When it comes to werewolf movies, the pickings can be frustratingly slim. Aside from The Wolf Man (the original, not the 2010 remake), An American Werewolf in London, and maybe The Howling, this subgenre hasn't given us any all-time horror classics that most film fans can recognize. Instead, good werewolf movies usually fall more on the cult classic level. They tend to stay off the general public's radar and are known mainly to hardcore horror buffs.
And that's unfortunate because some of them deserve to be way better known than they are. In particular, I think Dog Soldiers is one of the best horror movies of any subgenre that most people have never heard of. It's a British film that came out in 2002, and it's basically a mixture of Night of the Living Dead and Aliens but with werewolves instead of zombies or aliens.
It follows a group of soldiers who travel to the woods of Scotland for a training exercise, and soon after they arrive, they're attacked by a pack of werewolves. They eventually find their way to an empty house and try to survive the night there as the werewolves attempt to break in and kill them.
That's a fairly simple premise that isn't going to blow anybody's mind, but the filmmakers fill it out with three key elements that really make the movie shine. For one, it has good human characters. I feel like I say this just about every time I write a recommendation or review, but it's essential if you want to make a good movie in any genre. These characters aren't just nameless, faceless cannon fodder. They have real personality traits that make them unique individuals, and the film also humanizes them quite a bit.
For instance, one night before the werewolves attack, the soldiers are sitting around a fire talking about what scares them, and one of them claims that nothing can scare their sergeant. However, the sergeant admits that's not true. He says that the thought of never seeing his wife again terrifies him, and then he tells a story about the scariest thing he ever experienced in the line of duty. These soldiers could've easily been little more than fantasy macho men with no fears or weaknesses, but the filmmakers chose to make them real people instead. They're human beings just like you and me, so you care what happens to them, and you want them to survive their ordeal in one piece.
Secondly, we have the werewolves. The creature effects in this movie are great, as these lycanthropes look every bit as terrifying as supernatural man-eaters should. They're not just human beings who look a little wolfish. No, these are real monsters. They're legit wolves that look like they could tear you apart in seconds.
Interestingly, though, you never really get to see them in their human form. Right from the get-go, they're just terrifying monsters who want to kill the soldiers, and they stay that way for the entire movie. That's a really risky choice, as the werewolf subgenre is usually at its best when it focuses on the dichotomy between man and wolf, but this film pulls it off. These werewolves work just fine as bloodthirsty monsters, and you don't need to see them any other way.
But don't get the wrong idea about them. They're not just mindless savages. Once the soldiers get to the house, the werewolves display much greater intelligence than you would expect. They don't just rush their prey and try to overwhelm them with brute force. No, they plan their attacks just like the soldiers plan their defense, resulting in a cat-and-mouse game that holds your attention much more firmly than a straightforward guns-versus-animals battle ever could.
Finally, we have to talk about the action. The best thing about it is how much tension the film manages to create in its action scenes. You learn very quickly that the human characters are no match for the werewolves one-on-one, so every time the monsters appear, you think it could be the end for the soldiers. Every fight feels like it might be their last, so it really draws you in and makes you feel the urgency of their situation.
Then, when the werewolves make their final attack in the third act, all of that ratchets up to ten. It's do or die, so you know that one way or another, this will be the soldiers' last fight. And they really make this last fight a good one. Because the humans are so outmatched by the monsters, they have to use anything and everything in the house as weapons, resulting in a crazy battle that feels almost like an extended Jackie Chan fight without the pinpoint martial arts expertise. It's just about the most fun you'll ever have watching humans duke it out with supernatural man-eaters.
So if you're in the mood for a werewolf movie, or if you want a film that satisfies your craving for both action and horror, I would highly recommend Dog Soldiers. In fact, I would even say that after the all-time classic werewolf movies, this is probably my favorite film in the subgenre. It's just that good. It has heart, it has great monsters, and it has great action, so you really can't go wrong with this underseen horror gem.
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