Dog Soldiers Blu-ray

Dog Soldiers

 (2002)

Action | Horror



In Neil Marshal's directorial debut, a squad of soldiers is sent out on what should have been a routine military exercise in the wilds of Scotland. But the excursion turns into a waking nightmare when Sgt. Harry Wells (Sean Pertwee) and his men discover the bloody corpses of Capt. Richard Ryan's (Liam Cunningham) battalion. As the sun goes down, the soldiers are tracked by a pack of werewolves determined to feast on their flesh.

For more details about Dog Soldiers on Blu-ray, see the Dog Soldiers Blu-ray Review

Dog Soldiers Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Dog Soldiers features a barely-passable-as-high-definition 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer. Shots that resemble even a high definition transfer of mediocre quality are far and few between; several up-close shots reveal a decent level of fine detail in soldiers' uniforms, but otherwise, there's virtually nothing positive to say about this one. It must be taken into account, however, that Dog Soldiers wasn't shot to look, nor was it intended to be, glossy and colorful. The 16mm film stock combined with plenty of nighttime and otherwise darkened shots and a deliberately drab color palette that features primarily blacks, grays, browns, and dark greens, just doesn't add up to equal visual bliss. Still, the image is riddled with terrible edge enhancement that makes many objects -- particularly trees -- appear to have thick force fields around them. The print is marred with plenty of nicks, scratches, a few odd vertical and horizontal lines, and random debris. Sharpness is minimal; in fact, much of the film looks soft, with several scenes appearing downright fuzzy and borderline indistinct. Grain appears heavily throughout. Though this -- or any -- transfer must be given some leeway for the gritty original elements, this Blu-ray release of Dog Soldiers nevertheless features plenty of other issues that drag the rating down considerably.

Dog Soldiers Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Dog Soldiers' Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack fares little better than the video presentation. Though much of the film's first act features virtually no back channel activity, the second and third acts deliver plenty of distinct effects as the werewolves beat on the top of a vehicle or rattle the doors around the country house. Unfortunately, plenty of other sound effects play as downright pathetic. A gunshot in one of the first scenes sounds puny and delivers about the same intensity as would a tennis ball dropped onto a carpeted floor. Automatic weapons fire later in the film sounds more like battery-operated toys than real guns. Buzzing helicopter rotors in one scene fare a bit better, with the blades seemingly slicing through the soundstage to decent effect. Still, neither music nor general sound effects play with anything even remotely close to reference-quality clarity, and dialogue, while generally clear, occasionally sounds muffled. Unlike the video, which can look downright horrible, the audio never drops to an unbearable level, but it's certainly not the sort of track that listeners are going to remember long after the movie ends.

Dog Soldiers Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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