MovieChat Forums > Dog Soldiers (2002) Discussion > This is an American horror movie, not Br...

This is an American horror movie, not British

posted 13 years ago by jtfriday2000
77 replies | jump to latest

*spoilers*

When I say American I mean U.S. and Canada. From beginning to end this movie was nothing but a rehash of American horror cliches. I could list dozens but I'll just list several:

--unsuspecting couple making out in the woods is attacked by a bloodthirsty creature (American horror cliche done to death).
--character running in fear unsuspectingly impales himself on sharp object (Bruce on tree branch). This is reminiscent of the original Rambo, where the cop is impaled by a trap set by Rambo. In fact, this entire forest scene in Dog Soldiers appears to be completely influenced by the Rambo forest scene: the setting, color, pacing, suspense, and the whole aspect of heavily armed men being taken out one by one by an unseen menace.
--people isolated in a house, trying to fight against ravenous creatures (American horror cliche popularized by the original Night of the Living Dead).
--group tries to escape by car but the car blows up (Night of the Living Dead again).
--character (Joe) finds out the last minute the creature is behind him (American horror staple).
--character drops his guard, thinking the creature has been defeated, only for him to be attacked and killed (American horror cliche memorable in Joel's death scene in Pumpkinhead).
--group finds out one of their own is infected and watch in horror as he transforms (like Palmer's transformation in the 1982 Thing).
--main character is about to die so he kills himself and the creature with an explosion (like Dr. Loomis from Halloween 2).
--instead of a final girl, there is a battered and bloody final guy who walks out of the cabin after witnessing the slaughter of his friends (like Ash from Evil Dead).

Like the Descent, this film is smothered in American horror cliches its virtually an American horror movie. Even if you had ten hands you wouldn't have enough fingers to count the cliches from American horror flicks. Change the language and the uniform and this movie could easily been set in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, or even Ukraine for that matter.

Why do people complain about American horror being cliched but when the Brits use the same cliches its new and innovative? Is it because the director didn't use CGI? Apparently people think he's the only horror director not to use CGI.

However, if some Brits wanna use this cheesy, heavily-American influenced flick as a source of national pride, they can do so. This movie is about as British as bottle of Coca-Cola.

[–] frostylikas 11 years ago

In these days, horror movie clichés are just horror movie clichés, they have been used so much from either side, I honestly don't think it matters where they came from any more. It's basically a catalogue of horror movie ideas that ALL horror movie directors choose from, British or American or any other country that turns out horror films.

[–] Lothar_Quint 10 years ago

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[–] vque 10 years ago

Yes of course foreign directors, writers, and actors, are all making virtual American movies. Makes sense and is supported by the evidence,

"group tries to escape by car but the car blows up"

That is completely American since "Night of the Living Dead" was the first to use cars, explosions, and escapes in the same movie.

Actually America should have a copyright on movies where supernatural creatures kill people and said people fight for their lives. America could be collecting millions in royalties from those foreigners.

To complete this homage to American exceptional-ism, all true Americans should go out in their back yards naked except for cowboy boots or Nike sneakers and wave the American flag while listening to hip-hop versions of country and western songs. Or country and western versions of hip-hop songs as the case may be.

BTW I think America invented the Beatles and the Rolling stones too.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ttaskmaster 10 years ago

This furtive creature becomes enraged at things that are not American, even American things that it considers "not American" The idea of anything being "not American" causes the beast severe pain.

Have no fear - The USA's most popular cars, computers, guns and indeed many other things are all of Not-American design and manufacture. That realisation should cause it enough pain that it will very soon shut up and die.

Cheesey Poofs?
They still make those? They were like cheap, flavourless Wotsits, if I recall...? They had to change the name to Cheesey Puffs, because some cheesy poof (though closeted) got upset and wrote to the Daily Fail (hence being closeted).

[–] Kawada_Kira 9 years ago

--people isolated in a house, trying to fight against ravenous creatures (American horror cliche popularized by the original Night of the Living Dead).

This is really pretty universal and goes back longer than Night of the Living Dead, or American movies, or America itself for that matter. It's common sense when you're a small group of people under attack to try to find a good defensive position where you can hold out. Especially for soldiers, who have had training in how to fight defensive battles. What else were they going to do, just run around through the woods aimlessly? If they did, then you'd criticize that too, saying that stupid characters who do illogical things are a staple of American horror movies and that they should have tried to find a house or something to fort up in. They found a house and turned it into a fortress. One of the characters likened it to Rorke's Drift, a battle between the British and Zulus in South Africa (incidentally, you should watch the movie "Zulu", which is an amazing movie about that battle). So you could liken it to that, or to countless other sieges throughout history. That these particular characters were besieged by werewolves is the only really unique thing about it.