:
Sean Pertwee,
Sean Pertwee,
Kevin McKidd,
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:
Neil Marshall,
Neil Marshall
see all cast/crew...
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: 20th Century Fox
: Foreign, Horror, Werewolves, Killer Critters, UK
: 105 min.
: English
: Spanish
see additional details...
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British director Neil Marshall's directorial debut Dog Soldiers resurrects and embraces the low-budget horror-comedy. Sergeant Harry Wells (Sean Pertwee) leads a team of British soldiers on a routine expedition to the Scottish Highlands. The six men would rather be at home watching the game, but they are even more dismayed when a carcass lands on their campfire. The next morning, they happen upon a severely injured Captain Richard Ryan (Liam Cunningham) and the bloody remains of his squadron. Soon they are attacked by giant werewolf beasts and chased through the woods, only to be saved by zoologist Megan (Emma Cleasby), who explains some of the truth about the creatures. They all take refuge in an old farmhouse while the threat of the monsters looms increasingly heavy. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
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| A werewolf movie with brains
by chrisoe
November 2, 2007 - 11:07 AM PDT
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2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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| We loved that both the werewolf and the soldier characters made smart choices, that they acted in characteristic ways. We liked that the gore wasn't over the top. It wasn't just a carnival ride, there was a story here. In a "scary" movie, plot and character are fairly uncommon things to find. |
| great movie!
by annepants
June 23, 2007 - 4:42 PM PDT
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0 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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| It's not werewolf movie with soldiers. It's a soldier movie with werewolves! Could it possibly be that, towards the very end of the movie (spoiler alert), the line "There is no Spoon" is a Matrix reference? |
| Makes Cabin Fever look coherent
by Lastcrackerjack
March 12, 2006 - 9:41 PM PST
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0 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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A British Army training exercise led by a crusty sarge (Sean Pertwee) stumbles onto a Special Forces mission that is hunting werewolves (be vewy, vewy quiet&) in the Scottish Highlands. The unit is rescued by a local zoologist (Emma Cleasby) who is apparently studying the beasts. The humans hole up together in a farmhouse while the lycanthropes try to break inside.
Written and directed by Neil Marshall, the movie functions as a demo reel the same way Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels did. While American made knockoffs of Hollywood hits generate little or no enthusiasm, European knockoffs of Hollywood hits are usually given a pass and sometimes, are actually considered novel.
While Marshall certainly proves to studio execs watching that they can hire him, the actual movie is an absurd soup of every big sci-fi, horror movie or thriller to come out of Hollywood in the last 20 years. It actually makes Cabin Fever look like a coherent narrative.
We have weekend warriors on a training mission gone bad, just like Southern Comfort. We have werewolves in the moors like An American Werewolf In London. We have the "we're all expendable" cover-up motif of Alien. We have the siege storyline of Aliens. We have the Guy We Can't Trust from Aliens as well. Except, you know, with werewolves. Werewolves that even for a no budget film are some of the cheapest, most laughable creatures in the history of cinema.
The werewolf makeup is revealed to be professionally designed when we actually get a moment to look at it in close-up, but most of Marshall's staging resembles little more than stuntmen running around with masks on. Student films aren't usually as hapless as this.
If the story had stayed on the Scottish moors, it would have been worth a rental. The opening sequence, in which a pair of campers have their tent visited by a werewolf, is well done. There's also a scare early on involving a mutilated cow falling from the sky and onto the unit's fire.
Marshall's decision to channel James Cameron in a protracted siege punts the film into the shithouse. Why are the troops blasting away at two or three werewolves when their bullets have no effect? And where's all their ammo coming from? The introduction of some black comedy here possibly leftover styling from Joe Dante's classic The Howling - left me searching for the movies this one didn't blatantly rip off.
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.81)
200 Votes
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