Dog Soldiers (film)

Dog Soldiers
British quad poster for Dog Soldiers
Directed by	Neil Marshall
Produced by	Christopher Figg Tom Reeve David E. Allen
Written by	Neil Marshall
Starring	Sean Pertwee Kevin McKidd Liam Cunningham
Music by	Thomas Mark
Cinematography	Sam McCurdy
Editing by	Neil Marshall
Distributed by	Pathé
Release date(s)	10 May 2002
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$5,491,093[1] (Worldwide)

Dog Soldiers is a 2002 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall, and starring Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee and Liam Cunningham. It was a British production, set in the highlands of Scotland, and filmed almost entirely in Luxembourg.

The film contains homages to H.G. Wells, the films The Evil Dead, Zulu, Aliens, The Matrix and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.^[2]

Plot

A couple is camping in the Scottish Highlands, the woman gives the man a silver letter opener as a present, shortly before they are attacked and killed in their tent by an unseen attacker.

In North Wales, Private Cooper is running through a forest. He attacks his pursuers, but is overwhelmed. Cooper was trying to join the special forces, but fails when he refuses to obey Captain Richard Ryan's command to shoot a dog. He is returned to unit.

Four weeks later, a squad of six British army soldiers, including Cooper, is dropped into the Scottish Highlands. Expecting to carry out a routine training mission, they find the savaged remains of a special forces squad who were part of the same exercise. A wounded survivor, revealed to be the same Captain Ryan who failed Cooper, makes cryptic references to what attacked them. Unseen antagonists attack the troops. While retreating, Bruce impales himself on a tree branch, and Sergeant Wells is badly wounded. He is rescued by Cooper and carried to the roadside where the group encounter Megan, a zoologist, who takes them to a lonely house. The house is empty, save for a dog named Sam. The soldiers that remain are Wells, Cooper, Spoon, Joe, and Terry. As night falls, the house is surrounded by the attackers: to the soldiers' incredulity, these are revealed to be werewolves.

After tending to Wells' wound, the soldiers try to get to the car. The werewolves force them to abandon the car and maintain a desperate defence inside the house, believing that if they can make it to sunrise, the werewolves will revert to human form. After Terry is abducted and ammunition runs short, they realize that they will not last, and decide to try to escape. Spoon creates a distraction while Joe steals a Land Rover from the garage. When he gets in the car, he sees Terry being eaten by a werewolf. As Joe drives toward the house, he is killed by a werewolf hiding in the back seat.

It is soon ascertained that the family that lives in the house are the werewolves and the soldiers are trespassing on their territory. Shortly after confessing that his unit was assigned to capture one of the werewolves, and that Cooper's squad was intended to be "bait," Ryan changes into a werewolf, having been infected with the condition due to his wounds, and runs off. Using petrol, gas canisters, matches, and the Land Rover, the soldiers blow up the barn where Megan tells them the werewolves must be hiding. Once it has been destroyed, Megan reveals that not only were there no werewolves in the barn, she only told them that to destroy their only means of transportation; she is a werewolf as well, and had been suppressing the transformation, but gives in at that moment. As she begins to transform, three werewolves appear behind her. Wells shoots Megan in the head.

Cooper and Wells run upstairs and Spoon runs to the kitchen, blocking the door. A werewolf breaks into the kitchen, confronting Spoon who resorts to hand-to-hand combat. He fights the werewolf, but is killed when another of the monsters joins in. Meanwhile, Wells and Cooper shoot through the floor upstairs to escape the werewolves, dropping into the kitchen. Wells, who is beginning to transform, orders Cooper into the cellar. Cooper obeys and flees with Sam. As three of the werewolves enter, Wells cuts a gas line and blows up the house, killing himself and the werewolves. Before Cooper can leave, Ryan, in werewolf form, confronts him. Cooper has difficulty fending off the werewolf but is helped by Sam who attacks the creature from behind. Cooper notices a silver letter opener among the items on the floor, and uses it to stab Ryan. The werewolf writhes in pain and Cooper shoots it in the head, killing it. Daylight breaks and Cooper and Sam walk off into the woods.

As the credits roll a newspaper appears showing the football result (England: 5, Germany: 1), with a smaller headline showing a small picture of Cooper and the headline "Werewolves ate my platoon."

Cast

• Kevin McKidd as Private Cooper
• Sean Pertwee as Sergeant Harry G. Wells
• Emma Cleasby as Megan
• Liam Cunningham as Captain Richard Ryan
• Thomas Lockyer as Corporal Bruce Campbell
• Darren Morfitt as Private "Spoon" Witherspoon
• Chris Robson as Private Joe Kirkley
• Leslie Simpson as Private Terry Milburn

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes gave 'Dog Soldiers a score of 76% based on 29 reviews.^[3] The DVD release gained 100% based on 9 reviews.^[4]

Awards

Golden Raven and Public's Award to The Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film, in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Sequel

A sequel Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat was planned and it was said that the story would pick up from the end of the first film.^[5] Neil Marshall was not involved with the production and neither was cinematographer Sam McCurdy, production designer Simon Bowles or any of the original cast, aside from Liam Cunningham.^{[citation needed]} Rob Green was pencilled in for directing duties.^{[citation needed]}

Although it was announced that filming would commence in April 2006,^[6] by August 12, 2008 information about the film had been removed from various web resources and there was no news of its production status.^[7]

A web series titled Dog Soldiers: Legacy was announced in September, 2011. The article also stated that the films sequel was in early pre-production.^[8]

References

1. ^ "Dog Soldiers". Boxofficemojo.com. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/intl/?page=&wk=2002W19&id=_fDOGSOLDIERS01. Retrieved 2011-10-06. 
2. ^ Director, cast and crew commentary. Dog Soldiers (DVD). Pathe Film.
3. ^ "Dog Soldiers". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dog_soldiers/. Retrieved 2011-10-06. 
4. ^ "Dog Soldiers". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dog_soldiers/?critic=3. Retrieved 2011-10-06. 
5. ^ Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat at UHM
6. ^ Producers talk DOG SOLDIERS: FRESH MEAT at Fangoria
7. ^ Why has DOG SOLDIERS 2 disappeared off the face of the earth?, QuietEarth.us
8. ^ "Dog Soldiers Lives On in Legacy Series!". ShockTillYouDrop.com. 2011-09-12. http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=20910. Retrieved 2011-10-06. 

External links

• Official site at SyFy.com
• Dog Soldiers at the Internet Movie Database
• Dog Soldiers at AllRovi
• Dog Soldiers at Rotten Tomatoes