Hey folks, Harry here... Sometimes it is just sad how short sighted American distribution companies are. Here's a film that AICN and the Alamo Drafthouse gave a sold out (people turned away) screening of. Where the audiences cheered, laughed and even gave out a few screams throughout. Now, add to this... The fact that the studios and distribution companies are going to release horror films this year that cause the audience to twitch with annoyance throughout... and you have a case of STUPID-STUDIO-ITIS. They've seen this film and complained that it was too British. AHEM, tell that do the 300 or so happy fans that attended this screening. As they fought to get posters when it was over. As they laughed at the bizarre Brit - words. Now, the below reviewer is a horror fan. He goes and sees all the crap ones and the great ones. He's 21, target audience for scary movies. His girlfriend that was sitting next to him and clapping and smiling throughout was also 21. And this is how this 'too British' horror film played deep in the heart of Texas!
Ahoy there, squirts. 'Tis I, the unnaturally hairy, but totally crusty ol' seaman, Quint, here to give you my look at the kick-ass indie horror film, DOG SOLDIERS.
I love werewolves. I always have. My favorite of the classic Universal Monster series has always been Wolf Man. I guess some of the reason behind my love of werewolf mythology is because of 4 movies: An American Werewolf In London, Wolf Man, Silver Bullet and The Howling. I realize Silver Bullet isn't a classic like the others I listed, but it scared the crap outta me when I was little, so I can give it its props now.
Hell, my favorite episode of Tales From the Crypt is a werewolf episode... Remember the one about the kid in an orphanage that gets adopted by weirdos who turn out to be vampires who were just fattening him up... then the twist is the kid's a werewolf "hungry for vampire blood." That's the coolest!
Maybe my fascination with lycanthropes stems from the fact that there have only been a few good werewolf movies. Recently, the indie world has made 2 outstanding werewolf flicks: last year's Ginger Snaps and this year's Dog Soldiers.
I really dug Ginger Snaps, but I do realize the scope of the movie wasn't terribly huge. It's basically about two girls and it's set mostly within a few blocks of a small town. It's a more intimate look at lycanthropy and I respect that and still consider it to be a kick-ass flick... But, for me, it doesn't hold a candle to Dog Soldiers... Considering my love of Ginger Snaps, that's saying a helluva lot.
Good God, y'all. This is the balls-to-the-wall horror/action flick we haven't seen since the days of Aliens and The Predator. It's got a great, yet weird, feel to it... Think of a movie that is equal parts of Aliens, Predator, The Howling, Evil Dead 2 and Night of the Living Dead with a small hint of Trainspotting and Dead Alive (aka Braindead) thrown in for good measure.
I say Aliens and Predator because it's that great mix of horror, action and character development that make those films classics of the genre. The Howling aspect is the look of the werewolves, the feel of the horror they create and the fact that there's no CGI to be seen. Evil Dead 2... The uniqueness of the shots, the absolute craziness that happens during the film and smart use of comedic character moments. Night of the Living Dead... simply the fact that the last half of the movie has the cast holed up in a rustic house, boarding up windows, doing everything they can to keep the werewolves out, but not greatly succeeding. The pinch of Trainspotting shows through in the type of characters and dialogue in the film and Dead Alive shows through in a few scenes of brilliant, gleeful gore.
The movie is about a group of British Soldiers on a training exercise in some isolated forest of Scotland. After we get to know them a bit, they run into a Special Ops camp that's been decimated. They find one survivor and are immediately attacked. They end up at a farmhouse and fight to keep those hairy fuckers out.
That's the basic setup. Where the movie succeeds the most is in the development of its characters. How about that, eh? We actually care about the characters who get picked of? We actually feel a loss when one of the grunts gets mauled. How about that? Mainstream horror is in a bad state as of late. We have the occasional The Others pop up, but we're mostly stuck with shit like Valentine and the upcoming Halloween: Resurrection (which I can go out on a limb saying it sucks as I've read the horrible script). It's such a great relief to see a movie that proves that inventive horror filmmakers are still out there.
