DVD of the Week: Dog Soldiers (2002)

I simply can't believe how good this film was ... and that it has taken me so long to getting round to see it (despite several strong recommendations from friends and fellow genre fans). Not only is this a quality British film (a rarity in itself) but also a wicked monster movie.

Dog Soldiers sees a bunch of squaddies on a training exercise in the Scottish Highlands crossing paths with a pack of werewolves, and retreating to an isolated farmhouse for safety.

All this mayhem and dismemberment results in a top notch spam in a cabin piece (in the same vein as Evil Dead), packed with great thowaway geeky lines (including the best Matrix joke ever), film homages (check out the Zulu theme) and full-on man vs werewolf fight sequences (kudos for the plethora of improvised - and ultimately useless - weaponry).

The portayal of the soldiers - as far as I can tell - is very accurate and Sean Pertwee and Kevin McKidd, as the main squaddies, are on top form.

While the werewolf effects aren't exactly cutting edge they do show that sometimes a 'man in a suit' monster is still better, and less distracting, than rubbish CGI.

Writer/director Neil Marshall, of course, went on to bring us The Descent last year which, while I wouldn't rate it as highly as Dog Soldiers, still demonstrates the enormous potential for British horror films.