STOP SLEEPING ON DOG SOLDIERS: Why you should watch this classic if you haven’t yet

On May 10th, 2002 a film released in the UK. This film would go on to be well received in the UK, and it also would gon to become one of the most underrated films in the horror genre. This post is to tell you exactly why that’s the case and I hope to sell you on this film if you haven’t seen it yet.

Creation and Production Begins

All the way back in 1995, Director Neil Marshall pitched to one of his eventual Co-Producers Keith Bell, an idea for a low-budget soldiers vs werewolves film.

Bell liked the idea, and agreed to help Neil make it a reality. Neil wrote the first draft in 1996, and while getting drunk and smoking cigars at a bar near the Scottish Highlands on holiday, him and Keith wrote up a contract on a napkin that said Keith would endeavor to be the producer and they both signed it.

It would then take 6 years after that night at the bar for Neil and Keith to get the financing they needed as well as Neil refining the script into what it ended up being.

Everyone on the crew, from Neil and Keith all the way down to the cinematographer and the sound team, joined on this production because they were inspired by Sam Raimi and what he did with The Evil Dead. Neil himself even said that the reason why he had the idea in the first place was because he wanted to make a fun werewolf movie that was in the style of the original Evil Dead. Creepy, yet fun at the same time.

Neil and Keith were introduced to the Victor Film Company as a sales agent, who then introduced them to a man by the name of Christopher Figg. For those who may not know, Chris is one of the produces of Hellraiser, so it’s safe to say he knows what he’s doing when it comes to filmmaking.

Production started sometime in 2001, but before that could properly happen, Neil and the crew had to settle on where they were going to film. Neil originally wanted to film in The Isle of Man due to tax reasons, but that fell through.

Then Neil wanted to film in Manitoba, once again due to tax reasons, but that fell through as well. Ultimately, Neil and the crew decided to shoot in Luxembourg, due to not just tax reasons but also having access to crew and student facilities that were provided by a company that was based in Luxembourg.

The film was produced by four different companies:

• The Kismet Entertainment Group
• The Noel Gay Motion Picture Company
• The Victor Film Company
• The Carousel Picture Company

The film also got financial support from the Luxembourg Film Fund. It took a lot of support to make this film a possibility, and I am so glad that they did!

Stories From Production

As you know from the retrospectives that I did on An American Werewolf In London, The Howling and Wolfen respectively, I love to talk about and bring light to behind the scenes stories from the productions of films that I talk about in these discussion pieces, and Dog Soldiers has some very interesting stories of its own so without further ado, let’s get into these stories.

Simon Pegg, of Shaun of the Dead fame, was offered a role in this film but he turned it down. Why you may be asking? Filmmaker Edgar Wright, who was the director of Shaun of the Dead, convinced Simon to save his first ever horror role for that film instead of this one.

Neil wanted the werewolves in this film to be tall, elegant and graceful. How did he achieve this? He used actual dancers as the werewolves! Neil put them in werewolf costumes and had them wear stilts so that they could be tall enough, but still maintain their grace and elegance.

The set was also designed size-wise so that the werewolves had to bend a little bit when entering a room. The reasoning behind this is because apparently it highlighted their statuesque physiques, and I completely agree with that, because the werewolves in film look menacing!

There is very little CGI used in this movie, so little in fact that you hardly even notice it. The reasoning for this is because Neil and the crew felt that CGI was being over-used at the time and that it would take viewers out of the film because they would focus on how the special effects looked rather than focusing on the story. Little did they know that CGI is basically the norm these days when it comes to major motion pictures.

As Neil himself has stated, “this film is absolutely loaded with references to other films" so let me tell you about some of these references.

At one point in the film, someone says “There is no Spoon", in reference to a soldier who is actually named Spoon. this line is in reference to The Matrix, which came out 3 years earlier in 1999.

