In the Scottish highlands, a camping couple is attacked and hideously slaughtered that night by some kind of monstrous creature. A couple of hours earlier, in North Wales, Cooper, a Scottish private, is taking part in a rigorous training mission to join a special forces unit, but as he's about to be made part of the team, the cold-hearted captain, Ryan, fails him for refusing to shoot a dog for no real reason and sends him back to his regular unit. The next month, Cooper is dropped off in the Scottish highlands on a training mission, along with a squadron of five other British soldiers: Spoon, Joe, Terry, Bruce, and their sergeant, Wells. Expecting nothing more than a routine exercise, things begin to take a deadly turn that night when a horribly slaughtered cow falls into their camp. The next day, while following the cow's blood trail, they come across the camp of a special forces team that are also part of the exercise, finding them completely slaughtered, with the only survivor being Ryan, who is badly wounded. As nightfall begins creeping in, the soldiers try to help Ryan, who keeps saying that there was only supposed to be "one" and also insists that "they're" going to come back. Unable to reach anyone for an emergency airlift, the men have no choice but to trade in their blank guns for real ones and try to get out on foot. But, it isn't long before something is stalking them from the treeline, and in the confusion to escape, Blake impales himself on a tree branch and is taken, while Wells is sliced open so badly that his guts are hanging out. Cooper, disobeying his orders to leave him behind, helps Wells escape and the group makes it to the road, where they're picked up by a woman named Megan. She takes them to the nearest house, the home of a family that she knows, only to find the place completely deserted. With no other options, they take shelter inside, long enough to give Wells some treatment, but when they attempt to leave, their attackers destroy the car. Now, they're completely trapped and cutoff, with no help for miles, and these creatures, which they slowly come to understand are werewolves, prove to be just as cunning as they are deadly and attack every chance that they get. Their only recourse is to try to hold out until sunrise but, with ammo running out and the group being picked off one by one, that may not be possible. Even worse, they're being in the situation might not all come down to bad luck, either.
None of the members of the squad are particularly thrilled about having to be on this training exercise but Joe (Chris Robinson) is especially irritated because he's not able to see a big football game that's going on between England and Germany, to the point where he was arguing with Wells about it before they jumped out of the chopper. As you come to find out, Joe loves football, to the point where, when asked what scares him, he says, "A penalty shoot-out," and he later asks Megan if she happens to know what the score is, only to be disappointed when she admits that she didn't even know there was a game. He often describes the situation as being "bone," with Megan having to be told what that means; "not very good," as Joe himself tells her. He also doesn't share Spoon's excitement over what's happening, getting irritated at him for it, and there's one moment where he's about ready to tear Ryan's head off when, after he makes one of his unwelcome remarks, Joe says, "Laugh? I nearly died," and Ryan says, "Who's stopping you?" Because of that, he's more than willing to try to go for the land-rover in the barn and hotwire it, just so he can get away from Ryan, but when he gets to it and gets it going, he sees the horrific sight of one of the werewolves finishing off Terry, who was taken earlier. Despite this, he manages to get the rover to the front door of the farmhouse, only to then realize that a werewolf is in the backseat. He doesn't go down without a fight but, when the others try to board the rover, they see the werewolf ripping into his corpse, blood and guts flowing everywhere, and are forced to head back inside. Speaking of Terry (Leslie Simpson), while he also his snarky moments, usually at the expense of Spoon (though, when asked what he's afraid of, he says, "Watching a penalty shoot-out... with Joe,"), he's possibly the most skiddish of them. When the dead bull falls into their camp, Terry gets so panicked that he fires on it, forgetting that he's packing blanks, and later on, after one of the first werewolf attacks at the house, he ends up throwing up, all over the back of Ryan's hand. Ryan nearly beats him up for that but Joe steps in and, afterward, when Cooper asks him how he's feeling, Terry jokes that he's in the mood for kebab. Following the first major werewolf attack on the house, when it seems like things have settled down, Terry comments, "Dogs. More like pussies." That's when a werewolf breaks through the window behind him and pulls him out. Cooper is intent on going after him but has to face facts when Ryan tells him, "He's dead, Cooper, and you know it." As it turns out, they didn't kill Terry right away, as Joe sees a werewolf holding onto him as he's mortally wounded, only for it to rip his throat out and throw his severed head onto the hood of the truck. Bruce (Thomas Lockyer), the resident radioman, is the least memorable member of the squad to me, although he does have the memorable line, "Christ on a bike!" when they come upon what's left of Ryan's team and when asked what scares him, he says, "The self-destructive nature of the human condition." He's the first of the squad to die but ends up killing himself when he accidentally impales himself on a shape tree branch, after which he's finished off by the werewolves.
At first glance, the two campers at the beginning of the movie (Craig Conway and Tina Landini) seem to be nothing than early bits of cannon fodder for the werewolves, but they're actually significant. The woman gives her beau, who's a writer, a small Excalibur sword made out of silver, which Cooper finds in the farmhouse's cellar at the end of the movie and uses it to stab the werewolf Ryan before finishing him off with a shot to the head. When I first saw Dog Soldiers, I recognized Conway from the special features of The Descent, wherein he played one of the "Crawlers," and I knew he'd been in the movie but, since he played a monster in that film, I figured he might be one of the werewolves here. When I saw that he was just playing a normal guy instead, I figured he might be one of the leads but, instead, when he and his lover are making out in the tent that night, in typical horror movie style, one of the werewolves breaks into the tent, drags her outside, splashes him with her blood when it kills her, and then comes back for him. Speaking of Landini, she is really hot but, if you're looking forward to actually seeing her, you're going to be disappointed, as Conway is just starting to unzip her pants when the werewolf spoils everything. They may be campers and it may be a gory horror film, but Friday the 13th this is not.
One thing that I didn't know about Dog Soldiers until I saw the documentary on Scream Factory's Blu-Ray is that it was filmed 16mm. I never picked up on that, as I mainly associate 16mm with those really gritty movies of the 70's, like The Last House on the Left, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Hills Have Eyes, whereas Dog Soldiers looked just like a typical, early 2000's film (I didn't think it looked much different than The Descent). In any case, it was fairly well-shot, never coming off as too flashy or fancy, save for some shafts of light coming through a window here and there, and there was a lot of blue lighting in the nighttime scenes, akin to what you often see in John Carpenter's films, especially those that were shot by Dean Cundey. They also did a handful of werewolf POV shots, which were done in stark black-and-white to accentuate their ability to see in the dark and in a handheld manner to simulate them running and attacking. In addition, there are a number of instances of action movie-esque camerawork, especially during the big fight scenes, and it gives the movie some style, as well as make it feel much bigger than it really is. Going back to the movie's actual look, I described it in the past tense because that's not at all how the Scream Factory release looks. The film had been released on Blu-Ray before, by First Look Studios, but because that transfer wasn't seen as being the best in quality, Neil Marshall and Shout! Factory worked together to create an all-new transfer for their release... and they blew it. When I first watched this release, I couldn't believe how badly it looked from what I'd seen before on DVD, and I'll go as far as to say that it's a worse job than the one Code Red did on their notorious release of Madman. What they did was they basically sucked out all of the color and lushness that the film had before, now making it look whiter and drier, and ou can also see some errors and mistakes in the reel that weren't obvious before (or, at least, I didn't see them). Now, the film is more akin to something you'd see in a grindhouse theater but, while I don't know if that was their intention or not, as a result, it's much less pleasing to the eye than I felt it was before. (We're going to be going back and forth between the two transfers in the images here, by the way.)
