Freshly landed in the catalogue of ShadowzCultivation Dog Soldiers promises to spread guts and guts, and definitely disturb the quietness of the Scottish Highlands. Yet, between a complicated production context and Neil Marshall's career, which is soon about to attempt the free fall, the bet was not won in advance! Attention, a movie not to watch a full moon night...
Dog afternoon
After failing to join Special Forces because of the tyrannical Captain Ryan (Liam Cunninghampresent in particular in Game of Thrones), Private Cooper (Kevin McKidd) found himself trapped in an exercise at the bottom of the Scottish Highlands, one night full moon. Quickly, their unit is facing an unforeseen situation. While they were supposed to undergo a simple routine exercise, they ended up falling on an absolutely decimated special forces group in the middle of the forest. Only survivor? Captain Ryan, although he's a bloody mess... They take him with them while a group of blood-thirsty bugs start tracking them.
Saved in extremis by a zoologist (Emma Cleasby) passing through Range Rover (UK obliges), they will lock in the only building in the vicinity: an old farm completely deserted with the exception of an adorable border glue. Then begins an endless night, with as the only salvation on the horizon the first rays of sun from dawn that should keep away these strange lycanthropic creatures wanting their skins.
Neil Marshall, lone wolf of horror cinema
British director, Neil Marshall attack on the manufacture of Dog Soldiers in a difficult context (we will come back below) and only 30 years. Boulimique de cinéma, he will start as a screenwriter, then make his hand with several shorts before making this first feature film...
A terrible child in British cinema, Neil Marshall is not very prolific and gives birth to a large number of hard-to-defend turnips (read: The LairNeil Marshall's Descent?). In particular, he is responsible for the reboot of hell Hellboy (2019 version). Yet, if one remembers its name, it is thanks to its first two achievements that marked the horrific film landscape of the United Kingdom: Dog Soldiers which interests us today, but also a certain The Descent.
Since then, he has not been inactive... Indeed, if it struggles to re-perceive in the world of cinema after The DescentNeil Marshall will be able to handle: Game of Thrones, Constantine or Hannibal, he turns his camera to the world of television and series while also placing his balls in the world of production. But let's go back to our sheep, what about Dog Soldiers ?
Young wolf revises his classics
The reference to Predator sweat in this group of young men testedosterone, bottled with arms and born in a lattice, as well as in segments in subjective vision of the werewolves who hunt them. He will also be able to draw from McTiernan's cinema, both the replicas that sound like an acute sense of the rhythm of theActuate Bum.
The Evil Dead It's all the more obvious that one of the soldiers is called Bruce Campbell... However, it is more widely in the global atmosphere, combining a closed house in this cabin lost in the woods, a humor constantly supernatant the horrific scenes well gore and a filming of creatures to bring closer to the glamourous visions of the Deadites.
Finally, the saga Alien for this unique female character, badass, locked in a 100% male and testosterone environment (even if it is regretted the evolution of this female character in Marshall's film). But if it's fun to decode references from Dog Soldiers, The film does not forget to develop its own identity, and it is high time to lean on it!
A movie that pulls out the fangs
The first thing that hits the viewing of Dog Soldiers It's his strange rhythm, which works (quietly) fucking well... After an introduction in media res, the film will allow many tunnels of dialogues, often quite tasty but also destabilizing by their duration. And if they contain in themselves real nuggets of dialogues chiseled to perfection (we let you back on the "citations" page of IMDB dedicated to the film To refresh your memory), these exchanges especially allow Neil Marshall to send in the wake of significant breaks of tone. Between rare jumpscares magnificently brought to the crescendos of action that do not end, this false rhythm in two stages is particularly well attended by Dog Soldiers.
In addition to these considerations of rhythm, it is an ultra-cut montage that will complete the film's tension and credibilize its moments of bravery. Advantage, for a long time werewolves in latex (he will never give in to special effects and it's so much better!) are out-of-field or appear in such short planes that they become almost subliminal images, which only accentuates more the horrific imagination surrounding Dog Soldiers and only rarely do it fall into unwittingly laughable sequences today.
