THE 12 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN: 4. Dog Soldiers (2002)

 

                “Dog Soldiers” is a British horror war movie that was released in 2002.  It was written and directed by Neil Marshall (“Centurion”).  It was his first film.  The movie created barely a ripple in theaters and was later premiered on the SyFy Channel.  It is the kind of movie where the first deaths occur in the first minute.

                The movie is set in Scotland.  A squad of British soldiers are dropped into a forest for a “harmless exercise, not life or death” against a SAS unit.  Only it will be hard to war game against pieces of men.  There is a survivor – the enigmatically evil Capt. Ryan (Liam Cunningham).  He babbles that “there was only supposed to be one.”  What is he talking about?  Probably not squirrels.  It quickly becomes apparent that we are in the midst of the “who will survive?” subgenre.  They come under attack from something that we see only briefly enough to confirm that they are not squirrels.  The countdown begins when one of the men has a rude encounter with a sharp tree branch.  The really cool Sarge character gets slashed to where he has his guts spilling out.  Boo!  Why does he have to die so soon?  No one could survive that kind of wound unless…  The freaked out Brits are rescued by a woman in an SUV.  She takes them to her isolated farm house because the director had some film left.  We are now at Rorke’s Drift in “Zulu”.  And just like in that movie, they have no phone coverage.  And the enemy makes multiple assaults.  At one point they even break through a wall to escape into another room.  One of the men turns into a werewolf (but off-camera!)  He won’t be the last.  There is a lot of frenetic fighting to hold their fort and the director even manages to get an explosion in. 

                “Dog Soldiers” is a worthy addition to the war horror movie subgenre.  Marshall directs with panache.  The cinematography throws in some hand-held and slo-mo.  It is a cut above the average creature feature. The editing is outstanding with lots of quick cuts to rev up the action and intercutting during the house assaults.  The action is plentiful and balls to the wall.  The violence is very graphic and appropriately so.  And it saves the best for last.  A real crowd-pleaser.  The special effects are old schoolish as Marshall eschewed CGI.  The werewolves are a combination of animatronics and men in body suits on stilts.  They start off cheesy looking, but later views are more effective.  The movie wisely bleeds out the views.  It reminds one of “Alien” in this respect. 

                The actors do not take a back seat to the monsters.  It is a nice cast of recognizable British thespians.  The standouts are the antagonists Ryan and Cooper (Kevin McKidd of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Rome”).  They have a history that involves a dog and a dog neatly fits into the climax of the film.  Ryan makes a great villain and Cooper is rock-jawed sturdy.  By the way, kudos to the dog (Acer).  Good acting, boy!  Emma Cleasby is feisty as Megan the supposedly normal heroic lass.  The dialogue is very British and has some subtle humor that cuts the tension and adds to the fun.  The plot is predictable.  Like the fact that virtually everyone dies.  Oops, spoiler alert!  There are a few nice twists, so try to keep your eyes open. 

GRADE  =  B+

  

THE 12 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN: 5. Spectral (2016)

 

            “Spectral” is a military sci-fi film.  It was originally made for Universal, but they decided not to release it and Netflix scarfed it up.  Good call for Netflix viewers.  It was directed by Nic Mathieu.  He left commercials to make his feature debut.  It was filmed in Budapest.

            United Nations peacekeepers are having enough trouble with insurgents in Modava without supernatural specters being thrown into the mix.  When some unexplainable killings of competent American soldiers occurs, Dr. Mark Clyne (James Badge Dale – Robert Leckie in “The Pacific”) is called in because he specializes in hyperspectral imaging goggles.  Those same goggles have been picking up apparitions in the war-torn city of Chisinau, Moldava.  Clyne works for DARPA which stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.  (As much as this sounds like a sci-fi creation, it actually is a current agency that researches new weapons and technology.  It helped develop the Internet.)  In a well-worn sci-fi cliché, Clyne is sent to the war zone to bring brains to brawn.  Clyne is partnered with a CIA agent named Fran Madison (Emily Morimer).  She thinks the insurgents have developed fancy new camouflage, but that hardly explains the fact that the killers can’t be killed.  Gen. Orland (Bruce Greenwood) sends the duo with a Delta Force team into the city to rescue a missing Ranger team.  Things do not go well.  But it is confirmed that the enemy are not insurgents.  They are more like very angry ghosts.  Like if Casper was on PCP.  And there are a shit-ton of them.  It looks like the world is over, but thank God we have a plucky scientist on our side.  The movie manages to throw in the besieged fortress and the factory with the power source

