I’m going to try to recommend a new movie each day until Halloween.
For anyone who has ever hated watching 24-year-old “teenagers” making bad decisions in horror movies, there’s Dog Soldiers. A military training exercise for a squad of British soldiers in the Scottish Highlands goes badly when they find that the OPFOR of SAS soldiers has been ripped apart and eaten. Werewolves pursue them to a nearby home that is the only shelter for miles. (They say “50 miles” but any map of Scotland will tell you that’s absurd.)
The soldiers cover each other, set up defensive tactics and plans, and still it’s frightening. Sean Pertwee as their sergeant pretty much steals the show. There’s a lot of dry humor as well as physical comedy. I’m not particularly fond of a plot turn that almost anyone could see coming, even more because it doesn’t make much sense. But I like seeing real men with sharp minds in a horror movie. When these guys get chased into a bathroom or a closet, they begin making exits where there aren’t any!
One tiny spoiler I’ll give you: throughout the movie, the men discuss how they are missing the big “footie” game and have no idea what the score is. At the end of the film, some photos they took of the werewolves get released to the press. Proof that werewolves actually exist…and in the credits, you see that the press does put it on the front page…at the very bottom, below the score for the game because England beats Germany.