Dog Soldiers

3/4

Starring: Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee, Liam Cunningham, Emma Cleasby

Rated R for Strong Violence/Gore and Language

It’s probably unjust to compare Neil Marshall’s “Dog Soldiers” to his next film, “The Descent,” because in all fairness, this one came first.  It’s a stunning debut, to be sure.  It’s action packed, tense and guaranteed to get the adrenaline pumping.

A group of British soldiers, lead by the gruff Wells (Pertwee), are on a routine training exercise in the Scottish wilderness when they see a flare go up out of the blue.  They investigate and find an area filled with blood, guts and destruction.  There is one survivor, a special forces operative named Ryan (Cunningham), with whom one of the soldiers, Cooper (McKidd) has a history with.  It isn’t long before they realize that they’re in the fight of their lives with some really nasty werewolves.  They are rescued by a passing motorist named Megan (Cleasby), but taking refuge in a house isn’t necessarily going to help matters.  With ammo running dangerously low and their numbers decreasing at an alarming rate, it’s going to take more than luck to make it until morning.

I’m sorry for comparing this film to “The Descent,” since it’s not fair to the film, but I’m willing to risk being called a hypocrite.  The two films are actually quite different.  “The Descent” was really a very simple movie: women are trapped in a cave and have to fight monsters to get out.  The only thing that mattered in that film was survival, which was a breath of fresh air in an era where horror movies were bogged down by formulaic plots and paper thin characters.  “Dog Soldiers” is a little different.  Don’t get me wrong, survival is of utmost importance for these guys (as it is in all horror movies), but things are a little more complicated than that.  Marshall doesn’t add anything new to the werewolf persona (they come out on full moons, they can turn others into werewolves and silver is the only way to kill them), but he still manages to get a few surprises in there.

There’s also a little more going on with the characters populating this film.  Again, none of it is particularly revolutionary, but it works primarily because the actors have talent.  McKidd makes for a tough soldier, bringing to mind Lucius Vorenus, the character he would go on to play in the criminally underrated HBO show, “Rome.”  Sean Pertwee makes for an ideal commander.  He’s rough and tumble, but he’s also worthy of our respect.  Liam Cunningham is also very good as the Special Ops guy, who knows more than he’s saying, and Emma Cleasby is also good as the zoologist who has a few secrets of her own.

The problem with the film is that it lacks true innovation.  Everything here is done well: the acting is solid, there are plenty of scares and jolts, and Marshall pulls no punches when it comes to showing gore.  But that’s it.  There’s nothing truly remarkable to set it apart from every other decent horror film.  On another note, the werewolves also bear a mention.  They look fake, especially in close ups.  Fortunately, however, Marshall shoots them from far away as much as possible, if at all (he typically uses the “Jaws” approach, where he shows them as little as possible in order to make them scarier).  Also, the film falls into the pitfall of explaining too much (the more you know about something, the less scary it is).

Do I recommend the film?  Absolutely.  This is an atmospheric and intense horror flick, and Marshall delivers the goods in a way that only he can.