Dog Soldiers (2002)

Dog Soldiers is a unique blend of folk horror and military action, propped up by a structure that references The Night of the Living Dead and the many siege films of John Carpenter. The feature film debut of one Neil Marshall, who would go on shortly to direct the millennial horror classic The Descent, it follows a squad of trained soldier bros getting torn apart by monsters in the woods as opposed to a group of spunky female spelunkers getting torn apart in a cave. Could this little film about G.I. Joes fighting mythical beasts ever hope to compare to its more popular sibling? Well, the answer may shock you *rolls eyes*

Anywho, our leads are participating in what they believe to be a routine training exercise out in the woods, only to discover that things are not what they seem. The special forces squad they were initially supposed to be meeting up with is discovered mangled and mutilated by some awful creature, which leaves behind only one cleverly-hidden survivor and no bodies; only bits and pieces. Soon, this group meets up with a zoologist that has been stationed in the area and becomes trapped inside a nearby home whose owners seem to have disappeared without a trace. If that sounds simple, believe me: it isn't. Double-crosses, betrayal, villain gambits: it's all here. No traditional twist will be left behind! Dog Soldiers, especially while one is watching it, really seems to have everything you could ever want in a horror film.

Similar to The Descent, the film opens in a rather shocking manner, giving the audience no time at all to get their bearings before pouncing. An unnamed couple exchange gifts, one of which is a silver letter opener. I bet that'll come in handy, right? Well, no, not really. Wolves just tear him and his girlfriend apart right then and there with little to no resistance from either of them. It establishes that this film ain't fucking around, and without spoiling too much, this scene does eventually become meaningful to the story, but damn. Immediately after, we get to see some prick execute an innocent doggo for no other reason than to spite a man under his command. These opening moments make one thing crystal clear, and that's that the squeamish and easily upset would best leave this film alone. Its viscous black comedy streak only reinforces this point.

But for the rest of us, this film is incredible stuff. It's a cracking little screenplay, featuring rapid-fire, whip-smart military vernacular and wisecracking, all rendered in fabulous cockney accents. It's like what you would get if Guy Ritchie had ever tried his hand at making a horror picture. They turn a simple premise into pure gold, which is impressive considering the limitations of the film. Despite all the running around in the woods with guys in furry suits, a Don Dohler film this is not. In fact, if it weren't for the visual fidelity of the footage, you'd swear this was a big studio film.

Still, the film has its annoyances: I always hate it when the military wants to study monsters as potential weapons of mass destruction, when ballistics and nukes are fairly reliable and don't have to be maintained by feeding it a regiment of soldiers every afternoon, but what do I know about warfare? There's one The Matrix reference that I guess should be expected from a low-budget film from 2002 but come on, guys. "There is no spoon?" Worst of all is the weirdly familiar moment (where else have I seen this before? I'm genuinely asking,) where some poor idiot manages to incapacitate himself by running headlong into a tree and becoming impaled on its branches, making him easy prey for a nearby werewolf. But none of these baby nitpicks can ruin such an intense, energetic horror flick. A real crowd-pleaser, this one. Just wait for the climax: if you thought you could tell it was a low-budget film from the off, you may be surprised to find that you may forget all about the limitations of the film by the time the third act kicks into gear and everything and everyone is rendered into mulch by bullets, sharp claws, and silver letter-openers. In that sense, they really play us out with a bang.

Visually, the film looks rough. I'm unsure as to whether or not this is a limitation of the production or if it's owed to the lack of a film negative to draw from (on my Shout! Factory release, anyway) but the whole thing looks the way restored insert shots sourced from low-quality prints in censored films looks when they finally get a 'Collector's Edition' release. Everything is extremely grainy, very washed-out, and seemingly overexposed in just about every daylight scene. It looks like it could fall apart and burn away at any moment, which doesn't impact things much considering how strong the costuming, effects work, and pyrotechnics are. Early on, you may suspect that the werewolves aren't being shown more due to the limitations of the film than anything else, but once they're finally unveiled, they actually look phenomenal. Yes, you can tell it's a guy in a suit, but they did all they could to hide it and it works. I also really appreciate that they knew where their own limitations lie, and thus decided to avoid doing the classic drawn-out transformation sequence that every big-budget werewolf film has, and instead cut around it very creatively, relying mostly on sound and concealing shadow. It's a great workaround that doesn't feel like a cheat the way you'd expect and actually ends up standing as a unique approach in a sea of similar films.

The score is good, perhaps a bit boilerplate Hollywood and occasionally used to cover up bad sound design, but expensive-sounding and effective at least. And speaking of the sound design, there are unfortunately a lot of stock screams and stock scare cues, blended fairly well most of the time, but still noticeable. What's more noticeable is how uniformly strong the cast is, so much so that even someone like Liam Cunningham (TV's Sir Davos from Game of Thrones) has a hard time standing out. I mean it; there's not a weak performance in the whole film, and they all shine in their own ways. They make the most of an already-killer script and the result, along with everything else I've mentioned, makes for an explosive dose of horror, action, and comedy that no one interested in those genres should miss. There's something for everyone here, unless the idea of giant furry bipeds tearing human beings into literal ribbons of goo upsets you, of course.