area for clues to what happend, they are suddenly besieged by the attackers. On the run, they are picked up by Meagan, A zoologist studying the morbid phenomena. She takes them to a lonely cabin in the forest, and they soon become trapped by what are revealed to be werewolves.

This is the best werewolf movie made thus far!! The plot is fairly straight foward, and is a mix of 'The Howling', 'Predator', and 'The Evil Dead'.

The acting is spot on. Each character is well defined, acted, and has a sence of purpose. The cast are relativly unknowns, however some might recognize Pertwee(Sgt. Wells)from 'Event Horizon' and McKidd(Cooper)from 'Trainspotting'. They all convey a sence of realism, that only increases as the suspence of the movie picks up as the story unfolds.

The editing is great, but the one flaw with the movie is it takes about 20 min. for the tense action to pick up. The broken scenes at the beggining work well to set the story up, but drags a little, and is probably the one and only flaw of the film. Once the action and suspence picks up...WHOA BUDDY!! You'll be jumping out of your seat, garanteed!!! The editing and pace of the film really brings a sence of claustraphobia(sp?)that adds to the overall vibe of the film.

The cimenatography is excellent! This movie takes place at night, and uses natural darkness to create a creepy atmosphere. The blood and gore really, really pops, but is tied heavily in with the editing, and paced perfectly throughout the film. This does have a slightly 'gritty' look to it, but brings a 'you are there' feeling to the film and only adds to the claustraphobic feeling.

The effects are what makes this movie shine. No C.G.I. was used in this film and is another example that C.G.I. should only be used as a background effect in horror movies! This movie gets really bloody and gory, but is balanced really well with the suspence and tense action. The werewolves themselves look quite real, but are sparingly revealed throughout the film; as the film progresses, we see more of them. This only adds to the tense feeling of the film.

I can't say enough good things about this film!!! Like many other people, I had grown burnt out on the werewolf genre and was tired of lame movies that ripped off 'The Howling'. This flick is such a breath of fresh air, and is(IMO)superior to 'The Howling' and 'An American Werewolf in London'. If you're a fan of either of those, 'Predator', and 'The Evil Dead' DO NOT HESSITATE TO GET THIS!!! You will not be dissapointed, I garantee it!! BY FAR THE BEST WEREWOLF MOVIE EVER!!

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It's okay.

Really? You've looked at the cover and read the title of the movie, and you're still not clear? It's soldiers and werewolves and a ton of awesomeness.

Just buy it already.

If you go down to the woods today...

Quite possibility the best werewolf film made since An American Werewolf in London.

In Dog Soldiers, a group of British squaddies, out on a training exercise in the vast wilderness of the Scottish Highlands, come up against a `troop' of werewolves.

Having dispatched a group of superior British SAS special forces, surely the regular British troops won't be much of a problem for the 7ft hairy howlers. Wrong; through their toughness, training and the little incentive of staying alive, the squaddies put a brave determined fight, fuelled with typical gallows humour (`I hope I give you the sh***' says one of the squaddies before he becomes `dinner').

Whilst it takes bits from Aliens and Night of the Living Dead, you have to remember that these films in turn take inspiration from earlier films, Aliens, for example, is a sort of futuristic `Zulu' and the siege of Rourke's Drift in Natal. There is also the look up to Predator, though instead of muscle bound men we have a sort of mismatch of determined, dogged, (`scuse the pun) and well trained group of terriers (oh dear), the sort of blokes that make up the British Army (or 'the scum of the earth' as Wellington famously called his own troops)..

This is a unique modern horror movie, in that it throws out the CGI possibilities. CGI never ever works in horror movies. The digital animation, no matter how realistic, severs the link between the viewers' expectations that the `monster' and the `victim' share the same `stage' (ground, etc). Whilst CGI brings wonders to fantasy films, such as Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park, it seems too false and detached to exactly what is going on, on the screen. And that is what is great about Dog Soldiers, the wolves are on screen and you never have the irritated inkling that the victims are not staring death in the face, but are merely looking into a blue screen. American Werewolf in Paris, in particular, suffers greatly from this problem (among other things as well, to be fair).

The cast includes fairly unknowns; however Kevin McKidd is most famous for his role in Trainspotting and Rome. Sean Pertwee has been in a few movies, including Event Horizon and coincidentally played Caesar in a series about Roman Emperors around the time McKidd was in Rome. Both Roman series where made and shown by the BBC (and HBO).

I guess you will have to watch it to found out who lives and who doesn't, but I assure you it is worth it. It wasn't a huge success, but I believe it has enjoyed a second wave of success through word of mouth and has got itself a small cult following. There is a belated sequel planned, which is rumoured to be a bigger budget film than this one and aimed more at the US market. If so, then this film may get searched out again by a new wave of curious horror film addicts.

Dog Soldiers is a perfect film for a night in while the rain crashes down outside and howls pierce the cold night air! And, it all ends with a poke at the English tabloids, and a shock victory against the `old enemy' (Germany) in a little game of football being played hundreds of miles away from the horror of the Scottish wilderness.

4 Stars.

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Soldiers versus the supernatural

Dog Soldiers is a good action flick with the supernatural-horror slant. I have used clips of this film several times to demonstrate different leadership styles of the military. What I liked about this military/horror show was that the military action scenes were very accurate and believable. O.K. so the werewolf slant had a few flaws. But, the film was non-stop kick-butt, right to the end.

Doug Setter
Author of Stomach Flattening and One Less Victim

Who Let The Dogs In ?!!!

If you like non-stop military action,
you will like this movie.
If you like blood and gore,
you will like this movie.
If you like monsters, in this case werewolves,
you will like this movie.

The cinematography and music are very good.
I knew from the opening sequence, when our
British Army "heroes" land for their jungle
training exercise, soon to go very wrong,
that I was watching a far better than average
action/horror film, and it stayed that way.

The characters are cliche, but in a good way.
Some of the gross out stuff I considered to be
gratuitous and it detracted from the film.
That kind of thing is unnecessary when you have
a quality presentation.

This is no gothic werewolf story,
it is a full-on military action film
with the enemy being a group of nasty werewolves.

Turn out the lights, buckle yourself in,
check your blood pressure,
don't bother with the popcorn and enjoy.

These dogs don't want to go out,
they want to come in
and God help you if they do.

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