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Review #39: Dog Soldiers.
A small group of British Squaddies on a training programme in a forest in the middle of Scotland’s nowhere, is thrown into a night of horror survival when they find themselves preyed upon, by what they perceive as a pack of giant wolves.
They happen upon the gruesome remains of another group of soldiers and immediately take ammo and weapons and head for a way out of the forest.
Eventually they find themselves trapped in a farmhouse and have to spend the night defending their stronghold against an inhuman and seemingly invincible enemy.
The low budget horror movie makes a welcome return to the screen.
Dog Soldiers starts out as a normal, funny buddy movie and rapidly nosedives into a genuinely funny, gory and shocking horror movie with gun-action thrown in for good measure.
The writing is pretty simple, it’s the bog-standard ‘trapped in house, monster trying to get in’ thriller in a similar vein to Romero’s Zombie movies. It’s kept small scale and utilises suspense perfectly.
But the addition of the prey being a bunch of Squaddies gives the movie a much broader range with the action and especially, the comedic elements.
The characterisation of the soldiers is absolutely spot on, especially with the attitudes and dialogue, they’re funny, pally and also know how to kick @rse and take orders when needed.
The main sense of realism incorporated into the movie is with the cast that were picked for the various roles, they’ve all got different accents and are in their late teens and early 20s, with only the Sergeant and Corporal being older than the rest.
The cast doesn’t disappoint either.
They’re funny, engaging, serious and tough and are believable as British Soldiers. They all hit their lines with professionalism and never miss a beat during action scenes.
Jon Pertwee as the Sarge is particularly good, he’s extremely believable and well cast in the role.
As too is Kevin McKidd who takes charge when the Sarge is injured.
Liam Cunningham adds a touch of British Villainy to the mix and has an air of campness about him too.
The effects of the movie are, for a low budget film, extremely well made. The creatures are kept to the shadows until the end and when revealed, certainly don’t disappoint. They’re men-in-suits, but with a difference and there’s no CGI contained in the movie either, which gives the whole thing a grounded feel.
The only thing that lets the movie down is the running time, it’s just not long enough.
100 minutes? I wanted at least another hour.
Still, that doesn’t remove the fact that it’s an extremely good piece of writing, acting and shooting.
All in all it’s a thrill-ride of comedy, horror and realism, in a set of unreal but still, oddly believable circumstances.
My rating is an easily given 95%
A small group of British Squaddies on a training programme in a forest in the middle of Scotland’s nowhere, is thrown into a night of horror survival when they find themselves preyed upon, by what they perceive as a pack of giant wolves.
They happen upon the gruesome remains of another group of soldiers and immediately take ammo and weapons and head for a way out of the forest.
Eventually they find themselves trapped in a farmhouse and have to spend the night defending their stronghold against an inhuman and seemingly invincible enemy.
The low budget horror movie makes a welcome return to the screen.
Dog Soldiers starts out as a normal, funny buddy movie and rapidly nosedives into a genuinely funny, gory and shocking horror movie with gun-action thrown in for good measure.
The writing is pretty simple, it’s the bog-standard ‘trapped in house, monster trying to get in’ thriller in a similar vein to Romero’s Zombie movies. It’s kept small scale and utilises suspense perfectly.
But the addition of the prey being a bunch of Squaddies gives the movie a much broader range with the action and especially, the comedic elements.
The characterisation of the soldiers is absolutely spot on, especially with the attitudes and dialogue, they’re funny, pally and also know how to kick @rse and take orders when needed.
The main sense of realism incorporated into the movie is with the cast that were picked for the various roles, they’ve all got different accents and are in their late teens and early 20s, with only the Sergeant and Corporal being older than the rest.
The cast doesn’t disappoint either.
They’re funny, engaging, serious and tough and are believable as British Soldiers. They all hit their lines with professionalism and never miss a beat during action scenes.
Jon Pertwee as the Sarge is particularly good, he’s extremely believable and well cast in the role.
As too is Kevin McKidd who takes charge when the Sarge is injured.
Liam Cunningham adds a touch of British Villainy to the mix and has an air of campness about him too.
The effects of the movie are, for a low budget film, extremely well made. The creatures are kept to the shadows until the end and when revealed, certainly don’t disappoint. They’re men-in-suits, but with a difference and there’s no CGI contained in the movie either, which gives the whole thing a grounded feel.
The only thing that lets the movie down is the running time, it’s just not long enough.
100 minutes? I wanted at least another hour.
Still, that doesn’t remove the fact that it’s an extremely good piece of writing, acting and shooting.
All in all it’s a thrill-ride of comedy, horror and realism, in a set of unreal but still, oddly believable circumstances.
My rating is an easily given 95%
