Review of Dog Soldiers (2002) by Justin B — 24 Aug 2008

Dog Soldiers just goes to show that you dont need a massive budget and bombastic special effects to make a purely enjoyable movie (does'nt it Micheal Bay?) This is honestly the best werewolf movie out there, second maybe only to Underworld, but to tell you the truth I enjoyed this just as much, maybe more.

The werewolf effects are entirely anamatronic and done with suits and pupeteers, but as with alien, it adds that effect of them not being CG. They are really there, in the frame with the actors trying to eat them alive. The werewolves are tall, scruffy and lanky, they kinda look a little shaky, but the camera isnt ever focused on them for very long, making fast paced and frightening action sequences.

Dog Soldiers also features top notch british humor, with dozens and dozens of fantastic funny one liners and comments peppering the carnage. But what is so great about them is that as enjoyable as they are, and as much as you get to like the characters, it never ever takes away from the grizzly atmosphere of being stalked and hunted by bloodthirsty lycanthropes. This sort of combination between humor and horror has never really been accomplished as well as Dog Soldiers. Take The Mummy for example. While its still enjoyable, its too scary to be funny, and too funny to be scary. Not the case here. Neither the horror, nor the humor ever conflicts badly enough to make it hollow and too weird to enjoy.

Be warned, this is a gory one. Not outlandish sick-for-the-sake-of-being-sick gore, but well done and effective violence. Another thing it does well is actually makes you give a shit about the characters. Giving them genuine personality instead of just obviouse attempts at giving them quirks designed to make you feel pity makes it that much better.

This is truly a great werewolf movie, and I reccommend it to fans of british humor, army humor, monster movie lovers, werewolf movie lovers, gore heads movie enthusiasts and everyone inbetween. Except, you know, for kids and wussy people.

Justins Best Bit: Sean Pertwee as Sarge delivers most of the best lines. "We are now, up against, live, hostile targets. So, should little red riding hood show up with a bazooka and a bad attitude I expect you to tune the bitch." Also, the sequence of Spoon vs werewolf is absolutely awesome. How many guys take on a werewolf bare knuckled and beat the living snot out of it? Spoon is one of my all time favorite heroes for that. Champion.