Dog Soldiers is one of the finest werewolf films of the 21st Century, and to be honest could easily squeeze into the pantheon of all time genre best as far as werewolf films are concerned. The werewolf as a cinematic monster is so drastically under utilized unlike it’s cinematic counterparts zombies and vampires, that when one pops up, it automatically finds itself compared to others in it’s immediately monstrous subgenre.
Dog Soldiers is the feature film debut by director Neil Marshall. Marshall would go on to direct another horror classic The Descent, and also the post-apocalyptic throwback Doomsday, as well as Centurion. These days he is well-known for directing some of the most action heavy episodes of HBO’s Game of Thrones The high adrenaline action style that Marshall would develop throughout his career can easily be pinpointed to his beginnings with Dog Soldier (and also the short film Combat included on the Blu).
The film follows a Scottish Special Forces team on a series of weekend exercises. While out they stumble on Captain Ryan, the survivor of an apparent ambush whose squad was well armed, but somehow taken down. He rants about how “There was only supposed to be one”, and we are soon to find out that a pack of werewolves tore his squad to bits. The team, who only has weapons with “blank” ammunition have to find a way to survive the werewolves who are stalking them. When all hope seems gone, they are given refuge in a rural home to tend to their Sergeant’s wounds, and also to put up one last stand against the wolves.
The film itself is an intense experience, and that should be no surprise coming from Marshall, whose riotous cinematic vision was on display right out of the gate. It was just done in a much more raw, low budget manner akin to the the first Evil Dead film. Of course, Marshall makes his format work for him, and the film is grainy, dark, and this as well as the isolated setting contributes to the overall feel of the piece almost like an unspoken character.
The Scream Factory Blu-ray release of Dog Soldiers had access to sub-par elements of the film, and thus released a controversial transfer of the film. I thought it was alright, I’ve grown up in an era of less than stellar releases, and I thought it had a raw film like look, but this new 4K UHD made in conjunction with Second Sight films is a REVELATION! This film is a grainy film so don’t think that’s any different, but here it’s more natural and on the movie, darks are deep and look fantastic. Colors are more Earth-y and not vibrant as is keeping with the tone of the film, but it works wonders here. There are 2 audio tracks a 5.1 and a 2.0, both are serviceable, but I might suggest the 2.0 is actually better for the film. Both are effective and balanced, clear and crisp. Extras include Neil Marshall’s “Combat” short, 3 commentary tracks, interviews, featurettes and more. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!