Hard though it might be to believe now, there was a time when British werewolves were a rarity. The perpetrator of a series of murders in the Tod Slaughter film The Face at the Window (1939) is referred to as Le Loup (“The Wolf”) but turns out to be something more prosaic; there was Hammer’s The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) of course, Ursula Howells in Dr Terror ‘s House of Horror (1965), the gimmicky The Beast Must Die in 1974, Legend of the Werewolf in 1975 and of course An American Werewolf in London in 1981. But they were the exceptions that proved the rule and what few other lycanthropes were to be found stalking the British screen were mainly bit parts in films like Son of Dracula (1973).
After An American Werewolf in London there were a couple of worthless Howling sequels which were at least in part British and The Company of Wolves (1984) brought an arthouse twist to the genre. But compared to the sheer volume of home-grown vampire films, the werewolf always seems something of an also ran. That really changed in 2001 with the release of Neil Marshall’s debut feature Dog Soldiers, after which Blighty lycanthropes became ten a penny.
Two Weeks after he fails to make the grade for a special forces unit because he refuses to kill a dog for no reason, Private Lawrence Cooper (Kevin McKidd) joins his squad on a training exercise in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands, under orders to evade capture by a Special Air Service unit. Cooper and the rest of the squad, Private Phil “Spoon” Witherspoon (Darren Morfitt), Private Joe Kirkley (Chris Robson), Private Terry Milburn (Leslie Simpson), Corporal Bruce Campbell (Thomas Lockyer), and Sergeant Harry Wells (Sean Pertwee), find the bloody remains of the SAS team in the woods, the only survivor being Captain Ryan (Liam Cunningham) who seems unwilling to tell them what attacked his men. after an attack by wolf-like creatures that leaves Campbell impaled on a tree branch and Wells severely injured with a serious stomach wound, the group is rescued by zoologist Megan (Emma Cleasby) who takes them to an isolated farmhouse for shelter. She tells them that their attackers are a pack of werewolves and they’ve soon got the building surrounded…
Like An American Werewolf in London (directed by American John Landis using British money), Dog Soldiers strikes just the right balance between humour and horror. There are moments of inspired silliness to garnish the excellent action and horror scenes, moments like the platoon being spooked by a dead cow that drops out of the sky (also a very decent shock moment), Wells wrestling a dog for possession of his exposed intestines and a last-minute newspaper headline screeching “Werewolves ate my platoon!”
Dog Soldiers may not be the most nuanced or the deepest of films, but its very simplicity is the key to much of its considerable charm. It doesn’t try to mess with what we know about werewolves and it strips the plot back to the barest essentials. It starts out as Southern Comfort (1981) meets The Howling (1981) before settling down to mimic Night of the Living Dead (1968) in the second half, with a dash of Aliens (1986) thrown in for good measure. The result, far from feeling derivative as one might expect, is a ridiculous amount of energetic fun.
The characters are sketched in only the broadest of strokes, but they still manage to be likable and the camaraderie between the men is nicely played by all. The army slang and jargon feels authentic at least. Sean Pertwee is the standout, as excellent as ever as the hard-as-nails working class Wells (“if little Red Riding Hood should show up with a bazooka and a bad attitude, I expect you to chin the bitch”) who spends much of the film valiantly trying to keep his exposed intestines from tumbling out. Characters become largely interchangeable during the climactic siege, but you’ll root for them anyway, marvelling at their endless ingenuity (Wells’ way out of a cupboard he and Cooper have locked themselves in is guaranteed to raise a smile) and lamenting the inevitable demise of many of them.
The werewolves, barely glimpsed, are an impress pack, created by Image FX, huge bipeds that tower over the squaddies. They’re smarter than the average lycanthrope too, working together as a pack to knock out power to the farmhouse and co-ordinate their attacks to create the maximum panic and destruction. Sadly, a late in the day revelation of a wolf in the soldier’s midst doesn’t really ring true (how did they remain in human form long after the full moon had converted the rest of the pack?)
A sequel has long been in the offing with several false starts that led to nothing but disappointment. Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat was announced as early as 2004 with post-Millennial horror luminaries like Michael J. Bassett (Deathwatch (2002), Wilderness (2006), Solomon Kane (2009)) and Rob Green (The Black Cat (1995), The Bunker (2001)) variously attached to direct. A web series, Dog Soldiers: Legacy, was promised in 2006 but only a trailer was ever finished. In late 2020, Marshall – having previously dismissed any idea that the sequel and a proposed prequel would ever get made in the Dog Soldiers commentary track – suddenly changed his mind. “There’s more of a chance now than ever before,” he’s quoted as saying on the Den of Geek website. “There’s things in the works and we’re seeing what we can do. Certainly, myself and Kevin McKidd and [Dog Soldiers producer] Chris Figg are up for it to revisit this world.”
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