Dog Soldiers
Dog Soldiers
A routine military exercise turns into a nightmare in the Scottish wilderness.
Jacob O’Neal reviewedJuly 13, 2025
Neil Marshall, before launching himself into the big time with The Descent, Thor 2 and Game Of Thrones, made a little werewolf movie about soldiers in Scotland and werewolves. I saw this right after The Descent came out. I wanted to see Marshall’s first film after the well crafted and eerie Descent. I was not disappointed, but for some reason I hadn’t watched it again in years till the other night. It really sits very high in the rankings of werewolf films.
The story is about a young soldier who finds himself and his unit trapped in the woods on a training exercise will being stalked by something they can’t see. Eventually they discover they are fighting werewolves and enlist the help of a woman who lives in a nearby cabin. We begin to learn the backstory as soldiers either die or become the enemy after being bit. The greatest part is that this is unabashedly a movie about soldiers first and adds the werewolf aspect for added tension. Marshall crafted a fantastic story that wasn’t afraid to get violent. Watching soldiers become unstoppable killing machines who seem to relish that and go after whoever is in their wake is a frightening concept.
The acting, the directing and the story all hum along so well that you it’s over before you know it. The entire time the credits roll, you’ll wish there was a sequel. The problem is that it likely will never happen due to rights issues being split between a producer in Arkansas that put up most of the money and then got out of filmmaking as well as Neil Marshall moving on since he saw it likely wouldn’t happen. Maybe it’s for the best. One movie, no sequels to sully the memory of a great stand alone film.