Dog Soldiers (2002) (Film Review)

Dog Soldiers (2002) is a horror film by Neil Marshall. Three years before The Descent, there was this film. So… three years before six young women meet up for a caving expedition in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains, there were these military men from an English regiment who were sent on a maneuver in the wilds of Scotland. Here, what should have been a routine military exercise turns into a nightmare, while for the girls, it was the caving expedition that turned into a descent into hell.

It’s gory, but it makes you laugh, at the same time with lines like: “I can’t believe it: my guts are in the air!!!” And the guy keeps walking with the others. He even falls down once or twice, but gets back up again. So… absolutely not realistic. But the gag goes on for a while! A dog sees the guts sticking out, so he attacks, bites and shoots at it. It’s a pretty gross moment. Then a soldier asks the wounded guy, “How are you?” To which he replies, “A bit of flatulence! When I think it doesn’t take much for my guts to go to hell!!!” And a little later, someone says, referring to the injured man: “You know him from the inside out, if I may say so!”

Quite heavy-handed humor at times, but it shows just how seriously the film doesn’t take itself.Neil Marshall was just doing his trial runs at the time. He made a kind of rough draft here, as if to practice, because he went on to make much better films. As in Predator (1987), as in The Lair (2022), here it’s the military going on a mission (not so serious in the first place) that comes face to face with creatures thirsting for carnage. The monsters, which are werewolves, are pretty scary and quite well done.

The direction is good, and the actors are more than adequate. Only the ultra-gore got the better of me, however, forcing me to downgrade to three stars. Well, at the same time, Neil M is also the guy who made the most violent and brutal Hellboy. But all in all, this film makes me appreciate The Descent even more, as it’s less exaggerated on the repulsive side.

My Rating