Even before it was put through this lackluster Blu-Ray transfer, a major problem that I had with the film is that it sometimes gets a little too dark, a problem that I think might be worse now, and Neil Marshall's editing often gets so frantic and kinetic during the crazier action scenes, most of which take place in that dimly lit farmhouse, that it's hard to keep track of things. This was around the time when you started to see that kind of editing and really shaky camerawork, be it in action movies like the Bourne franchise, which began in 2002, or in genre movies like this that have action setpieces, and I've always hated it because I like to be able to see what's going on. I understand that when filmmakers do that, they're trying to make the audience feel like they're caught up in the frantic pace of the situation, but all it does for me is aggravate me as I'm trying to follow the action and, at times, give me a headache. The Descent has a lot of that, too, and it's a very dark movie (both in look and tone), but I think it was utilized much more successfully there. Despite these complaints, I won't deny that Marshall does sometimes get very creative and stylish with his editing, like the moment at the beginning when the one camper is unzipping his girlfriend's fly, only for it to bleed into the sound of a werewolf unzipping the tent, and that moment at the end when, during his fight with Ryan as a werewolf, Cooper points his gun, saying, "You think it's all over?", and then cuts to a sudden close-up of his face as he says, "It is now."
Watching his movies, you can tell that Neil Marshall is definitely a guy who draws a lot of influences from the films that he loves, as The Descent has thematical homages to Deliverance and The Thing, whereas Doomsday is a melting pot of post-apocalyptic films like Mad Max and Escape from New York, with 28 Days Later added in as well. Dog Soldiers, in particular, has influences that are all over the map. It's a werewolf movie, first and foremost (most critics point to An American Werewolf in London, for obvious reasons, but really, you could connect it to any werewolf flick), but it also has a definite flavor of both Aliens and Predator, with soldiers battling monsters in the wilderness. The tone and sense of humor is similar to those films as well, in that these guys definitely have strong personalities and spout quotable line after quotable (overall, it may be more tongue-in-cheek, but there is a parallel there, regardless). The fact that the bulk of the movie takes place in an isolated farmhouse definitely brings up Night of the Living Dead, as well as the cabin in The Evil Dead, and the siege-like situation is also akin to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, among others. I've heard some people draw parallels to Jaws as well, which initially seems odd, but I'm guessing what they're talking about is how the isolation that stems from being stuck in a house, with monsters roaming around outside, is no different than being stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean, as a huge shark attacks again and again. There's even a line that's apparently a reference to one from The Matrix, when Sergeant Wells finds Spoon's bloody remains and tells Cooper, "There is no Spoon," but I had no clue, as The Matrix is one of those franchises I never got into.
Even though it's set in the Scottish highlands, the main area, which was actually Luxembourg, could be anywhere. It looks like any cold, damp wilderness that you'd find in Europe, the United States, or Canada, and if it weren't for those really shaggy-looking cows you see a couple of times, as well as that all of the actors are from the British Isles, you'd probably know that it was meant to be Scotland. There's nothing all that special about the place in how it looks but, that said, the notion of werewolves prowling these cold forests is very classic, especially that section where the squad first gets attacked that features a number of large gaps between the trees, which is akin to a location used in An American Werewolf in London. As for the farmhouse, it's a cozy-looking, two-story cottage that, regardless of how it seems a might primitive, could possibly make for a nice place to live, if it weren't for the werewolves; because of them, though, it instead becomes a claustrophobic, isolated deathtrap, miles and miles from sort of civilization, where there's nowhere to run to, especially when the werewolves finally manage to get in. And there are moments where the farmhouse itself proves to not be as innocent as it initially looks, as there are human bones to be found in a wardrobe upstairs and the fresh remains and items of their victims are kept down in the cellar (not to mention how, when they first get there, Joe and Terry help themselves to some soup that they say tastes a bit like pork).
Whenever a werewolf movie is made, be it nowadays or back in the Golden Age of horror, you can usually expect the filmmakers to come up with some type of new take on the monsters themselves, both in how they look and the rules of how they operate. Initially, the werewolves in Dog Soldiers seem to be very typical, in that the full moon causes them to transform and so, during its cycle, they head out to hunt, preying on anyone that they come across, but there are several things that make them interesting. It's not often that you get a movie that focuses on an entire pack of werewolves but this one does, and while you never see the siege from their point of view, as the movie focuses on those in the farmhouse, you get the sense that, like the soldiers, they're working as a team. There are these constant lulls in the battle, during which they're no doubt trying to decide what to do next, and they seem to be trying to deliberately overwhelm the soldiers in how they attack from all sides, as well as surprise them when they attack unexpectedly. It is obvious that they're very cunning, if not full-on intelligent, as they tear up the generator early on, plunging the house into darkness; one of them grabs Joe's shotgun out of his hands at one point and actually fires it; another keeps Terry alive in order to seemingly taunt Joe before tearing his throat out and throwing his head on the hood of the truck he's commandeering; and another is revealed to have been hiding in the back of the truck the entire time. This seems to suggest that they're something of a combination of the smarts of a human and wild, primal instinct, especially when it's learned that the werewolves are the family that live in the house, and their not leaving and hiding in the basement means that they're intelligent enough to know that it is their home. In fact, the notion that they still have a sense of their human selves is suggested, given how they howl when Megan plays a sonata on the house's piano at one point and how Ryan specifically targets Cooper at the very end. It then begs the question of whether or not the main werewolves are good people who are forced to live with a bad curse, as Megan suggests (and as she appears to be, given her conflicted nature), or if they've just embraced what they are and let it do what it must every month. Regardless, it's clear that, despite the full moon's presence, you can hold it back for a while, as Megan does, but eventually, you're going to run out of the strength necessary to do so. As Wells describes it, "Maybe it's like when you need to take a piss or something, I don't know. When you gotta go, you gotta fucking go." You also don't have to specifically get bit in order to become one. If you're seriously injured by them in any way and you survive, your wounds will rapidly heal and you'll become one, the very same night if the moon happens to still be out (that never seemed to happen in any other werewolf movie, aside from this one), and since Ryan is still a werewolf even when morning comes, it's possible that you can will yourself to remain in that state yourself. They're very hard to kill, able to withstand shot after shot, but while silver does seem to give you an edge over them, it's clear that blowing them up will suffice.
Marshall tends to shoot the werewolves in the same "less is more" way that Ridley Scott and James Cameron shot the Aliens in their respective movies, in that you often get quick glimpses of these shadowy figures running around in the dark and, when a werewolf is truly onscreen, it's often put in very low light. You certainly see enough of them to know what they look like but the shots of them are often done very quickly as well as shot rather dark, and the aforementioned kinetic editing can also keep you from seeing any true details in how they look, unless you pause the movie. However, that's not to say that there aren't any true beauty shots where you can see the werewolves in all their glory and that's good, because they do look cool. They remind me of the werewolves in The Howling, with how they're really tall and bipedal, but the big difference is that their bodies are much more humanoid and lithe (Marshall said that he cast dancers as the werewolves to give them a feeling of grace), and they don't seem to have a lot of hair there or, if they do, it's very short and smooth. Atop the bodies are these big, snarling wolf-heads, which is where the individual werewolves' specific traits tend to lie, with some seeming more feral and shaggy than others (they look so much like actual dogs that it's scary), and their fingers are very long and wickedly clawed. Overall, while I wished they were a little more hairy on their bodies (their smoothness does feel a bit awkward to me), the werewolves in this film do have a unique look to them and you have to applaud Marshall and company for going with suits and animatronic heads, rather than crappy-looking CGI. In fact, the only CGI in the movie, aside from noticeable enhancements of the explosions and such, is when Megan starts to transform, as you can see her face and eyes very obviously morph, which makes you even more grateful that that's as far as they went with it. Speaking of transformations, that's the one major staple of werewolf movies that you don't get in Dog Soldiers. You see the start of the change, with the characters' eyes turning yellow and their teeth and fingernails becoming sharp, but that's all you see, as Ryan transforms offscreen, while Megan and Wells both die before they can change completely.
Being a werewolf movie, you expect to see a lot of carnage candy and the film delivers on it. Bob Keen, who did the makeup effects on the first three Hellraiser movies, as well as Event Horizon, worked on this film and he and his crew, aside from creating the werewolves, put in more than enough blood and guts to satisfy any gorehound. The first kill, the two campers, just shows the guy getting his girl's blood splattered all over his face but, following that, you see the chewed-up carcass of a cow that falls into the squad's camp, a trail of its blood and chunks of its meat left behind in the forest; Ryan having been badly maimed in his torso; Bruce impaling himself on a branch and a werewolf tearing him off; Wells getting sliced open to where his intestines are hanging out and continue to hang out for quite a while; a werewolf getting stabbed completely through in the arm with a knife; Terry's throat being torn out and his head tossed on a truck's hood; Joe's dead body getting chomped on by a werewolf, which has his guts in its mouth and with blood literally pouring out of the back of the truck; Ryan, as a werewolf, having a sword sticking completely in his torso for the remainder of the movie; and Spoon, after his fight with one werewolf, where he managed to stab it, getting reduced to nothing more than a bloody mess of entrails on the floor, which you see the werewolves munching on at one point.
