Comic relief with werewolf slapstick

While Dog Soldiers may seem to be burlesque buffoonery, it is not a cartoon. Nor is it a film about dogs.

This film is actually about a battle royal between a squad of British soldiers and a pack of werewolves in the wilds of Scotland.

The soldiers, led by Sergeant Harry Wells (Sean Pertwee), are on a routine military exercise when they first encounter a half-eaten carcass of a cow that drops out of the sky, and then the liquefied remains of a top-secret special service unit.

They also rescue Captain Richard Ryan (Liam Cunningham) who is on a mysterious top-secret mission, and get into a slugfest to escape the attacks of a pack of werewolves at “that time of the month”.

With the help of a civilian zoologist named Megan (Emma Cleasby) who’s wandering in the woods, the surviving soldiers hole up at a farmhouse for a final showdown with the lycanthropes.

Directed by Neil Marshall, Dog Soldiers is supposedly classified as a horror flick. But for a good 30 minutes of blood-splattering hardcore action, and after a totally unexpected barrage of sick one-liners and crude jokes, Dog Soldiers is really just slapstick.

While comedy/horror flicks aren’t new to audiences, Dog Soldiers doesn’t seem to fit snugly in that genre.

It seems more like the moviemakers couldn’t agree on whether to make a horror film or a slapstick, and settled for a half-baked compromise.

An obviously low budget offering, there is nothing to look forward to in terms of special effects either.