Dog Soldiers is a 2002 British horror film, written and directed by Neil Marshall and starring Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee and Liam Cunningham. It was a British production, set in the highlands of Scotland, and filmed almost entirely in Luxembourg.

The film contains homages to H.G. Wells, the films The Evil Dead, Zulu, Aliens, The Matrix and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.

Trivia:

Set in Scotland but filmed in Luxemborg.

The piece that Megan plays on the piano halfway through the film is Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”, roughly translatable as “moonbeam”. The link is obvious, but is possibly also a nod to An American Werewolf in London (1981), the soundtrack of which consisted purely of songs with “moon” in the title.

One of the soldiers in this movie is called Bruce Campbell, a reference to The Evil Dead (1981) (Bruce Campbell is the actor who portrayed its hero Ash and the film seems to have partially inspired the plot of Dog Soldiers (2002)).

Near the start of the film, they discover the tracking chip in their radio and someone mentions the Kobayashi Maru scenario, originally in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982).

The G3 rifle used by Spoon and later Terry didn’t work properly when firing blanks. During some scenes in the house, you can see Terry manually working the bolt to chamber the next round.

In the scene where Wells asks Cooper to knock him out, Kevin McKidd (Cooper) throws a stage punch the first time, but misjudges the distance of the second and catches Sean Pertwee (Wells) on the nose. Pertwee didn’t feel the punch however as he really was drunk for that scene.

Sean Pertwee’s character “Sgt. Harry G. Wells” is named after H.G. Wells, one of writer/director Neil Marshall’s favorite authors.

There is very little CGI used in the movie because the people involved in the filming believed that CGI was being over-used at the time and that it would take viewers out of the movie because they would be focused on how the special effects looked rather than the story, thus the werewolves are animatronics and body suits with stilts.

Being Scottish, Kevin McKidd who plays Cooper spotted that there is nowhere in Scotland that is a four hour drive from anywhere as mentioned in the film, but chose not to say anything.

The film makes several references to Zulu (1964). There’s the choral music featured in Zulu when Spoon is talking about Rorkes drift, and “Dog Soldiers’” Sgt. Well’s paraphrases “Zulu’s” Colour Sgt. Bourne’s “be quiet now will you, there’s a good gentleman, you’ll upset the lads” when talking to Ryan.

The movie probably takes place on the 1 and 2 September 2001, as England did indeed beat Germany 5 – 1 on the night of the 1st. Those nights were indeed full moons.

Jason Statham was originally the top runner for playing the part of Cooper, but he had to back down at the last minute to do John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars (2001).

Simon Pegg was offered a part in the film, but turned it down after Edgar Wright asked him to save his first horror role for Shaun of the Dead (2004).

The insurance did not cover the actors jumping out of the helicopter early in the film. As most of the crew were ex-army they jumped out of it instead. The crew also doubled up as Sgt Well’s soldiers for some of the tabbing shots.

Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo, also known as Dr. Jekyll and the Wolfman and Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf, is a 1972 Spanish horror film, the sixth in the series, about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy.

Tales from the Darkside is a 1990 movie directed by John Harrison based on the anthology television series Tales from the Darkside. The film, shot in anthology style, depicts a kidnapped paperboy who tells three stories of horror to the suburban witch who is preparing to eat him, à la Hansel and Gretel.

Paramount Pictures’ (which distributed this movie) television division would later gain distribution rights to the Tales from the Darkside TV series.

The original basis of this film was to be at one point the 2nd sequel in the Creepshow franchise. It did not come to be, and with the popularity of the Tales from the Darkside television series, producers opted to add the title of that show to the film. However, Tom Savini has been quoted as saying that this film is the real “Creepshow 3“.

Trivia:

Three cast members of this movie also appeared on the “Tales from the Darkside” (1984) television series: ‘Deborah Harry’, Christian Slater and ‘William Hickey’.

During a scene in “Lot 249″, Dawn of the Dead (1978) can be heard playing from the TV. Its writer/director, ‘George A. Romero’, wrote the screenplay for the segment “Cat From Hell”.

In the episode “Cat from Hell”, a TV is showing a scene from Martin (1977), also written and directed by George A. Romero.