The film opens with those two campers in the Scottish highlands, and that night, after the woman presents her writer beau with a small, silver sword based on Excalibur, the two of them are making out in their tent. But just as they're about to really get busy, with the guy unzipping his girl's fly, they hear another unzipping sound, which is the tent's zipper slowly moving up. The guy shines his flashlight on the spot and, once the tent is completely open, there's a loud, breathy growl and something grabs the girl's leg. It attempts to pull her out of the tent and the man grabs her arm, trying to pull her back, as she's literally lifted up to the tent's top. After some intense struggling, the girl is suddenly killed and her blood splatters all over her man's face. Her body is dragged outside and the sounds of growling and crunching can be heard, as the man, in a state of shock, reaches for Excalibur by his side. That's when he looks and a ferocious snarl is heard as his attacker closes in on him. There's a quick cut to the full moon in the sky, accompanied by a wolf's howl, and that's when the movie's title literally comes slamming in.
The film then cuts to two hours earlier, in North Wales, where we first meet Private Cooper, who's apparently on the run in a dark, rainy forest. Seeing a flare up in the sky, and hearing the sound of a tracking dog behind him, he runs for it, his pursuers hot on his trail. Ducking through a push, he seems to give them the slip, only to come face-to-face with another, who shines his flashlight on him. Cooper does a roll towards him and manages to knock the flashlight out of his hand, deck him in the face, and then grab the light as it comes back down and clock the man with it. He then shines it to his left, kicking out another man there, and swings around and flings it, hitting another man right in the face. However, he himself is decked from the side and knocked to the base of a tree, seeing the tracking dog in front of him, barking. That's when Captain Ryan comes in, putting a pistol to the side of Cooper's head, and tells him that he managed to evade capture for 22 hours and 47 minutes. With that, he tells him that he's straight to the head of the class and helps him up, adding, "Of course, the real trick to survival lies not in running and hiding, but in removing your enemy's capacity to hunt you down." Glancing at the still barking dog behind him, Ryan offers Cooper his gun, telling him to shoot the dog. Incredulous at this, Cooper, staring at the gun, asks Ryan if he's joking, but he makes it very clear that he isn't. Cooper, however, still refuses to do it, even after Ryan screams at him to do it, telling him that it's not that he can't but that he won't kill the dog for no reason. With that, Ryan fails him and, to hammer him his point that he wants men of action, puts the gun to the dog's head and shoots it himself. This enrages Cooper, who lunges at Ryan, but he points the gun at him and tells him that, until he's ready to join his team, he's going to live and learn. Cooper comments, "Yeah, but you don't," and knocks his hand down and decks him in the face. When he goes for another punch, Ryan blocks it, grabs his arm behind his back, knees him in the back, making him fall to the ground, and, putting him in a submission hold, puts the gun to his head. Telling him that he doesn't do second chances, nor does he forget, Ryan flings Cooper to the ground and tells his men to send him back to his squad.
Cut to a month later, back in the Scottish highlands, where a chopper sets down in the middle of a forest, hovering just above the ground, as a squad of soldiers disembark, with Sergeant Wells having to pull one stubborn man out. As the helicopter lifts off, Wells orders Cooper to come up with a position and bearing, saying he wants to be on the move in three minutes, while he and everyone goes to sync up their watches. That's when Spoon has to admit that he left his watch at the barracks and Wells gives him his own watch, saying that he'll just count the time. This is also when Joe first complains about having to miss a big football game for this training exercise and isn't impressed at all when he's told that they're going up against the special forces, saying, "Well, bollocks to them." After making his stance clear and what he expects of his men, Wells goes to Cooper, who shows him the way through enemy lines, as he figures it. Upon telling him that he's better off not being part of the special forces, Wells then orders everyone to move out. When Joe again complains about the situation again, Wells threatens to kill himself if he doesn't shut up and Joe simply says, "Didn't say a word, Sarge," before joining his comrades. Following a small montage of them making their way through the forest, there's a moment where they've stopped for a rest and Cooper tells them about the stories he's heard of people disappearing in the area, mentioning the couple and how mountain rescue found the remains of their camp. The others, of course, don't take him seriously at all, and in the next scene, they continue their trek, whistling a tune amongst themselves. Little do they know that they're being watched by Captain Ryan, who tells a man who's with him, "Contact camp. Tell them the flock is heading for the fold."
That night, as the squad has made camp, Cooper is having them go around and admit what they're afraid of (he says that for him, it's "Spiders... and women. And, uh, spider-women,"), and when it gets Wells, he says that it's mainly the thought of never seeing his wife again. He then relates to them a story about how, in 1991, he and a man named Eddie Oswald went to go get some tattoos before they were to be flown out to Kuwait. Eddie had a devil tattoo put on his rear end and then, six days later, along the Iraqi border, he got blown to bits by an anti-tank mine. While picking up what was left of him, they found that the piece of him with the tattoo on it was in pristine condition, and Wells then comments, "So, you could say that Eddie was right, that Satan did indeed save his skin, just not all of it... or you could say that Eddie was just unlucky. Either way, it taught me to keep a very open mind. Boom, boom." After having a toast to Eddie, Spoon decides to tell a joke in order to lighten the mood, but he doesn't get far into it before a massacred cow falls into their campsite. They immediately scramble away and Terry, who got splashed in the face with its blood, opens fire on the corpse, until Joe reminds him that he's firing blanks. Once they determine that everyone's okay, Cooper looks at the carcass and sees that the wounds on it are teeth-marks rather than bullet-holes. Terry suggests that they call it in and Joe agrees, but Wells refuses to break radio silence, deciding to secure the area until morning and having a watch posted during the night. Later that night, as the full moon is revealed by some passing clouds, Ryan is standing out in the woods, watching and waiting, scanning the hills with his night-vision goggles. Little does he know that, at the same time, he's being watched from nearby by something that can see in the dark a lot better than him. At one point, after he turns around sharply, and hears the sound of birds in the forest, he hears a crack nearby and something charges through the woods, comes around the corner, and attacks before he can aim and fire, the rock wall next to him getting sprayed with his blood.
The next day, the squad is able to figure out from which direction the cow came and Wells, being curious, decides to follow the trail that it left to see what happened, made easy by the fact that it's on the way of where they need to go. They follow the trail into the depths of the wilderness, stopping at one point when Wells finds pieces of meat on the ground, commenting, "Natural causes, my ass," when a flare shoots up into the air from nearby. Heading in that direction, they pass through a small gorge and come across the blood-soaked remains of the special forces. While Cooper examines the discarded weapons on the ground, a 360-camera pan shows the full extent of the carnage at the camp, with equipment, weapons, and a log extending in front of the camp covered in blood and entrails, the sight of which freaks out most of the men. Wells tells them to get a grip, saying that they've got casualties to find and ordering them to gather what weapons they can find, declaring that they're up against living and hostile targets. As they doll out the weapons, Cooper says that whatever hit them did so in such a fast way that no one got off a single shot, as the magazines are all full. Bruce wonders where the bodies are but Wells just tells him to get on the radio and call in an emergency airlift. When Bruce walks over to set up his radio, Ryan suddenly lunges up, pointing a gun at him and yelling. All the men point their weapons at him and, when he sees who they are, he asks them for help before collapsing to the ground. Running to him, Cooper sees that there are bloody claw marks across his torso and asks him what happened. Telling Wells who he is, the two of them prepare to do what they can for him, Cooper telling Wells that he needs a medic right away, while Bruce tries to reach someone on the radio. Ryan says that they need to him get out, murmuring, "There was only supposed to be one," while Bruce is unable to find a signal. In turn, Wells tells Terry to try to find the camp's own radio, also ordering Spoon to see if he can find anything else useful. Bruce continues trying to reach someone, as Cooper tells Wells that if Ryan was part of their exercise, he's not dressed like it, as he's wearing nothing but tags, and that they're packing equipment like tranquilizer darts and nets. That's when Terry tells Wells that he found the radio, which is smashed up. Ryan then says, "You've got to get me out of here before they come back!", and when Wells asks him who "they" are, he yells, "They tore them to pieces in front of my eyes!" Cooper tells Wells that Ryan is going to die of hypothermia if they don't get him somewhere warm and that's when Spoon, who's been trying to get his attention this whole time, tells him that it's going to be dark in half an hour.
