Public Servant Lifestyle

A British army platoon on exercise on a lonely Scottish peak find more than enough to get their teeth into...

Dog Soldiers

Imagine you’re leading a six man squad on a routine army exercise. You’re behind enemy lines. Your radio doesn’t work. You’re cut off and on foot in a vast, hostile wilderness. You can hear something howling in the distance. The sun is going down. And there’s a full moon. You’re missing the most important football match of the decade. And there’s every chance that you’re about to be eaten alive by a pack of vicious, snarling, blood-lusting, seven-foot tall werewolves. What do you do? Run for your life...!

A squad of British soldiers is sent out on manoeuvres into the wilds of Scotland. They thought the worst they had to worry about was missing the biggest football match of the decade, but what should have been a routine military exercise turns into a nightmare for Sergeant Harry Wells, played by Sean (son of former Doctor Who star Jon) Pertwee and Riflemen Lawrence Cooper (Kevin Mckidd).

They are joined by the rest of the platoon, Joe Kirkley (Chris Robson), Terry Milburn (Leslie Simpson), Phil Witherspoon (Darren Morfitt) and Corporal Bruce Campbell (Thomas Lockyer).

Something’s Hungry

Stumbling into the encampment of Captain Richard Ryan (Liam Cunningham), on a mysterious Top Secret mission for the equally mysterious 'Special Operations Division', the squad find him mortally injured and his crack unit already dead around him – apparently torn to shreds by some ferocious animal. Stunned by the blood-soaked aftermath and unable to get any sense from Ryan, the shocked men are led by local girl Megan - played by Emma Cleasby - to a deserted farmhouse deep in the forest for refuge.

Inside, the table is set for dinner and something meaty is bubbling on the stove, but no-one is home. Strange noises outside grow closer and closer - a strangely hairy family are coming home and they're hungry. With no radio contact, no live ammunition and only each other to rely on, the soldiers must rely on brute force and cunning if they are to fight the werewolves battering down the doors and smashing through the windows.
Who will survive the terrifying threat? And what will be left of those that do?

Reminiscent of earlier low-budget British set horror films, most notably – at it’s best – An American Werewolf in London the film also bears a striking resemblance to every cowboy movie you’ve ever seen, with the squadies effectively barricaded in the secluded fort (farmhouse) against the hostile native Indians – except here the Indians appear impervious to firearms and are possessed of superhuman strength. With a fair few nods (not to mention a few direct dialogue steals!) to the classic 1969 Cy Enfield/Stanley Baker film - starring Baker himself and a young Michael Caine: Zulu.

There’s a quite ridiculous flashback sequence at the beginning – giving us an entirely unnecessary reason to mistrust the Captain Ryan character when he fails one of the soldiers on a specials forces selection exercise for refusing to shoot an army dog (hardly designed to please the Defence Animal Centre!) But apart from that, and a relatively straightforward plot, some real menace is built up as the tough-talking ready for anything platoon find themselves holed-up and out of their depths against the unnatural forces lurking in the woods.

Dog Soldiers is out now on video and DVD.

More information available in DVD / Home Video