evandar: (Company of Wolves)
evandar ([personal profile] evandar) wrote2025-01-15 11:34 pm
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Snowflake Challenge - Day 8

Challenge #8

In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for a beloved character, relationship or fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.




I've never written fanfic for my favourite movie, but I'm going to take a hot second to recommend it to everyone who hasn't yet seen it.

My favourite movie is Dog Soldiers.

It was released in 2002, so chances are if you have heard of it, it was a while ago. It was directed by Neil Marshall, and was the movie he released before The Descent. It's also an absolute fucking banger of a werewolf movie.

Please be aware that the following may contain spoilers, although I've tried to make them as few as possible.

The Plot

A group of soldiers is sent to a remote location in the Scottish Highlands on a training exercise, where they quickly find out that they aren't alone. They're being hunted by some "great fucking howling things" intent on ripping them to pieces.

They take refuge in an abandoned farmhouse and try to survive the night.

Why it Works

1. The characters are great, and while not all of them get much in the way of backstory (the plot mostly focuses on Cooper, played by Kevin McKidd, and Sergeant Wells, played by Sean Pertwee), they have an absolutely fantastic relationship with each other. The actors did a fantastic job showing how much these guys love and trust each other - and the banter throughout is absolutely fantastic.

2. The effects are costumes and prosthetics and, honestly, even twenty-three years later they hold up really well. The werewolves aren't seen in full until pretty close to the end, and the design of them is actually pretty cool.

3. The setting. The Scottish Highlands are gorgeous, and there're some stunning set-up shots at the start of the movie. They are also very isolated and this movie does an excellent job of showing how much. The setting also manages to be very claustrophobic at times, which helps notch up the tension. It's very much like Alien's "in space, no one can hear you scream" except this is more along the lines of "in Scotland, no one can hear you shoot a werewolf in the face."

4. The main antagonist is very punchable.

5. Have I mentioned the banter? This movie is, occasionally, fucking hilarious.

6. It's also got some heavy, emotional moments that are really well performed for what is, essentially, a B-horror movie. This is helped along by the soundtrack, which is also really good (and available on Deezer).

Anything Else?

This movie is my homesickness movie. Like. When I miss my regional accent too much, I'll throw it on because there's a couple of characters in it who sound like the people at home. Take that as a warning, however, as people where I'm from occasionally get subtitled by the BBC.

I, personally, don't find it scary although I showed it to R shortly after we first met and she still hasn't forgiven me 18 years later, so take that as you will. It's got some gory moments, and there's plenty of blood everywhere, but explaining where exactly moves into spoiler territory.

One spoiler I am willing to give, though: the dog lives.

Fandom

Not much. Honestly, it qualifies for Yuletide, which... is an idea. Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Anyway.

Aside from a bunch of random crossovers where people take the setting and apply it to their own blorbos, there's a small number of Sarge/Cooper fics that are fairly well written as well as a couple of epilogue fics that do a good job of unpacking the trauma.

Where can you watch it?

It's available in full on YouTube here.

If you want to pay for some reason, then you can get it through Apple TV. Probably Prime as well provided you're not also in Vietnam.
tjs_whatnot: (Default)

[personal profile] tjs_whatnot 2025-01-15 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
OMG! This sounds awesome... and terrifying. All the tantalizing bits (banter, punchable villians, locale and more banter) are warring with my skittishness and fear of scary, forty things.

Still...
tinny: Teen Wolf 3b - Derek is "confuse-a-wolf" (tw_derek confuse-a-wolf)

[personal profile] tinny 2025-01-15 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Whoo, this sounds cool! I'm not into horror, but I am very much into Scottish, and the fact that one reason you love it so much is that it reminds you of home absolutely makes me want to watch this. I'll probably have to watch it in ten-minute chunks because I'm such a wimp when it comes to jump scares. :D But I'll try. (Yes, my Prime has it.)

Thank you for the rec!
muccamukk: Text reading: "If there ain't no body, there ain't nobody fuckin' dead!" (BoB: Ain't No Body)

[personal profile] muccamukk 2025-01-15 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
(non-werewolf) Ears perk up. This sounds like it's extremely in my line. I'd never heard of it!
panisdead: (Default)

[personal profile] panisdead 2025-01-16 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
Oh HELL yeah.
panisdead: (Default)

[personal profile] panisdead 2025-01-16 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
I've enjoyed your Snowflake entries and am subscribing to you. I am happy for you to subscribe as well but don't take it personally if you don't.
panisdead: (Default)

[personal profile] panisdead 2025-01-17 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
We watched and enjoyed this!! Maybe not so much the gut wounds, but definitely the werewolf battles.
xeena: (Default)

[personal profile] xeena 2025-01-25 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Dog Soldiers amazing, one of my favorite horror movies :D