In the next cut, everyone is armed and on guard, while Ryan has been patched up as best as they can. Inspecting the radio, Bruce determines that the circuits are fried and he shows Wells what looks like a transmitter inside it. After joking about what its purpose may be, they grab whatever they can find that's useful, including some flares, weapons, and ammo, and Wells them to get rid of their blank rifles, as the exercise is most certainly over now. Ryan tells the men that "they won't die," and when he says that they'd best run for their lives, Wells tells him to shut up, as he's scaring the men. They then hear strange sounds nearby and Wells promptly tells them to grab what they can and to head for the treeline. Getting Ryan to his feet, they run off into the woods, as the sounds get closer, and they stop at one point, with Wells asking for a volunteer for rearguard action. Bruce volunteers and he sends him off, while putting Spoon on point and telling the others what order to follow, before heading deeper into the woods. Back behind them, Bruce takes a position and scans the place with his gun. For a few moments, he doesn't see or hear anything, except for the blowing wind, but then, he hears the sound of a wolf howling, as do the others up ahead. Looking through his sight, a shape suddenly runs past him and he tries to take the shot, but the gun merely clicks. Taking out the magazine and looking at it, he sees that it's loaded and puts it back in. He tries to take another shot but, again, it clicks. Removing it again and trying to get it in harder, it again just clicks and he decides to run for it. He works himself up in a panicked frenzy, at one point stopping and yelling, "Come on!", before tossing the useless gun aside and running off as fast as he can. He's so panicked that he doesn't see where he's going and ends up impaling himself on a low-hanging, sharp branch, blood gushing out of his mouth. As Wells searches for him, Bruce is ripped off of the branch by a snarling creature and the sergeant, hearing this, moves in, aiming his gun and looking through the sights. He bends down to look at some blood on the ground, when he hears a loud snarl coming straight fro him. Swinging around and firing, he rolls under a log, barely avoiding getting clawed, and fires, causing the creature to let out a pained yelp as it retreats. Rolling to a safe spot, he looks down and sees Bruce's mangled body on the ground next to him. Getting up and running, he gets side-swiped and is sent flying, hitting the ground roughly. When he looks down at himself, he sees that his intestines are hanging out, and he looks up to see his attacker coming for him. Fortunately, Cooper fires on it from nearby and sends it running.
Rushing to his commander's aid, Cooper ignores Wells telling him to get out, calling him a hypocrite for having told Bruce before, "No heroics." As Cooper prepares to help him, Wells tells him, "You piss off! That is an order!", and when he prepares to inject him, Wells yells, "Incoming!" as another attacker comes rushing in. Both he and Cooper firing on it, driving it away, and Cooper tells him to take his orders and shove them. Wells moans in pain as Cooper pushes his guts back in and then gets him to his feet. As they run to join the others, shots echo through the woods, and after Wells falls to the ground and Cooper has to help him, he swings around and fires on an approaching creature, per Spoon warning him. Rushing through the woods, Spoon stops at one point and fires, giving them covering fire, while Cooper tells them to keep moving. It isn't long before they're stopping and firing literally every few seconds, and each time, they don't seem to be making any headway whatsoever. Reaching a ridge that slopes down to a road, Spoon sees a vehicle approaching and yells for them to follow him. Running down the hill towards the road, Spoon falls right in front of the approaching vehicle, a jeep, and yells for it to stop. It does stop within inches of him and the driver, Megan, gets out and yells for them to get in. They hurriedly pile into the jeep, continuing to fire on the ever-attacking monsters, and once they're all in, Megan prepares to drive off. But then, they hear something crawling along the top of the jeep. Megan pops it into gear but is unable to get any traction in the thick mud, as the others look and see one of the werewolves looking at them through the back window. An arm bursts through the canvassed roof and starts clawing around for them, the others punching and kicking it, trying to make it give up, while Megan keeps struggling to get the jeep in gear. Cooper tries to tell her how to get them going, while Joe grabs the werewolf's arm and stabs his knife complete through it. This doesn't even seem to slow it down, as it keeps pulling and tries to get its arm out. That's when Megan is finally able to hit the gas and speed off, flinging the werewolf off, Joe's knife falling to the floor. Cooper asks them if everybody is okay and it seems like they are, albeit very shaken by what just happened. Megan explains that she heard gunshots the night before and figures that anyone out and about would soon be in trouble. Cooper tells her that two men are down and that they need and dress Wells' wounds. Megan tells him that there's only one farm in the whole glen and that the people who live there are her friends, adding that they can take the men there.
Arriving at the farmhouse, everyone disembarks from the jeep, Cooper keeping his rifle handy, in case any werewolves appear, but when Megan yells "hello" and knocks on the door, she gets no response. She says that she doesn't know where they could be and Cooper tells her to stand back. He motions for Spoon to bring up his rear as he slowly opens the door with his foot and they both walk in, their rifles drawn. In the main hub, Cooper checks the room across from the door and, finding nothing, he goes around the staircase to check that room, while Spoon heads upstairs. The room in the back is the kitchen and dining room, which Cooper finds in pristine order, with the table set, a fire burning in the stove, and a bowl of soup boiling atop it. Hearing something behind him, he turns around and creeps towards a cupboard in the back of the room, which is rustling. Reaching it, he slowly extends his hand towards it and opens it, but all that comes out is a friendly sheepdog, Sam. Relieved, he pets the dog, gets him to sit, and tells him to stay, as he walks outside and gives the all clear. Everyone then heads inside, Terry helping Wells, and before they head in themselves, Joe asks Cooper, "What the fuck happened back there?" Cooper says he doesn't know but adds, "She might have some answers." With that, they duck inside, Spoon coming downstairs and telling them it's all clear up there as well. They take Wells to the dining room, sitting him in a chair, and Cooper tells Spoon to put a field dressing on the wound, while Terry is to keep an eye out front. As they do that, Megan tells them that there's no telephone to be found and she also admonishes Joe for helping himself to the soup but he promptly ignores her. Wells yells in pain but they manage to get the bandage on his wound, while Joe and Terry comment on the soup, which Joe says tastes like pork. Cooper asks Megan where the nearest phone is and she says about 50 miles; when asked of the nearest town, she says it's about a four hour drive back the way they came. Deciding it's better than nothing, considering Wells' condition, Cooper asks her to take them and she agrees. He has Spoon come with him, telling everyone to hang back until they get the jeep around, and also orders Joe to help Wells, also telling Terry to keep an eye on Ryan, who's been sitting over in the corner this whole time, saying nothing.