The second story, titled “The Cat From Hell” (written by Stephen King and adapted for the screen by George A. Romero) was originally intended for Creepshow 2 (1987). The story was later dropped due to budgetary reasons.

“Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” is considered by many fans and Tom Savini himself to be the ‘official’ “Creepshow 3″. Following the success of Stephen King and George A. Romero’s Creepshow, Laurel Entertainment (Creepshow & Creepshow 2′s production company) toyed with the idea of a Creepshow television series. After several negotiations and changes (due to rights holders etc.), the decision was made to change the title for the series to “Tales from the Darkside” (to be helmed by none other than Creepshow director and Creepshow 2 screenwriter, George A. Romero). After the series’ great success, just roughly three short years after Creepshow 2 hit theatres, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie came to fruition in 1990 as the successor to the original two Creepshow installments, sharing many of the same crew as the Creepshow installments.

The Craft is a 1996 American supernatural teen horror film directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Robin Tunney, Rachel True, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell. The film’s plot centers on a group of four teenage girls who pursue witchcraft and use it for their own gain, and how this changes their friendship. The film’s original music score was composed by Graeme Revell. It was released on May 3, 1996 by Columbia Pictures.

Trivia:

Features over 3,000 snakes including pythons, boas, water snakes, garter snakes, rat snakes, and a 10 foot Amazon constrictor – even rare albino snakes.

Robin Tunney wore a wig in this because she had shaved her head for Empire Records (1995).

The Connie Francis song playing on the jukebox when the girls visit their newly rich friend Nancy is “Fallin’”.

Though all of the actresses playing teenagers were far past teenage years, at the time of filming Rachel True was almost 30 years old.

The shots of Nancy being covered in bugs were created by wrapping a life-cast of Fairuza Balk’s head and torso in green screen material. The bugs were filmed crawling all over the casting and then digitally composited on top of a live action plate of Balk.

On the special edition DVD of this film, Andrew Fleming states in the commentary that the production was geared toward earning a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. They followed all of the guidelines to earn that rating, but in the final outcome the film was rated R because the film dealt with teenage girls using witchcraft.

Although the name of the Catholic high school is never mentioned in the film, it was referred to as St. Bernard’s Academy in the film’s trailer. This is a nod by writer Peter Filardi to the real Saint Bernard High School in southeastern Connecticut, where Filardi grew up.

After Sarah returns to her house near the end, the house is full of snakes, rats, maggots, etc. As she retreats to the upstairs bathroom, we see her pass a whiteboard with the name Gustav Klimt. Gustav Klimt was an artist whose works were denounced for their eroticism. He was also known to have a common theme of the “Femme Fatale” or women who were empowered and strong.

In the shooting script, as well as early edits of the film, it is implied that only Sarah has actual magic powers, and that the other girls’ abilities are merely a result of their leaching off of Sarah’s magic.

Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell is a 1974 British horror film from Hammer Film Productions. It was directed by Terence Fisher and starred Peter Cushing and David Prowse. Filmed at Elstree Studios in 1972 but not released until 1974, it was the final chapter in Hammer’s Frankenstein series of films and director Fisher’s last film.

Trivia:

Peter Cushing claimed that the wig he was required to wear made him look like Helen Hayes.

The last of Hammer’s Frankenstein movies.

Last feature film directed by Terence Fisher.

The role of Sarah was first offered to Caroline Munro.

The Monster David Prowse

David Prowse as The Monster

The Curse of Frankenstein is a 1957 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions. It was Hammer’s first colour film, and the first of their Frankenstein series. Its worldwide success led to several sequels, and the studio’s new versions of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959) and established “Hammer Horror” as a distinctive brand of Gothic cinema. The film was directed by Terence Fisher and starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Lee and Cushing would both go on to enjoy long film careers, usually as the protagonists in other films of the same genre.

Trivia:

For many years this held the distinction of being the most profitable film to be produced in England by a British studio.

The first Frankenstein movie to be filmed in color

The idea originated with Milton Subotsky, who went on to co-found Amicus Films, Hammer’s main rival during the 1960s and early 1970s. The script was revised several times to avoid repeating any elements from the Universal Frankenstein series. As part of this effort, new monster make-up had to be devised especially for this film.

