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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.78:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Surround
  Subtitles
    English
  Extras
  • Deleted scenes
  • 4 Theatrical trailer
  • 2 Audio commentary
  • Featurette
  • Photo gallery
  • Interviews
  • Storyboards
  • Gag reel
  • Short film
Dog Soldiers
Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 102 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Get this for a plot: A bunch of soldiers on a training exercise in the Scottish Highlands find themselves under siege from a pack of werewolves.

Sounds daft, doesn't it? Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Sounds absolutely flipping brilliant, doesn't it?

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"Oi, lads, anyone for sausages?"

Said soldiers are your typical bunch, the hard leader, the assorted gung-ho, footy loving, just want to be at home with the missus types stuck out in a dark and miserable forest waiting to take on an opposing unit of special forces soldiers in a routine training exercise.

There's nothing routine about what happens, though. Almost immediately the rules are changed when they discover the special forces team missing and their base camp a scene of bloody carnage. Using their advanced male powers of deductive reasoning, they realise that something isn't quite right, and go on the alert against a new enemy who isn't firing blanks and will just as soon rip your head off as hump your leg.

What follows is one of the best bits of balls and all low budget frenetic filmmaking I've seen in a long time which puts glossier bigger spending films to shame. It's far from perfect, with some clanger dialogue and lapses in logic and reality (yeah, I know, logic and reality in a werewolf film? What am I thinking?), but it is more than made up for by the sheer enthusiasm and bravado from the cast and crew in making this a violent, testosterone-ridden trip into action/horror nirvana.

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"Hi, I'm Frank, and behind me is Steve. We like horse-riding, rollerblading, dancing, and ripping peoples heads off. Call us now."

As someone remarks in the bonus material, it’s amazing no-one thought of this earlier. Hard, yet mere men, armed with machine guns, up against psychotic and superpowerful werewolves. It’s a mix made in killer doggy heaven. It’s the best bits of An American Werewolf in London and Aliens and a dozen other films rolled into one and spat out with guts and gusto.

Bugger reading anymore of this review, just get your hands on this DVD now and have a bloody ripping great night in.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

I think this was shot on 16mm, then upped to 35 for release, then that was shunted over DVD, so the film aptly looks the low budget part, but it suits it well, and it’s never harsh enough to be ugly or an eyesore. It’s dark, grainy, a bit flat in the shadowy areas, and stripped of vibrancy, so it’s a gloomy looking picture for a gloomy story, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Therefore, I can accept the lower levels of detail which still look good and add a doco feel to the film. For a gorefest, the lack of vibrancy doesn’t detract from the splattering of intestines and liberal washes of blood. When the action ramps up and the movement becomes more aggressive, it handles things well, with editing and the shooting used to deliberately keep the werewolves in the dark and shadowy recesses working to good effect.

The Dolby 5.1 (448kbps) audio track is pretty good, but again keeping within the low budget, isn’t up to what a more expensive feature could have achieved, lacking some clarity and a really good dynamic range. Still, that hasn’t stopped them from making sure that when the attacks occur your speakers get a scary workout to drive home the fact that you’re not exactly watching The Wiggles. Some dialogue is a little low and might have you lifting the volume a notch, but I guess that’ll just make the scares a little louder as well, which is a good thing. This is meant to be enjoyed loud, so yank it all the way up, and enjoy the mayhem.

The layer change on my player (Sony DVP-S525) wasn't the best, with the pause falling right at the end of a sentence and cutting off the very end of the last word. Results may vary from machine to machine, but a better spot could have been chosen.

There's not a half bad selection of extras to run through, and it shows that they obviously thought a bit about what they’d made to give it some extra attention. Good on them, I say, even if they aren’t extensive or full to the brim with useful and interesting info, so an extra point for trying to add value for money for people who like the film.

Audio Commentary – Director and Cast
This is the better commentary of the two, with a mostly rowdy cast having a good time amongst themselves as they watch the film back and take digs at each other or pass the odd comment or two while the director injects a little more level headed reflection. Interesting to note that their opinion on the superglue scene is at odds with the view of the producers.

Audio Commentary – Producers
Far more dry than the above commentary, this is a fairly straight recall of their involvement in the project and their recollection of the shooting. You could easily skip this and go straight for the cast comm for a better time.

Trailers
Four trailers for the film, each fairly similar.

Featurette (18:35)
Reasonably good, with a look at the actors discussing their roles and the creation of the wolves, but it’s padded out far too much with over long scenes from the film which take up space where more behind the scenes stuff should have been.

Deleted Scenes/Gag Reel - +/- Director's Comments (08:34)
Playing as a single clip, the deleted scenes are mostly unnecessary as they’re just about the soldiers more than the story proper, and the gag reel is culled from what was a supposed pretty fluff-free shoot.

Combat – A Short Film by Neil Marshall (07:33)
It’s good to see the inclusion of earlier work, even if it is stuff done while at film school, as it can give you an idea of how far they’ve come (or not). This is about a boys night out at the pub, set to the sounds of war rather than dialogue. If he’s gone from this to Dog Soldiers, I can’t wait to see his next film.

Interviews with Cast and Crew (18:20)
Although this sounds promising running 18 minutes, the reality is that it’s broken up over seven people, and each person has many short topics they comment on, usually running around under a minute, so it’s not exactly a cohesive interview for anyone involved.

Two Storyboards (08:34)
A few pages of boards for each scene, then the ability to play the scene in question for comparison. Each page has six images, so don’t expect detailed or very clear illustrations to view.

Photo Gallery (02:19)
This gallery is self running, so you have to hit pause if you want to linger on a particular shot. A mix of in-scene, production and portrait.


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  •   And I quote...
    "One of the best bits of balls and all low budget frenetic filmmaking I've seen in a long time which puts glossier bigger spending films to shame."
    - Vince Carrozza
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DVP-525
    • TV:
          Philips 55PP8620
    • Receiver:
          Sony STR-DB1070
    • Speakers:
          Wharfedale s500
    • Centre Speaker:
          Polk Audio CS245
    • Surrounds:
          Wharfedale WH-2
    • Subwoofer:
          DB Dynamics TITAN
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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