Cooper and Spoon head out the front door and, keeping their eyes on the treeline, slowly approaching the jeep, and when they reach it, Cooper lights a flare, revealing that the engine has been completely decimated. Spoon sees the figure of a werewolf nearby in the dark and points his rifle. Cooper tells him not to shoot and, seeing another approaching from his right, also Spoon not to stare back at them, to which Spoon says, "I can't... help it!" Cooper then flings the flare to the ground and yells for Spoon to go. Spoon runs back through the door, as Cooper shoots across the jeep and then follows Spoon back inside. To the confusion of everybody, he slams the door behind them, right before the jeep explodes in a huge fireball. Just as they're trying to figure out what just happened, with Megan yelling that was her car, the door suddenly bolts ajar, as one of the werewolves tries to get in. Cooper tries to shut it but the werewolf manages to stick its arm through the crack and the other soldiers help try to keep the monster out; at the same time, Sam starts pulling on Wells' bloody field dressing (at first glance, it looks as if he's pulling on one of his exposed intestines), with Megan trying to stop him. After slamming the cracked door on the werewolf's arm again and again, Cooper manages to get it to pull it back out. He then sticks the tip of the rifle's barrel through the door's mail slit and opens fire, after which he bolts the door. Megan is still trying to get Sam off of Wells and Ryan tells Cooper to shut the dog up. Cooper ignores him and looks through the slit again, as Megan finally gets Sam to let go of the bandage. As the dog barks, Ryan grabs a rifle and is about to shoot him, when Terry, being so frightened that he becomes sick, ends up vomiting all over the back of Ryan's head. Growling, "That's bloody charming, that is," Ryan stands up, turns to Terry, and calls him an incompetent moron, but Joe gets between them and discourages him from taking it any further. He then stomps upstairs to the bathroom, Cooper tells him that they need to have a talk, then orders Joe and Spoon to secure the perimeter with a clear field of fire, as it looks like they're staying. After seeing that Terry is okay, he tells him to get as many pots and pans as they can, fill them up with water, and keep them boiling. He also tells him to put a kettle on, while he's at it.
While the remains of Megan's jeep continue to smolder outside, Spoon and Joe secure the place, with the former boarding up the windows in the kitchen and having Terry help him move a cupboard in front of the back door. Out in the main hub, Cooper is seeing to Wells, while telling Megan that he and the other men are there because of a routine training mission, not a rescue, as Megan had apparently hoped. Spoon tells Cooper that the back door is secure and that the werewolves are keeping their distance, staying back at the treeline. Cooper suggests that they've had enough but Megan warns him that they're probably looking for some sort of weakness so they can get in. Cooper says he just sees them as the enemy, but Megan tells him they're not an ordinary enemy. Upstairs, while Ryan cleans himself up in the bathroom, Spoon and Joe keep watch out a window, the former seeming excited about what's going on, saying, "Know what this reminds me of? Rourke's Drift. 100 men of Harlech, making a desperate stand against 10,000 Zulu warriors. Outnumbered, surrounded, staring death in the face, and not flinching for a moment. Balls of British steel." Joe, however, isn't so enthusiastic, saying, "It's totally bone. That's all there is to say." He then sits down, while Spoon, not fazed, smashes a hole in the glass on a window and aims outside. Back out in the hall, Cooper, wondering what exactly it is they're fighting, is told by Megan that they're something in-between wolves and humans, which he instantly disbelieves. He then sees to Wells, while in that other, Terry brings Spoon and Joe some tea. Spoon then sees movement outside and yells, "Heads up!" He and Joe promptly fire through the window but end up merely wasting some bullets, prompting Cooper to tell them, "Short, controlled bursts!" (Make your own Aliens-related comment here.) Seeing back to Wells, and noticing that he's bleeding badly, tells Megan to get some super glue and whiskey. Getting Wells on his feet, he helps him up the stairs, which he leaves a trail of blood on.
Some time later, the men look for other weapons in the house, with Joe finding an axe, Terry an electric knife, and Spoon... a big, badass sword in a table whose top opens up. Outside, the werewolves are prowling about, while upstairs, Cooper and Megan have Wells, who's thoroughly sloshed from drinking a bunch of whiskey for the pain, on a bed, as they prepare to use the super glue to patch him up. Going on about how much he loves Cooper for saving his life, as well as lamenting his inability to save Bruce, he punches the bedpost and yells in pain as they begin to work on him. Everyone in the house he can hear his anguished yells, as he continues to talk about how Cooper is his best friend, the salt of the Earth, and full-on tells Cooper that he loves him. Unable to cope with the pain, Wells starts slapping and smacking Cooper, tells him, "Knock me out! Hit me!" Cooper clocks him but this does nothing, prompting Wells to come back up and yell, "You fucking pussy, hit me!" So Cooper does, and this time, he lays him out cold. Now that he's unconscious, Cooper and Megan find it easier to work on his wound. As she bonds it, Megan tells Cooper that she's a zoologist who came to the area upon hearing the stories of possible werewolves and now, she knows that they're real, adding that he will too before the night's over. Downstairs, Spoon is fooling around with the sword, while Terry is keeping watch through a window. Coming down, Cooper decides it's best not to let Spoon keep the sword, taking it from him and leaving him with just a pot. Cooper calls everyone into the dining room, telling them that they're going to stand and fight now, rather than running again. That's when Megan tells them that what they're fighting are werewolves and the others, naturally, are as incredulous as Cooper. Megan then tells them why it's not such a crackpot idea, telling them that she's been tracking them for a year, saying, "Every month, when the moon is full, they hunt as a team, dedicated to the kill. During that time, at least fifteen people have vanished. Hikers mostly, in small groups or alone. They're caught out in the open, hunted down, torn apart and devoured. I've never witness the actual slaughter, but the next day, no bodies, no werewolves, just blood." Spoon is sold on the idea but Cooper still isn't convinced, saying that what they are exactly doesn't change the immediate situation. After she's educated on what the term "bone" means, Cooper tells Megan their individual names, and when it comes to Ryan, he says that he's not part of the team and that his presence there is rather murky. Ryan refuses to talk, and when Cooper starts talking about him being part of Special Ops, he tells him he'd better not continue with this line of questioning. Cooper, however, has an idea to what Ryan was doing out there and asks him how he's feeling. When Ryan says he's fine, Cooper comments on how he's recovered quite well for someone who was almost dead when they found him and intends on checking his wound. Ryan, however, is unwilling to let him do so, warning him to stay away, and pulls a gun on him when he goes for it.
Everyone immediately trains their guns on him, as Megan grabs a pot and knocks it out of his hand from behind, causing it to fire a bullet through a nearby window. With that, the others grab his arms, pull them behind the back of the chair he's sitting in, as Cooper checks the wound and sees that it's virtually healed, now nothing more than scar tissue. Ripping up a napkin, Cooper has Joe and Megan tie Ryan's wrists to the chair's arms, intending on making him talk. Before they can, the lights go out, Spoon saying that the werewolves destroyed the generator. Megan says that they can see in the dark and Cooper admits that he's starting to believe that they are werewolves. Terry sees one run by the house outside and warns the others that they're on the move. Cooper tells everyone to preserve their ammo with three-round bursts and to use their stun grenades only if they need to, as they prepare for the imminent battle. Megan opts to just run in hide, saying that she knows what's coming, and Cooper tells her to keep an eye on Ryan, telling her to "pan" him if he tries anything. When Ryan makes a remark about him chasing "that first kiss," Cooper tells him, "It's a simple as this: you're not there for us, we're not here for you." He then goes to join his men, as Megan and Ryan exchange glances with each other.
Spoon waits by the front door, chewing his gum,
while Joe keeps his shotgun trained out the window. Seeing the doorknob on the door on the opposite end of the hall slowly move back and forth, Spoon aims his rifle at it, only to spin around upon hearing some banging and growling on the front door. However, it becomes clear that both of them are getting hit at the same time and he runs to the front to secure the latch, backing away as the pounding continues. Joe yells, "Contact!", just as one of the werewolves bursts through the wooden barrier on the window he's guarding. He opens fire, hitting it with every shot, as he screams, "Die!", while in the kitchen, another werewolf bursts its hand through the window Terry is standing guard on. Ryan and Megan watches as he opens fire on it as it smashes the window down completely, causing it to let out a pained yell upon being hit, and Cooper joins him, firing his assault rifle on the werewolf, spraying bullets over every part of the window-frame and drapes. Another werewolf smashes its hand through the window of the door behind Spoon and he charges at it, letting loose with his assault rifle, even pointing the gun out through the window when he reaches it. He ducks down to reload when the werewolf reaches back in and grabs at him, while Cooper and Terry continue fending off the one outside the kitchen. Just as he's about to reload his assault rifle, the banging against the door causes Spoon to drop the magazine and slide it across the floor. Now, all he can do is keep the werewolf from getting in, but he doesn't have to wait long before Cooper, having sent the one packing, grabs a pot of boiling water from the stove, rushes down the hall, and Spoon gets out of the way as he throws it in the werewolf's face through the door's window. Spoon takes the pot from him and beats the werewolf in the snout for good measure, while Joe continues firing on the one outside his window. He pumps shell after shell into it, which doesn't deter it from smashing the window down at all, and he walks towards the window while firing. That's when the werewolf grabs the shotgun out of his hand and Joe has to hit the deck as it actually fires the last shot inside, before tossing the empty gun back in. Taking out a stun grenade and pulling the pin, Joe yells, "Fire in the hole!" and throws it out the window, running and jumping to the couch as it explodes. Terry fires on another werewolf outside the kitchen window, while Joe gets to his feet, backs up against a boarded up window behind, and struggles to get some more shells out of his ammo belt. Cooper then runs and pushes one door shut as a werewolf is just about to open it. He's forced to use his rifle to brace the knob, while Joe tries to load another shell into his shotgun and Spoon pushes a dresser in front of the other door. He ducks out of the way when the werewolf reaches in, knocking the door of a small closet, and has to roll to keep from getting whacked by a tank of compressed air that falls over.