So, you know my surface feelings of the movie. Damn near perfect. It is not perfect, but it came so fucking close that it doesn't matter. There's some weird time-jumping at the beginning of the movie that is a bit off-putting... there's a reveal at the end of the film that is quite predictable, but when I think about the movie as a whole, those don't quite jump out as much. I'm willing to bet I'll just take it as being part of the movie, just like when I thought American Werewolf In London's ending was too abrupt... Now I couldn't imagine it ending any other way.
Now on to the next big question, how do the werewolves look? I've talked to some friends who saw a story about Dog Soldiers with lots of pics in Fangoria and said the werewolves looked bad. Watching the movie, I never believed I wasn't watching a group getting attacked by werewolves. The filmmakers kept them darkly lit and very atmospheric. The few close looks we have at them are in great scenes of tension, so they didn't stand out at all. I can imagine that seen in harsh brightness you can see some fake-lookin' stuff, but they never drop the ball in the film, I can tell you that much.
Now for the last big question: When do I get to see this cool sounding flick? That one's harder to answer. Apparently the film has been sold theatrically to everybody in the world... Germany, Brazil, UK, Mexico... everybody... except for the U.S.A. It appears that Dog Soldiers is going the way of Ginger Snaps. Like Ginger Snaps, Dog Soldiers was sold to Blockbuster and I'm willing to bet that like Ginger Snaps, it'll go direct to cable and video.
This film is too damn good to get that treatment. We're in a weird time and place as filmgoers. These kickass movies that would undoubtedly gain a huge underground audience don't get the chance to get seen. Why? No more drive-ins. We have chains and indie theaters. Movies like Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 got a chance to be seen and appreciated at drive-ins. If Evil Dead 2 was released today, it most likely would be direct to video. Indie theatres are (mostly) too pretentious to carry a movie like that and chain theatres... forget it!
There's been talk of the movie being "too British." After watching the movie, I was just shaking my head. Too British? Because the cast has accents it means the film is too British? What about Brotherhood of the Wolf? That movie was entirely in French and it got a damn decent release and was received pretty well.
I would love to tell you that someone with a brain (and a pair of balls) in Hollywood will be smart enough to see the potential audience for this film and to expect it Halloween 2002, but unfortunately I doubt that'll be the case. Studios like Dimension only put out mediocre or terrible crap, save the work of Robert Rodriguez. Dimension is supposed to be that great genre studio... but it isn't, so I wouldn't expect it to pick up a quality horror flick like Dog Soldiers... Hell, they'd probably just sequel it to death like they're doing the Halloween, Crow and Prophecy flicks.
A studio like New Line is a little more aggravating... They're doing great things, but I know that if this film had come on the market 20 years ago with no distribution, New Line would have scooped it up immediately. Don't forget, New Line was mainly made up of exploitation flicks and was built on Freddy Krueger. Will the studios consider the fact right now the user rating of DOG SOLDIERS on the IMDB is 7.7? For a gory, blood and guts filled horror flick!?!? Probably not, but we can hope, can't we?
Here's hoping you folks will be as lucky as I was to see Dog Soldiers on the big screen with an audience. I commend writer/director Neil Marshall. Keep up the good work! You've given me hope for the future of well made horror flicks. I give lots of credit to the cast as well, especially Kevin McKidd (who was Tommy in Trainspotting), Sean Pertwee (I forgive you for being in SOLDIER) and whoever the fuck played Spoon, the "Hudson" of DOG SOLDIERS. God Bless you, Spoon!
That's it from me, folks. I'm a busy bee as of late. I'll be back shortly with my views on a certain Hunka-Hunka Burnin' Mummy flick and some other goodies. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
email: I've been on all fours ever since seeing this one, so feel free to just drop a line in my slot!
