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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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6
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8 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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There's
nothing new or terribly original to be found in
Dog Soldiers, a horror/action
hybrid pitting a squad of British soldiers against
a pack of voracious werewolves. It's sort of 'Predator
meets The Howling by
way of Saving Private Ryan'.
But as excitingly staged by writer-director Neil
Marshall, with a yeoman cast, this is a good
thing, y'all. This movie really surprised
me. It's a rock 'em-sock 'em rollercoaster ride
packed with great action sequences, solid acting
and old-fashioned monsters —
achieved with nary a CGI pixel. And I thought
they just didn't make 'em like this anymore.
A 6-man team of British Army
regulars, led by veteran Sgt. Wells (Sean Pertwee),
is inserted by helicopter into a rugged, sparsely
populated region of the Scottish highlands. Ostensibly
part of a joint training exercise, the men are
maneuvering 'behind enemy lines' in an attempt
to evade a Special Forces unit playing the role
of the bad guys. Private Cooper (Trainspotting's
Kevin McKidd) informs the lads that the countryside
they're 'tabbing' through has a strange history...
Periodically, hikers and campers have mysteriously
disappeared in the area, with indications of having
met particularly violent ends. These disappearances
remain unsolved. The 'squadies' have a good laugh;
of course it's just another spooky campfire tale,
right? Continuing their mission, Wells' squad
comes upon a scene of total carnage —
the bloody bits and pieces of the Special Forces
troops they were to train with. But a lone member
of the SAS unit has miraculously survived the
slaughter: Captain Ryan (Liam Cunningham), commander
of the 'op force', is found gravely wounded. "There
was only supposed to be one," he babbles.
Cooper immediately realizes something is seriously
awry. He knows Ryan, having recently washed out
of a commando training course under the officer's
direction. Ryan failed Cooper for disobeying a
particularly senseless order; Cooper is fully
aware what a thoroughgoing bastard the captain
is. At any rate, there's nothing for it but to
call HQ, cancel the mission and arrange for immediate
extraction. But the squad's radio doesn't work
and the comm gear belonging to Ryan's unit has
been destroyed.
Left with no alternative, Wells
starts his team on a 50-mile hike to the nearest
town, carrying the injured officer with them.
They haven't gotten very far before night begins
to fall. Ryan warns them that they're all pretty
much doomed. Then the squad is attacked by some
savage, unknown enemy, a foe glimpsed only as
darting, bestial silhouettes among the trees.
One trooper is killed; Sgt. Wells is badly wounded.
Running for their lives, the soldiers are saved
in the nick of time when they encounter a Land
Rover on a lonely stretch of country road. The
driver, a young woman named Megan (Emma Cleasby,
who resembles a cross between Joan Cusack and
Gillian Anderson), takes them to an isolated cottage
in the woods. Here the men hole up and take stock
of the situation. There is no telephone. With
Wells out of action, Cooper must take charge.
He learns from Megan that their enemy is a pack
of honest-to-God werewolves —
monsters keen to make a meal of human prey. Compounding
the danger is the fact that their refuge is the
very house which this family of werewolves calls
home. Their den invaded, the monsters will stop
at nothing to destroy the interlopers. The squad's
weapons can only slow them down, not kill them.
(Silver bullets aren't exactly standard Army issue.)
With the full moon waxing high it is many hours
yet until daylight. The only hope for the troopers
is to barricade the cottage against the coming
siege and somehow ride out the night. But the
enemy has their own battle plan...
Dog
Soldiers
benefits mightily from Marshall's taut direction
and his small but excellent cast, with Pertwee,
McKidd, and Cunningham the real standouts. The
camaraderie, tactics and slang of the troopers
are all militarily authentic, lending strong credibility
to the fantastical, supernatural elements of the
story. No liberties are taken with the werewolf
mythos of old; these beasties play by the rules
— they only appear
on nights of the full moon, silver can kill them,
etcetera. Seven to eight feet tall, with dog-like
heads and long, pointed ears, the design for the
creatures was obviously inspired by the werewolves
in Joe Dante's The Howling.
And yep, they're simply stunt men in animatronically-enhanced
monster suits... No computer-generated razzle-dazzle
here. This, too, works to the film's advantage,
as the viewer is never yanked out of the 'reality'
of the situation by the use of CGI. Nor is it
saddled with that bane of pre-CGI werewolf movies
(particularly those of the 1980s), the prolonged
makeup transformation scene that just goes on
and on. (During which any sensible human character
would have ample time to leg it a mile or two
down the road). Marshall wisely keeps the creatures
mostly in silhouette or shadow; when they are
shown in detail it's via very quick cuts. This
isn't to say the monster suits are cheesy or phony
looking. (Howling
II this definitely ain't!) They're
actually fairly convincing, which makes the use
of the techniques described above even more effective.
Gorehounds shouldn't worry, however. They won't
be disappointed, as there's plenty of splatter
on display (including a memorable decapitation
scene). Even a few good laughs are to be had amid
the thrills. The jokes are genuinely funny; the
humor never seems forced.
Decent monsters, pulse-quickening action scenes,
fine performances... all topped off with a liberal
sprinkling of gore. I couldn't ask for too much
more from a low budget B-movie. Dog
Soldiers delivers the goods.
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In
marked contrast to Artisan's botched Region 1 DVD
releases of Dario Argento's Sleepless
and the worthy
Canadian werewolf film Ginger
Snaps, the company has done a commendable job
with Dog Soldiers.
Both fullscreen and widescreen (1.85:1) versions
of the film are contained the disc, as well as a
choice between 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Surround audio
mixes. Picture and sound quality are uniformly excellent,
especially when one considers the pic was originally
shot in 16mm.
This isn't a bare bones DVD,
either. You get the U.S. Home Video and International
Theatrical trailers, a 20-minute featurette covering
the concepts and production of the film (including
interviews with stars Pertwee, McKidd, and Cunningham,
writer-director Marshall and special effects supervisor
Bob Keen, among others), and a full-length audio
commentary by co-producers David E. Allen and Brian
O'Toole. (The latter doesn't contribute a great
deal as Allen rambles virtually non-stop.) Quite
a good deal onsidering the disc's low price.
11/04/02 |
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