Dog Soldiers - My Biggest Screenwriting Inspiration
Dog Soldiers - My Biggest Screenwriting Inspiration
Dog Soldiers is a low budget British horror movie released in 2002. Set in the rugged terrain of the Scottish Highlands, the story revolves around a tight-knit group of soldiers dispatched on a routine training mission.
Their expedition takes a sinister turn, however, when they stumble upon the aftermath of a brutal attack on a special forces unit, leaving them facing an unexpected and terrifying adversary: a bunch of pissed off werewolves.
Back on my 14th birthday, I ventured into the screening of Dog Soldiers with my dad and brother. Amidst the relatively sparse audience, we embarked on a cinematic journey that left such a big impact on me.
Emerging from the darkness, I found myself a whirlwind of emotions—thrilled, giddy, scared, and utterly excited. The film had effortlessly tapped into every corner of my psyche, offering a perfect amalgamation of horror, action, and comedy that I didn't realise I craved.
Fast forward several years and many horror movies later, my love of writing horror stories started to gain momentum - which soon turned into a passion of writing feature film spec scripts.
Having penned numerous feature film screenplays and circulating them among London production companies and competitions, I came to a profound realisation: my writing bore a distinct style, evident across all my scripts. These common threads wove seamlessly from one narrative to the next, transcending individual plots and characters.
All of which, hands down, were inspired and influenced by Dog Soldiers. Below is a break-down of how I characterise them.
Budget & Locations
Constantly mindful of budget constraints, I habitually calculate the real-world costs of my creative ideas. Whether it's the destruction of a location or orchestrating an elaborate action sequence, I weigh the feasibility of it all, imagining resources are limited.
Unlike the writers of big-budget blockbusters like "Transformers" or "Dune," who can dream without financial restraint, I try to prioritise practicality. By focusing on small-scale settings and limited characters, I optimise the budget for maximum impact, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes meaningfully to the film's production value.
Confined Environments
In confined environments like the old cottage in "Dog Soldiers," characters must improvise with whatever resources they have. From boarding up windows with spare wood to wielding frying pans as weapons, their ingenuity amplifies the tension of their predicament. But all the resources available to them, have to be believably found within the location.
Utilising improvised weapons and tactics adds layers of intensity to their struggle against overwhelming odds. In such scenarios, there's no luxury of calling for airstrikes; survival hinges on resourcefulness and quick thinking - which is fantastic as a screenwriter because you get to engineer creative ways of building weapons or routes for escape that might not appear quite so obvious at first.
Time Frame
Writing a film set within a single time frame presents unique challenges, so I strive to craft a relentless roller coaster ride for my audience, ensuring that the thrill never wanes.
While there may be brief periods of downtime for the characters, the overarching sense of urgency remains constant until they escape their dire situation. Unlike films that hop between locations and days, risking audience disengagement with each reset, I prefer to maintain a persistent and unrelenting threat throughout, as seen in “Dog Soldiers.”
This narrative strategy keeps viewers in suspense, often establishing an early mechanism indicating when the characters' nightmare should conclude. For instance, in the lore of werewolves, they revert to human form at dawn after the full moon. Thus, the audience anticipates the end of the ordeal. However, the true tension lies in whether the characters can survive until then.
Character Dynamics
By honing in on a small cast, these self-contained films can delve deeper into dynamic character development, enabling fully fleshed-out personalities. With the audience spending the entire duration of the movie solely with these characters, there's no reliance on jet-setting or deus ex machina plot devices to introduce new faces.
Instead, they must rely on each other, crafting intricate relationships and allowing us as writers to creatively showcase their personalities with ease. I don’t know about you but I loved all the characters in Dog Soldiers and watching them get picked off one by one always felt like a proper blow to the team!
Conclusion
“Dog Soldiers” was produced on a modest budget of around £900K, a figure that might seem substantial in personal finance but pales in comparison to the demands of filmmaking. Especially considering it was made in the early 2000s before the era of digital filmmaking.
Nonetheless, Neil Marshall's skillful script managed to pioneer a subgenre of horror films characterised by single locations and limited characters. His subsequent film, “The Descent,” widely regarded as superior, followed the same blueprint with remarkable success.
Marshall's ability to excel within these constraints highlights his talent and underscores the impact of well-crafted storytelling in the horror genre.
These kind of movies are the sort that British Producers love. High concept and commercially viable horror movies. So in regards to my scripts, Blumhouse, hit me up!
Low-budget horror movies can be hit and miss. But for Dog Soldiers, it’s a massive HIT in my eyes and it’s inspired my craft of writing, no end. So no surprises where it ranks in my list of “The 8 Best Werewolf Movies You Need To See”. Check it out or tell me what you think about Dog Soldiers in the comments below.