Christopher Lee’s monster make-up was almost literally done at the “last minute”. After previous attempts to design a monster make-up using a cast of Lee’s head had failed, make-up artist Philip Leakey made the final design the day before shooting began, directly onto Lee’s face, using primarily cotton and other household materials. Since he didn’t use any latex or molds, the make-up had to be recreated from scratch every day.

The original concept for this film was a black-and-white feature with Boris Karloff as Baron Frankenstein. Universal threatened a lawsuit if Hammer copied any elements from the classic Universal version. Hammer had Jimmy Sangster completely redo the script and had Jack Asher shoot it in Eastmancolour.

This is not the first time Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee starred together. Lee had a small role in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing played Osric. The two had also appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952), though they shared no scenes.

Bernard Bresslaw was considered for the role of the Creature, on account of his height.

Patrick Troughton appeared in a brief role as a mortuary attendant. Although his name is credited on some early publicity material his scenes were cut from the finished film.

Although they had both previously appeared in Hamlet (1948) and Moulin Rouge (1952), Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing met on the set of this film for the first time. They would pass the time between shots by exchanging Looney Tunes phrases, and quickly developed a fast friendship, which lasted until Cushing’s death in 1994.

Curse of the Werewolf

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) is a British film based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. The film was made by the British film studio Hammer Film Productions and was shot at Bray Studios.

Trivia:

The only werewolf movie made by Hammer Studios.

Makeup-artist Roy Ashton based his makeup for this film on Jack P. Pierce’s makeup for The Wolf Man (1941).

Vampire Circus is a 1972 British horror film directed by Robert Young for Hammer Film Productions. It stars Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters and Anthony Higgins (billed as Anthony Corlan). The story concerns a travelling carnival whose vampiric artistes prey on the children of a 19th-century Austrian village. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios.

Trivia:

Robert Tayman was dubbed by David de Keyser.

Laurence Payne was an 11th hour casting choice replacing Anton Rodgers who dropped out because of illness.

According to various books on Hammer films this film went over schedule and some key scenes were never filmed.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1983 film based on the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name, starring Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce. Directed by Jack Clayton from a screenplay written by Bradbury himself, the movie suffered from offscreen conflicts of vision.

Trivia:

A special-effects sequence that took place at the beginning of the film was cut shortly before the movie hit the theaters. In this sequence, the carnival materializes from the smoke of the train – the smoke from the engine “becomes ropes and canvas tents. Tree limbs grow together to form a ferris wheel and a spider web mutates into a wheel of fortune.” This sequence was the first time that computer animation was used to animate organic material, and it was combined with traditional animation. The scene was deemed not convincing enough and was cut from the film at the very last minute (according to an issue of “Twilight Zone Magazine” that was released the same month as the film, the scene was going to be in the final print).
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In the spider sequence, the boys are noticeably older, since the scene was re-shot after the rest of the production had been completed. This was used to replace a sequence with a large mechanical hand which, like the animated appearance of the carnival, was deemed too hokey and was subsequently cut from the film.
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Disney made many changes to the film that Ray Bradbury and director Jack Clayton did not intend. Many extra special effects scenes were shot, and other changes were made before its release. According to the laserdisc commentary by Bradbury, much of his original intentions for the movie were destroyed.
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In Anchor Bay’s DVD, the end of the theatrical trailer (which shows the film’s title) has been cropped. The rest of trailer is in 1.85:1, but that last shot is around 2.35:1, which has caused confusion among fans. This aspect ratio change in the trailer was done by Disney to mask off Disney/Buena Vista names. Disney did not allow its name anywhere on the DVD package.
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Steven Spielberg was considered to direct this movie.
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Ray Bradbury asked both David Lean and Steven Spielberg if they were interested in directing the film.
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“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes” is from “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, Scene IV, Act i, spoken by the second witch.
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The lines “And in despair I bowed my head / “There is no peace on earth,” I said, / “For hate is strong and mocks the song / Of peace on earth, good will to men.” / Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: / “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; / The wrong shall fail, the right prevail / With peace on earth, good will to men” is from “I heard The Bells On Christmas Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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Stephen King wrote a rejected adaptation.
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Mechanical effects designer Isidoro Raponi built fake tarantulas to augment the 200 live ones used in the spider attack sequence.
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The music for the film was originally composed by Georges Delerue, but it was rejected by Disney for a less somber score, and was replaced by James Horner’s more upbeat score. Portions of Delerue’s score can be heard in the film’s theatrical trailer.
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This was the last Disney movie to be released under the “Walt Disney Productions” banner. Later in 1983, the banner was replaced by “Walt Disney Pictures.”
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Sam Peckinpah briefly flirted with the idea of filming Ray Bradbury’s story but was unable to raise the necessary finance.
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After a poorly received test screening, Disney held back the release of the movie for a year to re-edit it, film additional and replacement scenes (including special effects sequences), add an opening narration, and hire James Horner to rewrite a completely new score, all of which added millions to the budget. It’s quite obvious when watching the film which scenes, such as the spider attack and the mirror maze climax, were filmed a year after production had initially wrapped. Reportedly Bradbury and the film makers were not pleased with the studio’s intervention nor the effects it had on the picture, which ended up being a flop when it was finally released in 1983 despite Disney’s attempts to make it more audience friendly.
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Ray Bradbury first wrote ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ as a screenplay in 1952, after watching Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain (1952), which Bradbury thought the greatest musical ever made. Bradbury showed Kelly the screenplay, and Kelly was so impressed that he wanted to make it his next picture. When Kelly shopped the story around to potential backers, however, he was unable to raise any money for the project. It was only after this failure that Bradbury rewrote the story as a novel, which was published in 1962. Bradbury dedicated the novel to Kelly.

