Dog Soldiers (2002)

8/10

This was an intense addition to the werewolf genre. A great movie except for one scene early on, which I touch on below.

"Dog Soldiers" was directed by Neil Marshall, who also helmed "Doomsday". Sergent Wells is played by Sean Pertwee ("Doomsday"), Private Cooper is played by Kevin McKidd (TVs 'Grey's Anatomy'), Emma Cleasby ("Doomsday") plays Megan, Captain Ryan is played by Liam Cunningham ("Blood: The Last Vampire"), Corporal Bruce Campbell (!) is played by Thomas Lockyer, and Darren Morfitt ("Doomsday") plays Witherspoon,

A nice couple is camping out in the woods when they get eaten by dinosaurs. Not quite, but the end result is the same. Private Cooper fails a training mission by failing to shoot a dog in the head for no reason. Well, the reason given is 'if you can't shoot a dog how can you shoot a person'. I call bollocks on this, and this is the only huge flaw I personally find in this movie. Cooper gets kicked out.

A while later other soldiers, also out on a training mission, find the remains of Cooper's original squad. An injured Captain Ryan is the only survivor. He has some tale to tell. The new squad gets attacked and some die. While running away they run into Megan, who leads them to a farmhouse. As night comes, the soldiers find out they are being attacked by werewolves.

Of course the werewolves try to break in. Of course they succeed. The soldiers fight them off fairly well, but once the ammo starts to run low, things start to look bleak. There are a few twists involved.

The acting was great. The atmosphere was tense once the pace picked up. Audio was fine, but the graphic FX were great.

A must see, and a good buy. Not so good for a horror movie party until the action picks up, but then it is a lot of fun.