Dog Soldiers (2002)

British writer and director Neil Marshall has received a fair bit of attention due to his 2005 sophmore effort The Descent, which was recently released in U.S. theaters and has done pretty well.  I haven’t seen The Descent, but I have heard decent things about Marshall and so decided to check out Dog Soldiers – his directorial debut from 2002. It follows a group of military soldiers who are in the Scottish wilderness for a routine exercise when they discover they are being hunted by a pack of ravenous werewolves. While I’m not typically a fan of the creature movie subgenre of horror films, I decided to check it out anyway and was fairly entertained by it.

There’s not a whole lot to say about Dog Soldiers. While usually categorized as horror, it could just as easily be an action film, as it has more fights and explosions than it does scares. It doesn’t have an overly complicated plot, but its energy and surprise twists will likely keep you engaged throughout. Marshall has been coined as a member of the “Splat Pack” – a term describing some of the modern directors making rather violent horror films. I’m not typically a fan of excessive violence, but I honestly didn’t find that to be too much of a problem with this film. There are a few gory scenes, including one rather disturbing one, but overall, it wasn’t as bad as it is in so many other contemporary offerings. In addition, the effects fit with the overall story and plot, so the violence never really feels gratuitous or forced. 

Dog Soldiers isn’t great cinema by any means. Nor is it one I’ll probably watch over and over. It was, however, a decent film to watch when you just want to be idly entertained for a while.