Dog Soldiers (Review)

Somewhere in the forests of Wales a small group of soldiers are performing some battle simulation exercises at night led by the rough and ready Sergeant Wells (Sean Pertwee) and seconded by his long time friend Cooper (Kevin McKidd).

The tone of the war games abruptly changes though when a few shapes and noises in the bushes precede the discovery of some body parts, some of which are non-human, others…

To paraphrase Hot Fuzz quoting Bad Boys 2 with ‘shit getting real’ nerves and edginess within the group leads quickly to fullscale panic, I mean how else would you run so fast from something that you hit a branch with such force that it pushes right through your torso? Granted the realisation that the force now hunting you is actually a group of
snarling 7 foot tall hairy bipeds with sharp fangs might be upsetting, but I still doubt even Usain Bolt could develop such momentum even if he had a chest made of custard.

Once the magnitude of the situation is made apparent the survivors take shelter in a small cottage in the middle of nowhere, though now with a special forces officer named Ryan (Liam Cunningham) – who has a special love/hate (OK only hate) relationship with Cooper – and a young woman named Megan in tow.

What follows is an overnight siege punctuated by the usual attacks, near misses and occasional bloodlettings that are necessary to such films, in a film that wont scare the pants off you, but which should provide a ripping good time.

The creatures are pretty well designed and realised, with no noticeable CGI director Neil Marshall (later of The Descent renown) had to pick and choose his spots wisely. When we do finally get to meet the ‘dogs’ in the latter parts of the film we have caught enough glimpses and snippets of them that they are no surprises, and in any case the running battle through the cottage is as entertaining as it is both destructive and bloody.

Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. Dog Soldiers is little more than your basic run of the mill good guys hunted by bad guys beings film. It just happens to be a fairly good one featuring a small group of excellent actors.

* Also of note is the fact that it features perhaps the longest foreshadowing to payoff wait in cinematic history – at least in % of film elapsed/remaining terms.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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