Not That You'll Be Able To See It
Jul. 20th, 2002 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bryantBut I did. The movie in question is Dog Soldiers, which is doing a very small circuit of the US at the moment. It aired on the Sci Fi Channel last month, presumably cut. Blockbuster is picking it up for a DVD but it'll be full frame. So if you get the chance to see it on the big screen, know that it'll likely be your only opportunity. I would recommend grabbing that chance with both hands.
The non-spoiler premise: a squad of British soldiers on a training mission in Scotland run into a pack of werewolves. Huge amounts of gore result.
OK. So it's a werewolf movie; heavy on the action as such things are meant to be. The structure is classic: heros get jumped, heros run like hell, heros wind up treed in confined quarters, and heros fight off problems for several reels with mixed results. It's a formula that works.
It's pretty clearly a first movie; the pacing is a trifle shaky here and there and the director spends a little too much time reaching for the movie homages. There's one particularly vile line. You'll know it when you get there. Also, the backstory is somewhat murky and should not be prodded too much with sharp logic. Fortunately, I don't think the backstory is really all that important. There are werewolves. They want to eat your face off. Some of the whens and wherefores of certain sequences are confusing. Oh well.
I forgive those problems because when the movie is spending time devoted to action rather than plot development, it just screams. The first action sequence after they hole up is balls to the wall motion. One of the best action sequences I've seen since the car chases in Ronin.
I also very much appreciated the way the movie depicts the squad as a reasonably competent well-trained bunch of soldiers. They aren't teenagers, fumbling to stay alive. They are very dangerous men, and the fact that they are not doing well against our furry friends really makes it clear that the werewolves are seriously dangerous and very unhealthy company. Your average horror movie has some of those moments when you go "No, don't do that, not even the kind of person who responds to email spam would do that!" Dog Soldiers has none of those. The monsters are still threatening. Well done.
The acting is really good, unless I'm just mesmerized by the British accents, which is sorta possible. The guy playing the squad leader is Sean Pertwee, who is in fact the son of Doctor Who. Um, Jon Pertwee, that is. Liam Cunningham is also particularly noteworthy as an SAS officer.
So, yeah, see it if you get a chance -- it's excellent low budget action-oriented horror. Don't bring your mother, though; she might get squicked.
The non-spoiler premise: a squad of British soldiers on a training mission in Scotland run into a pack of werewolves. Huge amounts of gore result.
OK. So it's a werewolf movie; heavy on the action as such things are meant to be. The structure is classic: heros get jumped, heros run like hell, heros wind up treed in confined quarters, and heros fight off problems for several reels with mixed results. It's a formula that works.
It's pretty clearly a first movie; the pacing is a trifle shaky here and there and the director spends a little too much time reaching for the movie homages. There's one particularly vile line. You'll know it when you get there. Also, the backstory is somewhat murky and should not be prodded too much with sharp logic. Fortunately, I don't think the backstory is really all that important. There are werewolves. They want to eat your face off. Some of the whens and wherefores of certain sequences are confusing. Oh well.
I forgive those problems because when the movie is spending time devoted to action rather than plot development, it just screams. The first action sequence after they hole up is balls to the wall motion. One of the best action sequences I've seen since the car chases in Ronin.
I also very much appreciated the way the movie depicts the squad as a reasonably competent well-trained bunch of soldiers. They aren't teenagers, fumbling to stay alive. They are very dangerous men, and the fact that they are not doing well against our furry friends really makes it clear that the werewolves are seriously dangerous and very unhealthy company. Your average horror movie has some of those moments when you go "No, don't do that, not even the kind of person who responds to email spam would do that!" Dog Soldiers has none of those. The monsters are still threatening. Well done.
The acting is really good, unless I'm just mesmerized by the British accents, which is sorta possible. The guy playing the squad leader is Sean Pertwee, who is in fact the son of Doctor Who. Um, Jon Pertwee, that is. Liam Cunningham is also particularly noteworthy as an SAS officer.
So, yeah, see it if you get a chance -- it's excellent low budget action-oriented horror. Don't bring your mother, though; she might get squicked.
