Dog Soldiers (2002) Review

Tag line: Six soldiers. Full moon. No chance.

Dog Soldiers (2002) Review

 

I love werewolf films, but unfortunately a lot of them just use the same old storylines and lore that have been used again and again since 1941’s The Wolf Man. 2002’s Dog Soldiers managed to do something different with the concept, and is one of the most underrated werewolf-driven horror/action films I can think of.

A squad of British soldiers on a training exercise come across the massacred remains of their targets, and the only survivor is the untrustworthy Captain Ryan, played by Liam Cunningham who is now most well-known as Sir Davos from Game of Thrones. The squad are attacked in the woods by unseen creatures and end up in a remote homestead with a lone female zoologist living there. It turns out the woods are the territory of a pack of werewolves, and the soldiers must fight them off in order to survive.

Dog Soldiers is like if you took The Howling and Aliens and smooshed them together, but I mean that in the best way. The squad is made up of likable characters, and they are fairly convincing in their depiction. There’s a part early on when they’re sitting around the campfire talking about what scares them the most, and the sergeant tells a war story that’s truly captivating. There are a few dialogue scenes that drag a bit, but the action moments are pretty well spaced out. When they’re all trapped in the house and the werewolves are trying to get in is when it feels the most like Aliens, but it strikes a good balance of tension with bloody kills and satisfying glimpses of the werewolves, which are all done with practical effects. There are lots of funny lines, too, which adds to the overall entertainment value.  

A large portion of the film takes place at night, but the lighting is decent enough, with lots of shots backlit with illumination from the moonlight. Sometimes the shaky action camera effect is used too much, but most of the action is fairly easy to follow. It definitely has a grainy, low-budget look to it, and while not always that realistic or convincing (there’s one character whose guts are hanging out of his body but they somehow patch him up and keep him alive until the climax) it’s still above-average for what it is.

While Dog Soldiers may be underrated, I would caution against going into it with high expectations. It delivers what you would expect for it being about soldiers fighting werewolves, but it isn’t as exceptionally well-done as something like An American Werewolf in London or Aliens. Still, it’s a must-see for any lycanthrope fans.