Joe finally manages to load his shotgun and turns around and looks through the boarded window behind him, before swinging around, meaning to fire on the werewolf that's still outside the window across from it. Before he can, another bursts its arm through the one behind him and grabs him by the shoulder, forcing him to struggle with it while firing on the other werewolf that's advancing from the other window. While Spoon manages to reload his assault rifle, Joe, trying desperately to shoot the werewolf that has ahold of him, yells for Cooper, whom promptly rushes in and sees what's happening. Spoon drops a grenade outside his window, while Cooper grabs the sword from earlier, rushes into the den, and manages to slice the werewolf's arm off, leaving its hand gripping on Joe's shoulder. While Spoon grabs a toolbox from the closet with the compressed air, Cooper hears a crash upstairs and realizes that they've gotten into where Wells is. Spoon tries to nail up one door, hammering a werewolf's hand when it sticks through the mail slot, and Joe swings his axe at another through the window. Cooper heads to the stairs but first, Spoon tosses him his assault rifle and he fires on another werewolf trying to get in through the opposite door. Cooper rushes upstairs and burst into the bedroom to find a werewolf standing by the window, across from the bed where Wells is still out cold. Cooper points to fire on it but another werewolf smashes its arm through the window behind him and knocks him to the floor. With it grabbing him and trying to pull him to the window, Cooper desperately tries to wrench himself loose, while the other werewolf looms over Wells. Cooper yells for Wells to wake up as he continues to struggle with the werewolf that has a hold of him. Wells slowly comes to, as Cooper grabs a nearby camera and shoots the flash in the one werewolf's face, prompting it to fall back. Downstairs, Joe and Terry are back-to-back, firing at werewolves on either side of the house, while Cooper manages to get the werewolf that has him to let go by beating it with the sword. Once free, he grabs his assault rifle, which flew under the bed when he fell, and he and Wells open fire on the other werewolf together, sending it falling back out the window. Downstairs, everything has suddenly gotten eerily quiet. Everyone stands with bated breath, wondering it it's over, while outside, the werewolves are skirting around the treeline. Breathing heavily, Terry turns around and comments, "Dogs. More like pussies." He pulls the blinds shut on the window behind him but then, a werewolf smashes through it, grabs him, and pulls him out. Megan rushes to the window and looks out, hearing Terry screaming, before glancing at her right hand, which she cut on the broken glass (according to Marshall, this was meant to be a set-up for the ultimately aborted sequel, involving werewolf DNA). Upstairs, Cooper asks Wells if he's alright and he says, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm peachy, mate." He's then about to head downstairs but, before he does, Wells tells him that the squad is his. He then heads down there, while Wells looks at a personal picture he's holding in his hand. Downstairs, Megan tells Cooper that the werewolves took Terry. Cooper says that they're going to go get him but, as they're about to leave, Ryan tells them to forget about him, telling Cooper that he knows he's dead. Swallowing that bitter pill, all Cooper can do is yell, "Shit!", before tossing the sword onto the table.
Later, as they're reinforcing the barriers on the windows, Joe says that somebody must have heard some gunfire but Megan tells him that her house is the only one within 50 miles and that the likely of any passersby is very slim too. As Joe heads upstairs, Megan adds that anyone who did come by would only end up dead as well and that their only hope is to wait for daylight, which isn't for another six hours. Cooper, however, says that they may only have four if Wells' condition worsens and the only thing keeping the werewolves back is they don't know how much ammunition the men have left. A howl echoes through the woods as the scene fades to black again and after that, it comes back on the shot of a clock that shows that it's now just past midnight, as Cooper looks at the cut on Megan's hand. When he asked about their chances, he tells her that the morale is good but only as long as their ammo holds out. However, he tells her that he doesn't scare that easy and hands Megan his lucky rabbit's foot. That's when Ryan says something about her needing more than luck "this time," which catches Cooper's attention and she has to confess that she's met him before, explaining her role as acting as his team's expert when they first came to investigate the stories. Joe comes downstairs and tells them that it's all clear up there, while Spoon tells them that they only have two full magazines for the assault rifles, six rounds for the shotgun, and one spare bullet for last resorts. Cooper tells everyone to stay sharp and puts his own handgun on the table, pushing it over towards Megan, while Spoon loads his rifle with one of the magazines. Megan takes the gun and looks out the window, seeing the werewolves, who are watching the house and growling, but keeping their distance. She glances over at the barn, Spoon comments on how much lead they pumped into the werewolves and it did nothing to stop them. Cooper then says that they either make a break for it or send one of them for help, neither of which sound like very good options. Sam then barks and makes everyone jump to their feet, pointing their weapons at the windows, but within seconds, it turns out to have been a false alarm. Joe then laments how hopeless their situation seems, and when Ryan makes another less than helpful remark, Joe almost comes at him but Cooper stops him. Megan then asks if any of them know how to hotwire a car, telling them that the family keeps a land-rover in the barn, and Joe volunteers, as he just wants an excuse to get away from Ryan. Cooper tells him that they're going to need some kind of decoy, "Something fast and loud." They all turn and look at Spoon, who hasn't been paying attention and asks, "What? You what?"
Everyone reconvenes in the upstairs bedroom where Wells is still outside cold. Holding a rifle on him, Cooper makes Ryan sit down, while Megan secures a rope to one of the bed's legs. Cooper tells everyone to get ready and they remove the pieces of furniture that they've used to barricade the windows. Joe and Spoon prepare to jump out of their individual windows, the latter wishing the other good luck, though Joe tells him that he's not going to get off the hook that easy. He hands Cooper his shotgun and gets ready, while Cooper gives Spoon the signal to jump out. Spoon lands outside and slowly makes his way to the front lawn, as the werewolves watch him from nearby. He then loudly announces his presence and lights up a flare, but the werewolves, interestingly, just skirt around the treeline. Surprised at this, he yells again and, this time, they come running at him. Seeing this from the window, Megan gives Joe his signal to jump out. One of the werewolves comes charging at Spoon, who screams, "Come on!" and, when Megan tells him to do so, throws his flare and runs back to the house. Hearing this on the opposite end of the house, Joe runs for the barn, with Cooper promptly barricading his window. Joe reaches the barn and opens the door, just as Spoon grabs the rope and climbs his way back up the window, with Megan yelling, "Move your fucking ass, soldier! Come on!" It takes some effort but Spoon manages to climb through the window and plop down on the floor, proclaiming, "I love it when a posh babe talks dirty!" That's when the werewolf grabs the rope outside and pulls it with enough force to drag the bed across the room, Cooper almost getting squashed between the corner of it and the wall. This commotion wakes up Wells, and as he tries to figure out what's going, the werewolf reaches the window and almost climbs through, though Megan flashes the camera in its face again. This sends it falling back, as Spoon desperately tries to cut through the rope with a knife, but the werewolf climbs back up and Megan shoots several more flashes off in its face. This time, it doesn't back down, and is only vanquished when Spoon cuts through the rope and sends its plummeting to the ground below.
