Neil Marshalls confident feature film debut achieves a feat that has rarely been achieved in horror films in that it’s both scary and funny. It’s odd that it should be another British set werewolf movie that should manage this as the best film to achieve that delicate yet highly effective balance was An American Werewolf In London.
Dog Soldiers is a simple premise; a bunch of British Army squaddies are laid siege to in a remote Scottish cottage by a family of 9 foot, ravenous werewolves. A great cast led by the resourceful Kevin McKidd battles the lycanthropic foe along with the patriarchal Sean Pertwee, the deceptive Liam Cunningham and Emma Cleasby’s attractive local researcher with a secret.
The very British humour gives the film a unique and appealing flavour, the characters well defined, the dialogue sharp (gotta love Pertwee’s “tattoo” speech), the action endlessly inventive, the B-movie plot has a couple of surprises up its sleeve. Even the werewolves themselves are remarkably impressive, considering this is usually the first thing that even major Hollywood productions get wrong. A devastatingly entertaining blast of fun, Dog Soldiers remains endlessly rewachable.
1 comment:
Yep. One of my fave movies and always a default watch for me. I'm a werewolf geek so it was an easy sell when it first came out. The fact that it also happened to be (and remains) bloody brilliant was an unexpected bonus. Love it. "Sausages!"
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