Written and Directed by Neil Marshall
Starring Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd and Emma Cleasby
105 mins / Artisan Entertainment / Rated R
Retail: $19.98 / Street: $17

Milkbones?

Dog Soldiers is the story of werewolves and a group of British Army infantry. They're in Scotland training when they - well, it's your usual setup - someone tells a scary story about the woods which later turns out to be true and they get attacked by evil dog things. They retreat to a house where they make their stand. But this house has secrets of its own.

As you can tell, the cast is all unknown, at least in the USA, and the movie is of the lower budget variety. Nonetheless, there's no reason why a horror movie such as this has to have a big budget. It gets the job done and all the bloody, gory details right.

The movie is very much over-the-top - people crack jokes right before they're going to get killed and smarmy remarks abound. They speak with deep British and Scottish accents, using slang like bloke, footie, tele and bullocks, so at points it becomes a little hard to follow the conversation. No matter. All that matters is the action and gore.

The film is deftly edited and well directed. You can tell they were having fun because it shows up on screen. Frankly it's the kind of film that's really not made in the states - a straight up horror flick. Dog Soldiers is humorous, gory and just plain out fun.

Movie Grade: B-

Video: 3 out of 4
At times it appears a bit grainy, but all in all a nice transfer for a little movie like this.
Full Screen 1.33:1 / Widescreen 1.88:1

Audio: 4 out of 5
Like many other low budget horror flicks, much attention is spent on the audio. It's a good way to heighten visual impact. Scary, wonderful sound design
English (Dolby 5.1 and 2.0)

Dog thing! Man in Suit! Man in Suit!

Extras: 3 out of 5
The disc has a nice menu screen where all the extras and options are laid out on one page. There's not a ton of stuff there, but it's nice way to present the material. To note are the producer's commentary and the featurette. The featurette is mostly press-kit issue but does give a few nice behind the scenes moments. The producers commentary is a little strange, as they didn't have direct day to day involvement with the film. Plus producer David Allen sounds uncannily like Kermit the Frog.

Overall: 3 out of 5
Dog Soldiers isn't funny or gory enough to watch over and over, so I suspect that most people wouldn't want to buy it. But, it makes a great pizza and beer Friday night flick. Enjoy and drink up.

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