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Late to the Party: ‘Dog Soldiers’ (2002)

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Dog Soldiers is a creature feature by writer/director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game of Thrones), and it’s often been described as Predator with werewolves…You have my attention. It’s time for another edition of Late to the Party!

The story follows a British military squad sent to the Scottish Highland wilderness on a routine training exercise. Things start to get “hairy” when a bloodthirsty pack of vicious werewolves attack them. Will they be able to survive the night?

If I didn’t know Dog Soldiers was made in 2002, I’d swear it had to be a late 80’s early 90’s movie. The machismo dialogue, the film grain, and the satisfying practical effects all hearken back to the action/horror films of yesteryear. The movie’s costume design, action-packed stunts, and entertaining premise will warm the dead hearts of nostalgic horror fans.

The main characters are your motley crew military type. We have the no-nonsense sarge, the cocky, sarcastic teammates, and, of course, the rugged, fearless hero. They aren’t as memorable as the Colonial Marines from Aliens, but they get the job done. The squad’s leader Sgt. Wells (Sean Pertwee) steals most of the scenes he’s in, even from our main protagonist Pvt. Cooper (Kevin McKidd).

Pacing does suffer slightly with the film’s generous hour and forty-five minute runtime, which sags a bit in the middle. Knowing it’s a werewolf film going in, the first act buildup doesn’t have the element of surprise and mystery afforded to similar creature features with slower monster reveals. That said, you won’t be any less excited to see all hell break loose.

There are some smart creative decisions that add to the novelty of the film. The black and white “night vision” POV from the werewolves hunting their prey is satisfying, and Marshall wisely opted to primarily utilize practical effects for the werewolves and the stunts. This lends itself to the retro aesthetic, and keeps CGI from pulling the audience out of the experience. And it wouldn’t feel like a good, old-fashioned monster flick without a bit of fog added for a little atmosphere.

There’s a bit of distracting handheld camerawork early in the film, as the camera frantically drifts all over the place during extreme close-ups of characters faces during their introductions. Thankfully, this improves as the film continues.

Geography is a slight issue during the action sequences, especially in the second half of the film when they barricade themselves in the house. It’s sometimes a bit difficult to discern who is where during chaotic moments. Some of the characters also look alike in their military uniforms, which doesn’t help matters.

Dog Soldiers is at its best when it goes wild with the campiness. Early in the film, Sgt. Wells is desperately trying to keep his guts from falling out of his slashed abdomen. There’s a later scene where a dog starts tearing at his bloody stomach bandages, while the rest of the team are fighting off a werewolf attack. The dog initially appeared to be pulling at his intestines (which would have been even better). I found myself craving more hilariously off-the-wall moments like this.

Where Predator transcends the genre as a B-movie elevated by A-movie execution, Dog Soldiers is a B-movie with B-movie execution. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, the film also doesn’t push the crazy antics far enough to reach the heights of classic B-movie horror status like The Evil Dead trilogy either. It’s simply a fun action/horror romp that is definitely worth a night of howling at the moon.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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