Dog Soldiers on DVD was this weekend's newly discovered horror gem. Director Neil Marshall (The Descent) managed to take an easy-to-screw-up genre flick and actually pull off something clever and very entertaining. The story is about a squad of British soldiers on what they believe is a routine training maneuver in the Scottish wilderness. The training exercise quickly degrades into a fight for survival when the soldiers are almost slaughtered by a pack of werewolves.
Taking the approach of creating a tight knit, and believable group of characters and throwing them into an unbelievable, and probably unwinnable, situation actually gave me something to care about. I found myself tensing up and shouting "no!" when any of the charming Britts found themselves disemboweled. The film's other strength is its comedy. While no Shaun of the Dead farce, Dog Soldiers does have several moments where it capitalizes on the absurdity of fighting against 7' tall unkillable wolfmen. I won't spoil any of the slapstick except to say that you should keep your eye on the character called "spoon" (short for Witherspoon -ed.)
For a movie with a small budget (nary a frame of CGI) and a mostly unknown cast (at least in America), Dog Soldiers is a surprising offering. While it might not add any new elements to werewolf lore, this movie is an excellent entry in an underrepresented horror genre.
No comments:
Post a Comment