Review of Dog Soldiers (2002) by Doctor S — 02 Sep 2011

Dog Soldiers, I decree thee...Best Werewolf Movie of All Time!

I had a backup plan when I started watching this because who wants to see another werewolf movie? I've only seen a few and I thought that was enough. But instead of forcing us to endure another writhing transformation scene, we are placed on the other side of the 8-ball. We follow a team of soldiers on a boring training exercise in the remote Scottish countryside that soon becomes engaged in a fight for their lives against a pack of strange feral creatures...with fangs.

Just like with The Descent, director Neil Marshall once again does an excellent job of familiarizing us with the team of characters during the first act so that WE become a part of the team and have an emotional investment in what happens once the shit hits the fan. Kevin McKidd (equally impressive as Vorenus on HBO's excellent Rome series) commands attention as one of the two combat veterans on this team. In fact the acting is uniformly solid from seasoned British actors with interesting personalities, ingredients normally absent in a horror movie. Plenty of blood, gore, pulse-pounding mayhem, blackly comic relief, and even a couple surprises await. The creature effects are sometimes dodgy ("hey look, it's a dude in a suit!") so the minimalist technique of showing a flailing arm here, a flash of toothy mouth there was a wise decision. AAAAHH-OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!