In the barn, Joe gets inside the land-rover and easily hotwires it, turning on the ignition as well as the headlights. When he does, he illuminates a werewolf in front of the vehicle, which is holding Terry, badly cut and bleeding, but still alive, in its clutches. He reaches out for Joe but then, the werewolf bends down, tears his throat open, splashing the windshield with blood when it rears its head back, rips Terry's head off, and throws it onto the hood. Joe hits the windshield wipers, which smear away the blood, and sees Terry's head staring back at him. Horrified, and with the werewolf grabbing at him through the window, Joe leans back, kicks the monster away, closes the door securely, and pops the land-rover in reverse. He crashes out through the back wall of the barn and heads towards the house. Seeing this, Cooper orders Ryan to get up and forces him into the corner, telling everyone else to head downstairs. Outside, as he sits in the rover, Joe hears heavy, raspy breathing and sees a cloud of breath drift past his face from behind him. Realizing that a werewolf is in the backseat, he whirls around and screams, "I'm gonna fucking have you!" before lunging at it. Outside, the rover rocks back and forth as Joe can be heard yelling as he attacks, but his yells are silenced when the windshield gets splashed with blood on the inside. Inside the house, everyone reaches the front door and Cooper and Spoon head out first. But when they open the back door, they see Joe's mangled body lying on the floor, blood running out, and see the werewolf look up, with his innards in its mouth. It roars and everyone runs back. Spoon fires on it but falls back through the doorway. Fortunately for him, Megan opens fire on the werewolf with the handgun Cooper gave her when it tries to come in, keeping it back until Wells can slam the door and bolt it. As she processes what just happened, Megan realizes there's a splotch of Joe's blood on her cheek. In the next scene, Megan is shown playing a soft tune on the piano, as everyone sits at the dining room table, silently lamenting what's happened and the loss of Joe. Outside, the werewolves seem to be responding to the music, as they can be heard howling, something which both Cooper and Megan notice.
In the next scene, it's now 3:20 and Cooper is seen quickly running through the front door, Megan and Wells securing it once he's through. He tells them that the land-rover is virtually totaled and that Joe's body has been taken. Joining Spoon and Ryan in the dining room, Cooper asks the former how their ammo's holding up and he tells them that they're down to just 48 rounds. As everyone checks outside the windows, Cooper tells Ryan what the score is and becomes enraged when, after he brings up how much Joe loved football, he simply asks, "This is relevant?", yelling, "He missed the most important match of his life for this bullshit exercise, and now he's dead, along with two other mates I'd have rightfully given my right arm for. Too fuckin' right it's relevant!" Ryan's response? "You just can't get past the dog, can you?" Cooper then mentions that he wants to at least even the score on the werewolves but Ryan, ignoring what he said, tells him that he failed to make the special forces because he failed to take the extra step. Cooper tells him that he's glad he flunked, as he'd rather slug out with his squad than take orders from him, adding, "So you can take your precious selection, shove it up your ass, and stop trying to change the fucking subject!" Seeing no need to remain silent any longer, Ryan comes clean, telling them that the Special Weapons Division called him to try to capture one of the werewolves but they underestimated just how many there were. Looking at the transmitter Bruce had found in their squad's radio, Wells asks Ryan where they fit in and he says, "The reality is you're expendable, and I had approval to put you at risk." Cooper then grabs Ryan by his hair, pulls his head back, and puts a knife to his throat, telling him to get to the point. He tells him, "I made a gap in enemy lines. You were good enough to spot it, and predictable enough to go for it. That was your bait. You were mine." Enraged at this, Cooper lets his hair go and stabs it into the wall, calling Ryan a bastard. When Ryan says that he deliberately chose Cooper, Wells decides he can't take it anymore and punches Ryan, sending him to the floor. Cooper grabs Ryan and pulls him up, only to see that his eyes have turned an inhuman yellow, as he says, "Live and learn, Cooper." Cooper throws him across the table and he lands on the other side, only to rise back up and scan across the room, glaring at all of them, his teeth turning sharp and his voice becoming distorted. Wrenching in apparent pain, he slumps back behind the table, his fingernails turned claws leaving marks across the wood.
Hearing the sounds of low growling and clothes ripping back there, Cooper tries to reach for the sword, only for Ryan to rise back up, now in full-blown werewolf form. When he turns to them, Megan flashes the camera in his face but it does nothing. Wells grabs the nearest thing he can, though it turns out to just be a stick. Yelling, "Fetch!", he tosses it, and this actually distracts Ryan, as Spoon comes running in. Cooper charges at the werewolf but gets smacked backwards into some hanging kitchenware, while Wells pulls a burning log out of the fireplace and puts the hot end into him. Megan shoots another flash off in Ryan's face but this still doesn't deter him, while Spoon is trying to get a clean shot on him. Cooper then comes up behind Ryan and puts the sword's blade completely through him, but this doesn't stop him either. Spoon opens fire on his runs across the table on all fours and crashes out the window on the other side. Everyone then cautiously creeps towards the window but it's clear that Ryan's gone. In the next cut, once they've boarded up that window, Cooper figures that, because werewolves spend most of the time in their human form, and because this is the only house for miles, that means they are the family that lives there. Megan says that they're good people but Cooper that makes it an even bigger shame that they're going to have to kill them all, with Wells literally hammering the point home by smashing a picture of the family on the table. Grabbing any other weapons they can, though finding nothing silver, Cooper decides that it might be best to just burn them. Wells says they have to find them and Megan says that a wolf pack usually sticks together somewhere close to their prey, somewhere safe, sheltered, and warm. That's when they draw their attention to the barn. In the next scene, Cooper and Spoon are preparing one of the compressed air tanks for the plan, when the latter brings up the issue of whether or not Wells may become a werewolf too. Cooper simply says that Wells is with them, and the matter is dropped. However, when Cooper walks into the kitchen and sees Wells, who's preparing a Molotov cocktail, he asks him how he is and Ryan tells him that he knows the fact that he feels really good is a bad sign. After they discuss whether or not Megan is right about all the werewolves being in the barn, Wells tells Cooper that he'll hold the werewolves back while he and the others escape. Cooper refuses and Wells then shows him how well his wound has healed, saying that he knows that he's going change like Ryan did. Cooper still isn't having it but Wells asks for permission to take care of himself, insisting that he doesn't care to die. He then asks him, "So, what do you want me to do?", and Cooper answers, "Roast their bollocks off."
Determining that the coast is clear, Cooper and Spoon make their way out the front door, carrying the tube of compressed air and put it into the back of the land-rover. Cooper gets up front, while Spoon gets underneath, cuts the fuel line, and rolls away. Cooper manages to hotwire the vehicle again and, when Spoon gives him the signal, he puts the rover in gear and aims it towards the barn. On the house's front step, Spoon tries to light a match for the fuel trail that's being left behind, as Cooper jumps out of the rover and sends it into the barn. He yells for Spoon to light it but has trouble doing so, as the matches keep bending and breaking before they can strike. When he gets down to one, he yells for Wells, who comes running out the door with that Molotov cocktail from before, now lit, and throws it on the ground. The fuel trail is instantly ignited and lights up, as Cooper rushes back to the house, Wells covering him with a handgun. At the end of the trail, he jumps over the flames and through the front door and quickly closes and locks it. Everyone watches through the window as the barn goes up in a massive explosion and it looks like they managed to kill every werewolf they've faced that night. Cooper turns around and comes face-to-face with Megan, who leans in like she's going to kiss him, but instead, she says, "I'm sorry." She confesses that she thought they were her best chance of "getting out" but now, that chance has just been snuffed out, adding, "I came here to be one with nature. Well, I got what I wanted. Now, I have to live with it." Cooper puts together that there isn't a house in the next glen, like she said, there weren't any werewolves in the barn, and she's not in the photograph with the family because she's the one who took it. Cooper is incredulous, commenting how it's the same old crap with women, and Megan clarifies, "You may think they're all bitches, but I'm the real thing." She then hunches over, apparently in pain, and straightens back up, asking, "Do you think I like being part of this fucked up family? Do you think I chose to run with the pack? No. I chose you, but now, you're out of luck, and I'm out of time. And all we can do is let nature take its course." Dropping a key on the floor, along with Cooper's lucky rabbit's foot, she admits that the werewolves were always there, and she just unlocked the door to let them out. Cooper and Wells, who's been sitting at the table, loading a handgun this whole, watch as the werewolves rise out of the cellar behind Megan. She hisses at Cooper, her eyes turning yellow and her teeth now sharp, but Wells jumps up and guns her down before she can attack.
