Movie Review: Dog Soldiers
Neil Marshall has made some inspired horror films—top of the list has to be The Descent—but he’s also made some shockers, too, and not in he way cinematic nature intended; Doomsday, for example, the 2008 science fiction action film set in an apocalyptic Scotland, was made with an enormous budget but transpired to be laugh-out-loud bad.
Fans only recently aqcuainted with Marshall’s work might not know that long before The Descent, the director made a solid action-horror called Dog Soldiers (2002); set in the Scottish highlands, it tells the violent story of six British Army soldiers who stumble across a Special Forces operative lying mutilated in the woods, and later find themselves holed up in a cabin besieged by werewolves, fighting for their lives.
Up until Dog Soldiers came along werewolves had pretty much been left on the horror movie shelf in favour of more eloquent, trendy monsters such as vampires, and why not? For every good vampire film it’s fair to say there are probably ten bad werewolf ones pulling the reputation down; so Marshall was taking a big creative risk here, and not one that other directors were eager to follow. And with so many bad films littering the past, I have to say I didn’t expect much. My number one concern was how the werewolves would be brought to life; something which the film handles brilliantly, in a way which has more in common with theatre than film (something which can easily be explained by the wereolves themselves being played by trained dancers).
For what is actually a very simple story, Dog Soldiers packs in laughs, thrills and climactic scare scenes, all the while moving towards a nasty twist which should catch most viewers completely off guard. There are few bad things to be said about the film; the acting is a morbid mix of black humour–provided by top British talent including Sean Pertwee–and the werewolves are brought to life super-stylistically, making Dog Soldiers the werewolf film to beat.
One last thing, I have been allocated to set up the stand for my work at the commerce convention this friday. Does anyone know where I can get some good pop up display stands at short notice?