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DOG SOLDIERS
Rating: 
UK/Luxembourg. 2002.
Director/Screenplay – Neil Marshall, Producers – David E. Allen, Christopher Figg & Tom Reeve, Photography (some scenes b&w) – Sam McCurdy, Music – Mark Thomas, Visual Effects/Makeup Effects – Image FX (Supervisor – Bob Keen), Physical Effects Supervisor – Harry Wiessenhaan, Production Design – Simon Bowles. Production Company – Kismet Entertainment Group/The Noel Gay Motion Picture Company/The Luxembourg Film Fund/Victor Film Co/Carousel Pictures/Dog Soldiers Ltd.
Cast:
Kevin McKidd (Private Cooper), Sean Pertwee (Sergeant Wells), Emma Cleasby (Megan), Liam Cunningham (Captain Ryan), Darren Morfitt (Spoon), Leslie Simpson (Terry), Chris Robson (Joe), Thomas Lockyer (Bruce)
Plot: A troop of British territorial soldiers are on a training exercise in the remote Scottish highlands when they are savagely attacked by wild animals. They are aided by Megan, a zoologist, who explains that they are being attacked by werewolves. The survivors barricade themselves into a nearby farmhouse with a dwindling supply of ammunition as the werewolves close in.
Dog Soldiers is a British/Luxembourg-made werewolf film that arrives with a modest degree of acclaim. Conceptually it is like someone had decided to rework Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort (1981), which was about an under-armed troupe of soldiers on a training mission being hunted by Cajuns, but with werewolves in lieu of Cajuns. And as a no-punches-held-back, no pretensions piece of visceral horror, Dog Soldiers is rather enjoyable. Nothing particularly startling or conceptually inventive is done with the premise. Rather, all that director Neil Marshall does is gets in there and shoots, bangs and splatters his show at a fast and satisfying pace. The climactic scenes where the werewolves do finally break into the house are particularly well sustained, and the film rarely ever slows down elsewhere.
Neil Marshall has almost certainly done some time in the British territorials and Dog Soldiers is clearly written with an insider’s knowledge of the way infantry army operates. Particularly good upon Marshall’s part are some of the characterizations of the men who are all drawn with simple but convincingly credible strokes. There is a standout performance from Sean Pertwee as the tough-as-nails sergeant of the group, although the show is in large part captured by the unknown Kevin McKidd, who does an excellent job of portraying an ordinary, decent man who rises to become the leader of the group.
Dog Soldiers is produced by Christopher Figg, the man behind Clive Barker’s equally low-budgeted British horror miracle Hellraiser (1987). And in terms of the modest acclaim that Dog Soldiers received in the international marketplace, the Hellraiser comparison is not inapt. To further extend the Barker connection, Dog Soldiers also has some quite effective two-metre tall werewolves and quite convincingly gory splatter effects from Bob Keen, the man who supervised the transformations for Hellraiser.
Neil Marshall subsequently went onto make the better-budgeted and really excellent The Descent (2005) about potholers encountering creatures underground.
(Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Sean Pertwee) and Best Makeup Effects at this site’s Best of 2002 Awards).
Copyright Richard Scheib 2003
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