by Billy Russell, Staff Writer

We go to the movies because they make us feel things. Comedies make us laugh.  Dramas make us cry. And scary movies tingle that animalistic part of our brains that trigger our fight-or-flight response.  We like to be scared because it’s part of our nature. A snap of a twig could be a predator ready to make us lunch. Our hair stands up, our eyes widen, and we run like hell!

Dog Soldiers is a movie made for the sucker in me. I’m a sucker for A) Low-budget horror movies that, through clever filmmaking, look much more expensive than they actually are, B) Non-stop action movies that never let up for a minute, and finally, C) War movies, in general.  Dog Soldiers is all of those things, and probably 9 or 10 things more than that, even.

On a routine training exercise, somewhere in the woods in England, a group of soldiers are brutally attached and ambushed by werewolves and must seek shelter and fight for their lives. If this sounds incredibly silly, that’s okay, it is. The movie is beyond silly, tongue planted firmly in cheek, and told with the appearance of utmost sincerity. It never lets on that it’s in on the gag. Dog Soldiers is far too preoccupied with its first mission of being entertaining.

Dog Soldiers was written and directed by Neil Marshall for a very low budget. The special effects may be terrible, but we’d never know, because through the use of editing, the werewolf creatures are a barely-seen threat. They pop up occasionally and go “boo!” only to have the action cut to a machine gun firing and the threat is knocked off camera somewhere for its wounds to magically heal and then pop up again later. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

Neil Marshall’s second film, The Descent would take everything he’d learned from making Dog Soldiers and become one of the all-time iconic horror films of its era. If Dog Soldiers feels like a demo reel for something bigger and better, it kind of is. But Dog Soldiers is ultimately entertaining and watchable on its own. It’s just that Marshall’s career was using it as a stepping stone for something else.

Dog Soldiers is one of those movies that feels like a checklist of movie references and cliches, but less as a routine exercise in formulaic filmmaking, and more as a clever pastiche of best-of moments of the genre. The film begins almost like a Friday the 13th sequel/clone, with two young lovers being ambushed in a tent with bloody results. The soldiers battling a horde of intelligent, relentless creatures feels reminiscent of Aliens. Moving the action to a remote cabin under siege by the threat is a budgetary convenience and homage to Night of the Living Dead. Keeping the threat mostly-unseen to disguise a low budget and effects that might not look great if seen up-close or with lingering shots is a hat-tip to Jaws.  And the paranoia of knowing that anyone who’s been bitten may become one of those things, in a claustrophobic setting, feels like a twist on the premise of The Thing. Shoot the whole thing like the herky-jerky outtakes of Saving Private Ryan, and you’ve got Dog Soldiers.

While Dog Soldiers is far from perfect, it does excel precisely where it needs to.  The filmmaking itself is top-notch. It looks and sounds fantastic. Writing and plotting the film with such a low budget is half of the film’s fun. It’s so clever in keeping the action moving along at a speed with really only using one location. The performances are all great. Kevin McKidd (Transpotting), Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones), Emma Cleasby and Sean Pertwee all act the hell out of this movie, and Marshall’s script supplies them with natural, realistic and fun dialogue. Marshall has an ear for dialogue, but the story itself is kind of dumb and on autopilot.  There are silly twists that don’t hold up under scrutiny, and the actual premise is half-baked and nonsensical. None of that matters, though. A movie like Dog Soldiers isn’t interested in the little details. It’s the big picture that matters in a story like this.

Dog Soldiers is a fun horror movie and a rare example of a good film in the war/horror crossover genre. It’s surprising there aren’t more, but perhaps it’s because the idea of war itself already so horrifying, adding an element of the supernatural on top of it strays it off course and into Cheesetown. Often, war/horror movies are also comedies, with mixed results. Dog Soldiers isn’t a comedy, but it is self-aware enough to realize that it’s extremely silly and goes over the top with its outward appearance of seriousness. 

If nothing else this October, give Dog Soldiers a shot and enjoy on a dark night with the lights turned real low.