My Favourite Movies: Dog Soldiers

Whilst not exactly a huge fan of the Horror genre (most of which I find either pointless, silly or unnecessarily gory for gore sake) I do have a ‘thing’ for vampire or werewolf films – maybe I’m just hung up on the classics?

Anyway when we saw the trailer for this film back in 2002 it certainly piqued my interest. I mean, British soldiers fighting werewolves in the Scottish Highlands? It’s pretty much a no brainer!  So to the story: Private Cooper (played superbly by Kevin McKidd) wants to go Special Forces but is failed and sent RTU (Retuned to Unit) because he isn’t considered to be made of the ‘right stuff’ by hard-case Captain Ryan (played by Lian Cunningham). Months later, whilst on a training exercise in Scotland, they meet again but this time in very different circumstances. Captain Ryan’s elite unit have been killed – torn apart by unknown assailants – leaving Ryan himself mortally wounded. Before they can fully assess the situation they are attacked by creatures they can barely comprehend. Fighting a running retreat through the woods they are rescued by a passing naturalist (Emma Cleasby) who has been studying the creatures in their natural habitat. When they find an empty farmhouse they find time to tend to their wounded (including the squad leader Sgt Harry Wells played by the always excellent Sean Pertwee) and think about what they have experienced so far but still find it hard to believe what is happening to them. As the creatures attack the house again and again it dawns on the squad that the farmhouse is in fact the home of the werewolf family and that they want their house back – and that their weapons are useless against them!

Despite the fact that this is clearly a comparatively low budget film (the British excel at this sort of thing because of a long history of underfunding) this is nevertheless highly entertaining. For most of the film the werewolves are hidden or seen in glimpses for seconds only as they race between the trees ignoring the bullets fired at them by clearly frightened soldiers who have never seen anything like it before. Realistically there’s lots (and I do mean lots) of swearing before, during and after the hectic fight scenes – just as you might expect in that situation. The portrayal of the squadies is very realistic and makes it all the more heart-rending when one by one they are taken by the creatures or infected with the virus(?) that brings on the condition of Lycanthropy. The scientist – Megan – gives them enough information to work out that their position is hopeless but holds back things she doesn’t want them to know. Ryan is enigmatic but slowly reveals his orders which cast the soldiers in the farmhouse as bait in a much larger exercise to weaponise the werewolf strain (nice touch this I thought). The dialogue is snappy and often peppered with darkly funny gallows humour and I laughed out loud more than once. All in all – if you don’t mind some gore and a fair amount of colourful language – this is a well made, action packed and honestly riotous film. I’m sure that they had lots of fun making it and I’ve had lots of fun watching it more than once. If you’ve never heard of it – and I doubt if many people have – don’t let this put you off. Give it a try. You’ll be surprised.