There are several references to a british historical drama film from 1964 called Zulu, here’s a few of those references:

• There’s a piece of choral music that is featured in Zulu when one of the soldiers, Spoon in fact, is talking about Rorkes drift
• Sargeant Wells paraphrases a line from Zulu, which is the line “be quiet now will you, there’s a good gentleman, you’ll upset the lads.”
• Cooper, who is one of the main characters of Dog Soldiers, gets trapped in a bathroom and has to tunnel through the bathroom wall to get to Sgt. Wells.

Sgt. Wells full name is “Sgt. Harry G. Wells". This is in reference to H.G. Wells, a famous author who has written a bevy of famous novels, including The Invisible Man. Wells is one of Neil’s favorite authors.

There’s a clock on a wall in some scenes that looks like it stopped working. Well the reason for that is because Neil smashed it, because apparently it was causing continuity issues so he smashed the clock so that the hands would be in the same spot.

Lead actor Kevin McKidd cracked a rib in the first few days of shooting, but he decided to hide it from Neil out of fear of him being replaced. Eventually the pain proved to be too much for McKidd and he revealed it to Neil anyway, who did end up replacing him with Jason Statham. Statham turned it down though due to scheduling issues with a film called Ghost of Mars, which Statham was filming at the time. McKidd was rehired once his rib healed up.

Remember when I said that Neil and the crew were inspired by The Evil Dead? Well that inspiration even bled into the script because one of the characters is named Bruce Campbell, in reference to the actor who played the main character of The Evil Dead series, Ash Williams.

And those are the best stories that I found out about this film. It always fascinates me when I dig deeper into these films that I’ve watched ever since I was a kid and I find all of these neat little stories and details that add to the legend of these films.

Release, Reception, and What Happened after the UK run

As I have stated at the beginning of this piece, Dog Soldiers was released on May 10th, 2002 in the UK to generally positive reception. It was praised among both critics and the general public for its witty dialogue, its action, its scares, and how fun it is to watch.

In the US however, Dog Soldiers didn’t even get a theatrical run. Instead it premiered later that year on the Sci-Fi channel as a Sci-Fi pictures telefilm, which is how I ended up watching the film for the first time.

The film is highly regarded as one of the best werewolf films of all time, and I completely agree with that, because this film is fantastic!

This film also won the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film’s Golden Raven in 2002, which is the festival’s top award, as well as the audience award which is called the Pegasus.

Home Media Releases and which one you should get

Dog Soldiers has seen a number of home media releases over the years, and I’ve watched almost every single one of them thanks to rental stores. So I’m going to tell you about them and which ones I recommend you pick up if you decide to do so:

• There is a DVD version of the film that was released in 2002 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
• There is a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack released by First Look Studios in 2009 that is only available in the US and Canada.
• There is another Blu-ray/DVD combo pack that was released by Scream Factory in 2015, which is only available in the US.
• In 2019, Koch Media released DVD, Blu-ray and 4K versions of the film that were restored from the original negative.
• And finally earlier this year, Second Sight Films released a limited edition Blu-ray of the film that was another 4K restoration.

Now that you know all of the different releases of the film, you may asking, “well which one should I get?” And that’s a good question with a very simple answer.

I personally recommend either the Scream Factory Blu-ray if you live in the US, which is the release that I own, or any of the Blu-rays that were released after the Scream Factory one. Those are going to be your best bets for getting good versions of the film and some pretty neat special features as well if you’re into special features like I am. If you are not in the US, get the best release that’s available in your region.

Rolling The Credits

And that does it for yet another discussions piece on another werewolf film.

This film is criminally underrated in my honest opinion, and if you haven’t seen it yet I highly recommend it! This film is in my top 3 horror movies ever made and I just wish that people would STOP sleeping on it and just watch it.

This movie is one that takes conventional werewolf tropes and throws them out the window. I’ve been telling people that this film is “the Evil Dead of werewolf movies" since I was a kid and now as an adult to see that everyone on the crew was inspired by Sam Raimi and the Evil Dead, that makes me happy because I love The Evil Dead as well and now I can’t watch this film without seeing the inspiration.

Thank you all for reading, and as always I’ll see you in the next one!

-Alex “MadMan" Madden