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Cavedweller2000 posted...

Dog Soldiers (2002 film)

@Cavedweller2000

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Dog Soldiers is a 2002 British werewolf film, written and directed by Neil Marshall (who would go on to direct the all-timer The Descent right after this). Set in the Scottish Highlands, Dog Soldiers follows a group of Army trainees, led by the charismatic Sergeant Wells (played by Sean Pertwee), though the real main character is actually Private Cooper, played by Kevin McKidd, a skilled soldier with high morals who was failed out of a special forces program for refusing to put down an innocent dog at the behest of his commander (not Wells, another man by the name of Captain Ryan, more on him later).

This is a mostly excellent movie, offering some imaginative ideas on the werewolf genre while still wearing many influences on its sleeve. A clear reference point is Predator - especially at the outset of the film - soldiers in the woods, snarking it up with mucho machoism, being stalked by an unknown force complete with infrared tint. Some may call it plagiarism, I call it paying homage, and besides, I think Dog Soldiers quickly abandons its Predator pretensions for something more Assault on Precinct 13 by way of Goldilocks mixed with 1977's cult dog horror The Pack (even a little dash of Night of the Living Dead for good measure).

The army trainees end up holed up in a farmhouse deep in the woods, besieged by the monstrous yet familiarly human manwolves. The film builds up tension steadily, only showing the beasts for brief glimpses at first, wisely reserving their full, scarily sinewy designs for more climactic efforts. However, the glimpses at the creatures are mesmerizing & unsettling. All the while, human drama plays out within the house, mostly between Cooper, the aforementioned constantly leering and puss-faced commander Captain Ryan, and a zoologist named Megan, who definitely blossoms her character out over the course of the film, revealing many hidden layers. She's played by Emma Cleasby, an actress I really wish was in more films because I love her performance here - she mixes quiet desperation, hidden strength, and steely reserve to an absolute tee.

Liam Cunningham's Captain Ryan really knows how to chew up the scenery and he's a great character as well. He was out in the woods with his team for one purpose - to capture one of the werewolves, and Wells' & Coopers' trainees were actually the bait for this plan, though obviously it all went to shit. Ryan's lack of remorse is apparent, and at times even comical - though this helps aid the film's obvious double entendre title - with soldiers being the dogs, themselves, pointed into the jaws of death by their superiors. However, Ryan was injured by the pack, which means werewolf infection is in full effect, and his transformation scene is great. It doesn't reach the grimy & intense levels of something like American Werewolf, but his writhing and growling in subdued pain & terror is certainly appropriate for the tone.

Dog Soldiers consistently ramps up the action while holding the audience in a perpetual fairy tale fantasy. The film makes constant reference to the classic Three Bears tale - eating their food, sleeping in their beds, downright wrecking the place. As it turns out, the very farmhouse they're holed up in belongs to the wolves. When Megan turns out to be a werewolf herself, the poor woman cursed to this life of hell, caught between her human side and her commitment to the pack, the film pulls its final classic folk tale twist and turns it into something quite different than what it appeared to be. One criticism I do have with this though is Megan's "time of the month" line, like, the film feels like it's piling on too many metaphors with the werewolves at that point and also she's hilariously felled with one bullet before she can complete her transformation, completely deflating any tension.

You know, writing all this out now, it's hard to believe how a filmmaker's schlocky homage to his favorite horror films can have so much to discuss. Dog Soldiers I feel is currently the last amazing werewolf film we have in the canon. Yes, there have been attempts - Trick 'r Treat (which only loses out because it isn't a pure werewolf film), Underworld (doesn't really attempt to do anything interesting with werewolves besides action), Late Phases (too little-known) - but Dog Soldiers feels like the end of a last bastion of werewolves in horror, and if you watch this you can feel the flood of intensity from a man who clearly loves him some men-turned-dogs (not in THAT way). It has fantastic action, effective horror, and an underrated moody atmosphere that sets it apart from the pack. Plus, it's even funny. Sometimes, unintentionally probably, but I don't know, it just adds to the film quite nicely. If you're a werewolf fan and somehow haven't checked this film out yet, you are truly missing out on something incredible.