Review of Dog Soldiers (2002) by H P — 16 Jul 2009

Dog Soldiers is an "OK" 80's horror movie, the only problem being it was made 20 years later.

In the formative 80's years when modern horror movies were starting to become a genre of it's own (thanks to video store category racks) many of it's products were of the "BAD trying to get us" variety. In this era many of the films / story's / plots were simplistic, even amateurish partly because the larger studios had not yet realized the enduring profit potential of the horror film and many of these were made on small budgets and youthful passion.

Dog Solders is in this realm which is to say it sort of sucks. More or less everything about it is generic, every twist can be seen from a mile away, the werewolves are simplistic, the characters stock and un-nuanced, the plot nominal. The humor falls flat, and the characters behave in ways that may seem fine in a script but doesn't translate.

For a directors first film it's admirable (as he has gone on to bigger and better things) but beyond this it's a film to be put off if there is any other movies in the "to be watched" pile.