Britflix: Dog Soldiers

2002’s Dog Soldiers was a film that did three remarkable things when it was released. It gave Neil Marshall his feature film debut, helped revitalise the horror genre in Britain, and was a rare modern werewolf film. Since it’s celebrating its 20th anniversary it’s worth checking out.

A small army platoon is sent to the Scottish Highlands for a training exercise. However, this exercise quickly evolves into a deadly mission when they discover body parts and a wounded SAS Captain, Richard Ryan (Liam Cunningham). The platoon goes to a remote house where they must spend the night defending themselves against a pack of werewolves.

Dog Soldiers was a film that has earned cult classic status amongst horror fans. Shout! Factory released a Blu-ray in the USA in 2015 and recently Second Sight Films released a 4K restoration in the UK. It’s a film that many hold dear and deservedly so. I remember my brother watched it a lot when it was shown on Sky Movies.

Dog Soldiers put a British spin on an American style of film. It had the setup of the 1987 film Predator where a small team of soldiers was sent on a covert mission and they are soon attacked by a mysterious creature. There were also shades of the Alien films, especially Aliens where it was revealed that the platoon was sent to the Highlands under false pretenses. A British flavour came with the references to the Battle of Rourke’s Drift and the film Zulu. Some references to Zulu were one of the soldiers was injured yet still fought, and when a couple of soldiers smashed a hole through a wall. Since I enjoy Predator, Aliens, and Zulu, Dog Soldiers had an immediate appeal to me.

Another comparison that can be made is with the zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. This was due to both films being about characters besieged by flesh-eating monsters. Like in Night of the Living Dead, the soldiers in Dog Soldiers were looking for a way to escape the remote house and get to civilisation. The explosion of the car in Dog Soldiers felt like a reference to the ‘60s classic.

Dog Soldiers had a tongue-in-cheek approach. It was not a film that didn’t want to be too serious and simply be a fun story of soldiers fighting werewolves. When the film moved to the remote house there was an increase in humour, like when the soldiers found extra weapons, when Private Cooper (Kevin McKidd) had to provide medical treatment for Sergeant Wells (Sean Pertwee), and Spoon’s (Darren Mortfitt) final words to the werewolves. When the platoon arrived at the house they did the most British thing possible, make a cup of tea.

Dog Soldiers was a film that wanted to have fun with violence, carnage, and action. There was a lot of that, and it started early. One soldier gets impaled during the first assault and Wells was disembowelled. Whilst the film did want to be an entertaining flick for gore hounds, Marshall did follow some basic rules for effective horror. When the werewolves first attacked there were only allowed quick glimpses of the creatures. This built up until the werewolves were fully revealed. The werewolves were shown to be a constant threat because they were deadly and smart, they worked as a team.

The most recognisable actors in the film were McKidd, Pertwee, and Cunningham. Before Dog Soldiers, McKidd was known for playing Tommy in Trainspotting and he was playing the closest thing the film had to a traditional hero. He looked the part and took the leadership role when Wells was incapacitated. It’s surprising that Cooper wasn’t a sergeant already. He was given the most characterisation in the film because he was rejected by the SAS because he refused to shoot a dog in cold blood. His compassion was seen as a weakness, but it ended up saving his life because another dog saved his life. Dog Soldiers could have been a good showcase for McKidd to become an action hero, but his career took a different path since he went on to star in Rome and Grey’s Anatomy.

Pertwee had become a regular in Marshall’s films. He appeared in Doomsday and The Reckoning. Pertwee was a fun presence as the hard, foul-mouthed segreant. Cunningham was in the Ash/Burke role since he was an official who had his own agenda and was willing to use the soldiers as bait.

I did find it funny that Dog Soldiers was a film set in Scotland but there was only one Scottish character. For tax reasons, Dog Soldiers was filmed in Luxembourg instead of the British Isles. I inadvertently copied Dog Soldiers when I filmed my third short film since I set it in the Shetland Islands but filmed it in England and only had one Scottish character.

For fans of horror and action-horror Dog Soldiers was a treat of a film, being a violent delight. Aspiring filmmakers can look to Dog Soldiers as an example of how to make a debut film because of its small cast of characters and single location.