Hidden Horrors of Peacock: The Horror Warfare of Dog Soldiers

When we think about director Neil Marshall and horror films, we usually think about The Descent, his modern classic of claustrophobia and mayhem following a group of female cavers attacked by hideous subterranean monsters. It's been almost 20 years since that film arrived and cemented its place as one of the best horror films of the 21st century so far, but while it's always worth discussing, The Descent is not the only modern horror classic Marshall has produced.

Three years before The Descent, Marshall made his mark with his directorial debut, an action-horror romp called Dog Soldiers. It's streaming on Peacock right now if you want to check it out, and you should, because it's not just one of the director's best efforts, but one of the best werewolf movies of all time.

For More Horror Movies on Peacock:
Hidden Horrors of Peacock - Bliss
Hidden Horrors of Peacock - Chopping Mall
Hidden Horrors of Peacock - Cutting Class

Why Now Is a Great Time to Watch Dog Soldiers on Peacock

As the title suggests, the film follows a group of soldiers on a training exercise in the wilderness of Scotland. It's supposed to be a pretty straightforward bit of wargaming for Wells (Sean Pertwee), Cooper (Kevin McKidd), Spoon (Darren Morfitt), Joe (Chris Robson), and Terry (Leslie Simpson), but things quickly go sideways. There are things in the woods other than soldiers, and soon the group has run across a wounded special ops officer (Liam Cunningham) and a lone zoologist (Emma Cleasby) who might know more about the creatures pursuing them all than she's letting on. 

After some very gruesome table-setting, much of the actual Dog Soldiers narrative unfolds once the unit has retreated into a farmhouse belonging to a family that's not home, where they barricade themselves inside and slowly reckon with the fact that werewolves are not only real, but just outside the walls, plotting their next attack on their would-be victims. An unusual, ruthlessly violent siege ensues as the soldiers try to survive the night, and realize that their enemy is much more than a pack of wild, thoughtless beasts.

What follows is a sort of hybrid blend of Night of the Living Dead and Assault on Precinct 13, but with werewolves as the central monsters, and it's clear that Marshall is having a fabulous time playing with that conceit. His approach puts his characters under constant tension, and his layout of the farmhouse and its surroundings offers plenty of opportunities for big setpiece moments, from efforts to escape with a hotwired card to the potential of crumbly old walls between rooms. 

But perhaps the best element at work in Dog Soldiers, apart from some wonderful visual effects, is its tonal approach. Marshall shoots the film in a deliberately gritty, low-light style, giving everything a certain texture and grain, keeping the light low to wring even more tension out of events. That means that the horror really works, but Marshall's script is at its best when it's also offering up oddball, morbid humor. These are, after all, soldiers, men who've reckoned with the fact that their job is not only dangerous, but always potentially deadly. Some of them have been through some serious horror before, and it isn't that they're unafraid of what's happening now, they're just simultaneously resigned to it and gobsmacked by the circumstances. That makes for some great character work and great laugh lines, which happens to be Dog Soldiers' greatest strength. 

So, if you're looking for a werewolf movie that'll shake up the formula for you a bit, or you just want to watch a horror action movie like Aliens or Predator with a grittier, lower budget flare, check out Dog Soldiers. Just, you know, maybe check that the Moon's not full first.

Dog Soldiers is now streaming on Peacock.