Personal blog - and temporary home page until new website is finished - of writer, editor and graphic artist Christopher Mills


Thursday, October 13, 2011

31 Days Has October: DOG SOLDIERS

Neil Marshall's debut film, 2002's Dog Soldiers, is a great little action horror film pitting a handful of British soldiers in the Scotland highlands for training exercises against a vicious pack of exquisitely-designed werewolves. Fast-paced, with good performances from Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd and the rest of the cast. The script is relatively smart, too, with some genuinely inventive suspense sequences and a nice, black sense of humor.

I bought the DVD back in '03 or so, and really enjoyed it, but hadn't watched it again since. Spinning it tonight reminded me how much I liked it - it's a fun, different kind of werewolf movie. I haven't liked all of Marshall's follow-up films, but his cave-crawling thriller The Descent is a damned good scary flick, too.

3 comments:

Rip Jagger said...

I've only seen this one on the SyFy network, but I totally enjoyed it. The pacing is outstanding and once you're in you have to see the end.

Rip Off

Charles Gramlich said...

Definitely this was a little gem. I much enjoyed it.

Claude said...

In recent years, this has become one of my favorite horror movies. If I watch it with someone who gets extremely upset at the graphic violence, then the money I spent on the DVD was well worth it! Everything in this movie is perfect and does everything a horror movie is supposed to do. It shows you something you think you're familiar with and then uses that familiarity to tear your face off. It calms you down only once (Ahhh....a house! We'll be SAFE there!) and it knocks you around and then eats your guts in front of your mother!! Lots of shock, but not for it's own sake. Great looking werewolves. Fright enducing editing and great performances by all the actors. I need to send the kids out and watch this one again. Maybe, I won't even send the kids out. :)