And if we welcome the exclusive use of practical effects, we should also mention the fact that Dog Soldiers It's really not bad at tripails or pyrotechnics! It sweats, it flows, it spreads, it slices, it glides in every direction and with a particularly sharp choice of black humour, which passes through the feature film in a way that is certainly more sober than in the Evil Dead 2, but as only a British movie could afford it. And this permissive generosity in the gore and outburst is all the more surprising as it sporulates in an unfavorable period (this is an understatement!) to horror in the United Kingdom...
Warm film
Hammer Film Production, "La Hammer" for intimates, is the British production company of horror film. Between 1934 and 1979 an incalculable number of films exit between the walls of this society. And almost as inconceivable as werewolves of Dog Soldiers, the Hammer will cross many successive moults and rise from several heavy blows... Yet, despite some hopes of ultimate renewal even in the 2000s (The Lady in black, in 2012 in particular), the last burst of the Hammer seems to be the documentary narrated by Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in person: Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror in 1994. So it's in this wake of horror singing in disinherence (see brain death) that fits into Dog Soldiers From the beginning of its development in 1995 until its release in 2004...
But besides this first hard blow for British horror, Dog Soldiers Also appeared after the Video Nasties campaign, a public list of films considered too violent or sexual and prosecuted as they would violate a law on obscene content in England. A long list (to be consulted in full here), classified in several categories (for penalties ranging from the prosecution of distributors, dealers, the total prohibition or confiscation), in which there are real signs of horror such as Darkness d-Argento, Cannibal Holocaust by Ruggero Deodato, Possession of Zulawski, Evil Dead Sam Raimi or Mausoleum Michael Dugan (also freshly released on Shadowz).
A context not very prone to horror therefore, in which nevertheless arises Dog Soldiers whose direct references thus appear in the lists of these Video Nasties... This probably explains the long duration of development of the film, which began in 1995 to land on screens only in 2004! Nevertheless, despite its funding difficulties and this unfavourable environment, Dog Soldiers Send some heavy on the tripaille...
Last good lycanthropic movie?
Legitimate question: Dog Soldiers is the ultimate good werewolf movie? Indeed, this monster has innerved a whole section of the horrific cinema up to an organ point in the Eighties between the classic London's Wolf-Guarantee (1981) by John Landis, Screaming (1981) by Joe Dante the same year or again Blue fear (1985) from a book by Stephen King... However, by registering as one of the last films focusing almost exclusively on the practical effects, perhaps Dog Soldiers is the ultimate pure film of convincing lycanthropists.
At least before the arrival of a new fringe of films – Teddy or The Good Ways exemplaryly – allowing a complete (and often social) rereading of the myth of long-core monsters... Has digital definitely killed good lycanthropic films with a silver blade? The future will certainly tell us...
Conclusion
Generous film by a director today in the middle of the desert, Dog Soldiers marks the first burst of Neil Marshall before the frantic arrival she-also of The Descent. Two imperfect films, but which have been able to make lasting mark on the horrific landscape of the United Kingdom and to be part of a very unfavorable context for the dreadful films. Lovers of the tripaille and of the beasts with sloppy mouths, Dog Soldiers, The Descent but also Tales of Halloween (of which Neil Marshall produces a segment) are all available on Shadowz !
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I'll book it soon. ^^ Cross-sectional critical look!
We enjoyed it with my brother, a very good B series that knows how to play in full on the map of the behind doors. A small side on the night of the living dead when the film tipped towards the muscled home invasion. ^^ Impressive as with little, the real manages to destroy this house until the foundation. Thanks for the advice. It's a lot better than Resvergis we'll be talking about in the near future.
... to convince. Instead, you will be advised to retaliate on Dog Soldiers (read the review of Mr Wilkes), recently released on Shadowz and who assumes much more of his B-series [...]