The Hunger is a 1983 English language horror film. It is the story of a bizarre love triangle between a doctor (Susan Sarandon) who specializes in sleep and aging research, and a stylish vampire couple (Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie).

The film is a loose adaptation of the 1981 novel of the same name by Whitley Strieber, with a screenplay by Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas. The Hunger was director Tony Scott’s first feature film. The cinematography was by Stephen Goldblatt.

The Hunger was not particularly well-received on its release, and was attacked by many critics for being heavy on atmosphere and visuals but slow on pace and plot. Roger Ebert, for example, described it as “an agonizingly bad vampire movie”. However, the film soon found a cult following that responded to its dark, glamorous atmosphere. The Bauhaus song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” plays over the introductory credits and beginning. The film is popular with some segments of the goth subculture, and spawned the short-lived TV anthology series of the same name.

The film was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

Trivia:

David Bowie said that, in order to make his voice suitably hoarse for when he aged so drastically in the movie, he stood on the George Washington Bridge every night and screamed all the punk rock songs he knew.

Alan Parker was Richard Shepherd’s first choice to direct, but Parker convinced Shepherd to hire Tony Scott after seeing his commercials.

David Bowie actually learned to play the cello for his music scenes.

The last film of Bessie Love.

Tony Scott sighted [error] as a major influence on the visual style of the film.

The film Performance (1970), the first feature of director Nicolas Roeg, was a big influence on this movie, which was Tony Scott’s first feature.

While working in London on this film, Susan Sarandon first met Rupert Everett, Ian McKellen and Suzanne Bertish, people she stayed friends with for decades after. On the DVD commentary for the film, she also said she was still in contact with David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve.

One day during filming, costume designer Milena Canonero, who is famously dedicated to her craft, disappeared and was nowhere to be found. It was discovered eventually that she had flown to Rome to purchase fabric for a handkerchief David Bowie is supposed to wear. Unable to find fabric she liked in London, Canonero had flown to Rome at her own expense to find the fabric she needed instead.

Makeup artist Antony Clavet, who was famous within the fashion world for his work in Italian Vogue, was brought onto the project after he was introduced to the director by Milena Canonero.

Make Up Department
Antony Clavet … special makeup
Nick Dudman … prosthetic makeup artist
Carl Fullerton … makeup illusions
Peter Montagna … special makeup effects artist
Dick Smith … makeup illusions
Doug Drexler … special makeup effects artist (uncredited)