            The script was described to Universal as a sci-fi “Black Hawk Down”.  It’s not in a league with that movie, but it is entertaining in a Netflix streaming sort of way.  It manages to blend the action of a shoot ‘em up war film paired with the supernatural.  It does have cliches, but manages to avoid the obvious one of the mad scientist or corrupt government official provoking the crisis.  Surprisingly, the film starts with a military industrial villainous complex vibe, but does not develop it.  It does not avoid the trope of the foes are seemingly invulnerable until a scientist discovers their weakness.  And the trope of having to get to the inner sanctum to flip a switch with the clock ticking.  But I don’t think the target audience expects originality over competence. 

            This movie is competently made by its commercial’s director.  He was given a good cast and they buy in to the lunacy.  The Budapest locations class up what could have been a Syfy made-for-TV movie.  Naturally, there is a lot of CGI, unless Budapest looks like 1942 Stalingrad.  The special effects are top notch when it comes to the specters.  They set this above a “Seal Team Six” episode, which is what much of the action looks like.  We get the POV of a video game.  It is set in the near future, but we still get some cool futuristic weapons.  Apparently, DARPA holds back unless the world is in peril.

            “Spectral” was a pleasant surprise.  I had it in my Netflix queue for a long time.  I tend to watch their regular war movies over their science fiction war movies.  And don’t get me wrong, “Spectral” is a war movie.  As much as “Aliens” was.  So, war movie fans, watch it with no guilt feelings. 

 

GRADE  =  B+

 

THE 12 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN: 6. The Devil’s Backbone (2001)

            “The Devil’s Backbone” is a Spanish film (“El Espinozo del Diablo”) by Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”). He originally conceived of the story when he was in college. The film was sixteen years in development. It is considered the brother to del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” which he likens to the sister in the relationship. The film was critically acclaimed and was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film.

            The movie is set in Spain in 1939, which was the final year of the Spanish Civil War. A young boy named Carlos (Ferdinando Tielve) arrives at an orphanage run by Republican Loyalists. He meets a bully named Jaime (Inigo Garces), but they soon become friends after they break curfew and Carlos takes the blame. It was on this night of a prank that Carlos encounters the ghost that haunts the eerie orphanage. The belief among the boys is the specter is that of an orphan who disappeared during an air raid that left an unexploded bomb in the courtyard. The ghost is not the only disconcerting element of the orphanage. Most of the adults who run it are dangerous, including an ex-orphan who now works there. He is interested in locating a stash of gold hidden on the grounds. He will do anything to get rich. Once again in a horror movie, greed is the catalyst for the horror. Most of the adults will end up dying, but from human evil, not the ghost. Carlos and the other orphans are put in dire peril, but they have the ghost of an orphan on their side.

            “The Devil’s Backbone” is not really a war movie. It does fit into the subgenre of war horror movies. It is not as good as “Pan’s Labyrinth”, but it is still memorable. The acting is fine. Remarkably, Carlos is played by a boy who had auditioned to be an extra. Del Toro chose him to be the lead because he had the right kind of innocence. The ghost was inspired by the one in the Japanese film “The Ring”. It is spooky and creepy. The effects are outstanding, which is what you would expect from a del Toro film. If you know your history, it makes sense that he set his two great war horror movies in the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. “The Devil’s Backbone” may not be a war movie, but the civil war factors in to the plot. Greed and war are a bad combination, as though orphans don’t already have it rough.

GRADE  =  A