Arming themselves, the men run for it as the werewolves move in. Cooper and Wells run upstairs, while Spoon decides to stay back and fire on them. When Wells yells at him, he tries to join them but one werewolf puts its arm through the banister, blocking his away and forcing him to duck in the kitchen. Upstairs, when they reach the end of the hall, Cooper rolls a stun grenade across the floor, to the top of the stairs, while down in the kitchen, Spoon barricades the door by putting a chair under the knob. Backing up, he shoots through the door, but soon runs out of ammo and has to put the rifle aside. He yells for the werewolves to come on, while upstairs, they charge through the smoke from the grenade at Cooper, who opens fire on them. As it does nothing to stop them, he ducks through the door behind him and bolts it, turning around to see that he's in the bathroom. Wells, in the room he's in, lights up a blue glowstick and braces the door with his foot, when he hears Cooper calls for him. He tells him he's in the closet (what kind of closet has a toilet in it?), as a werewolf starts pounding on the other side of his door. In the kitchen, the werewolf breaks through the door and Spoon actually decides to fight it through fisticuffs, only to get knocked back. Grabbing a knife, he stabs the werewolf in the shoulder after he dodges its swipe, then rolls across the table, throws a chair at it, and manages to knock one of its claws out, sending it into the nearby wall. Up in the bathroom, Cooper rips the sink out of the wall in order to find a way to where Wells is. At the same time, Wells, still bracing the door with his foot, grabs a nearby spraycan, just before the werewolf smashes its arm through the door. Downstairs, Spoon is still going toe-to-toe with the one werewolf, punching it and then managing to get it down and stab the crap out of it, sending its blood flying everywhere and covering himself in it. However, it simply stands back up, grabs him, and flings him across the table. Back upstairs, Cooper is still trying to get to Wells, who's fending off the werewolf that's after him by making the spraycan into a makeshift flamethrower with a lighter. Cooper desperately hacks through the wall, as another werewolf starts smashing its way into the bathroom with him, and Wells tells him that he's running out of the hairspray he's using. While Spoon fends off the werewolf in the kitchen by throwing everything he can lays his hands on, from plates to sharp utensils, as well as cursing it out, Cooper stabs the werewolf in the bathroom in the head with the end of the faucet from the smashed sink. Spoon clobbers his werewolf with a big pot, only for another to come in, knock it out of his hand, grab him by the neck, and putting him up against the wall. As it comes in to kill him, he tells it that he hopes eating him gives it the shits and spits in its face. Sam watches the whole thing from where he's sitting.
Upstairs, Cooper manages to bust through the wall and get into the closet with Wells, who gives him his knife, as he's still fending the werewolf off with the spraycan. In the kitchen, Sam watches as the werewolves monstrously feast on what's left of Spoon, when one of them leans in at him, prompting him to bark at it. Using the knife, Cooper manages to hack through the wall, into the bedroom next to it, and he and Wells crawl through the wall, as the werewolf manages to get into the closet. It reaches through the hole for them but they stack a bunch of junk on the bed and against the wall, blocking the hole, and overturn a big dresser to the bedroom door. However, the werewolves start smacking on the other side of the door and it becomes clear that the dresser isn't going to keep them out. With nowhere to go, they duck into the wardrobe beside the bed and close the door. Smelling something off inside the wardrobe, they look down, Cooper snapping another glowstick, and see human remains on the floor. Hearing the werewolves in the room outside, Wells has Cooper give him the assault rifle and, as the werewolves start knocking the wardrobe, he tells him, "Open your mouth, watch the ears, mind your toes!" He shoots through the floor, through the ceiling of the kitchen below them, and they smash their way down there, just as the werewolves start clawing their way into the wardrobe. Wells fires back up at them for good measure and, as they get their bearings, Cooper asks where Spoon is. Having found his blood remains, along with the watch he gave him at the start, Wells tells him that there's no Spoon left. As Cooper shouts at the werewolves for that they've done, Wells has him move the table and prop it up against the door, further bracing it with chairs. Seeing a hatch in the floor, they fling it open and Wells has Cooper get in, along with Sam. Cooper then sees that Wells isn't coming and he tells him that they either go together or not at all. The two of them fight about it, with Wells putting Cooper against the wall, telling him he has to make it out and prove that it all happened, for his wife, most of all. Feeling himself starting to change, Wells gives Cooper the roll of film from the camera they've been using to ward off the werewolves and makes him go down in the cellar. As he does, he writhes about in the pain from the transformation and, after shutting the hatch, he extinguishes the fire in an oven, grabs a meat cleaver and severs the stove's gas line. Slumping down to the floor, he takes out the picture he looked at from before and then sees the werewolves come through the door, knocking the table out of the way. Cooper is able to make out the monsters closing in on Wells from down in the cellar, and when they reach him, the sergeant pulls out his lighter. One of them smacks it out of his hand before he can flick it and, with his eyes now yellow, he lets out an inhuman yell and punches a button on the stove. The spark from it ignites the gas in the room, causing a huge explosion that completely destroys the house and blows the werewolves apart. After it's settled, Cooper has to slowly process that his entire squad is now gone.
Come morning, Cooper decides to head out and calls for Sam, only to come across the hanging remains of his men. He's then smacked from the side and looks up to see a werewolf approaching him, and the sword sticking through his torso tells him that it's Ryan. He asks, "You tried licking your own balls yet?" and Ryan picks him up by the neck. Cooper punches him, making him drop him, and says, "I forgot. You don't fucking have any." Ryan smacks him into a support beam and then proceeds to hit him in the face again and again, but all Cooper does in response is yell, "Hah!" Smashing through the beam, Ryan grabs Cooper by the head, puts him against the wall, and leans in, attempting to skewer him with the blade sticking out of his front. The tip of the blade gets pretty far into his mouth, when Sam jumps Ryan from behind and attacks, making him drop Cooper. Watching them fight, Cooper looks for some kind of weapon and comes across the small Excalibur sword made of pure silver. As Ryan looms over Sam, Cooper pulls the actual sword out of him, comes around him, and stabs him in the chest with the silver, causing him great pain. Not killing him right away, he lunges for Cooper, who jumps across the room and grabs his handgun off the floor. Ryan closes in and Cooper promptly shoots him in the head, splattering his brains everywhere. With the werewolves all dead, Cooper and Sam walk out into daylight, amidst the smoldering remains of the farmhouse. The credits then roll and it's revealed in-between that Cooper did take the film to the press, though his story is sequestered to the side of the front page, making room for the news that England won the game against Germany, five to one.
The music score for the film, composed by Mark Thomas, is one of its best aspects in my opinion, as it manages to hit all of the right notes as well as it possibly can and its individual themes are quite memorable. My favorite is this really exciting, adrenaline-pumping piece that you first hear when the werewolves are chasing the entire squad through the woods and plays again during the climax, as well as the last part of the ending credits. It feels like something you'd hear in a war-oriented, action movie, rather than a horror film, a quick, drumming that's accompanied by a simple but memorable melody, and it successfully adds to the excitement. There's another action-oriented part of the score that's pretty good as well but I like that one more. The movie also doesn't fail to get to the really emotional and dramatic moments, like when Wells tells the story about Eddie Oswald, he hands the squad over to Cooper and when he, in turn, learns that Terry has been taken, when Wells tells Cooper he's not afraid to die at all, and during his last stand. Most of it is pretty subtle and in the background but the latter bit is very big and orchestral, playing it up very well. And finally, there's the main theme, which is this sweeping horn theme, played either slowly or fairly quickly, often against big, vista shots of the Scottish countryside, and, again, it makes it feel like you're watching a war movie rather than a horror film.
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