Dog Soldiers 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Dog Soldiers 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 24, 2022

Sometimes the last word, well, isn't. And that actually should be seen as being a good thing when "absolutely certain" pronouncements are made about whether or not, for example, films are lost or deleted scenes are permanently missing or a negative has mysteriously disappeared. To cite just one salient example of a film that has absolutely nothing to do with this one other than it, too, was something of a "cult item", I remember years ago when the Laserdisc of the lamented musical version of Lost Horizon was released, and a bevy of "experts" stated definitively that a primary element for the Roadshow Version of the film was forever lost to the vagaries of time and tide and therefore some interstitial scenes that had been cut had to be reinserted from secondary sources, except: guess what? The very Blu-ray linked to proves how wrong those "experts" were. Now, in the case of Dog Soldiers, things get a bit more ironic and perhaps maybe even just a little comical because the film's own director went on record several years ago when Shout! Factory released this film on a 1080 disc that the negative was in fact lost and therefore the transfer had to be made from secondary elements. Unsurprisingly, a firestorm ensued, as I documented in our original Dog Soldiers Blu-ray review.

I feel like this release should come with some stentorian voiceover stating, "Previously. . .on Dog Soldiers on Blu-ray", and for those scratching their heads at that comment I'd refer you first to my original Dog Soldiers Blu-ray review, which explicitly gets into the provenance of that 1080 release from Shout! Factory, but also to Martin Liebman's Dog Soldiers, which gives more plot information and also details the first 1080 release from First Look Studios. Suffice it to say that as hopefully my review made (somewhat?) clear, there was an "issue" finding a decent element, and the negative was deemed "lost", resulting in a release that many fans were less than pleased about, to say the least.

In that regard, you might expect this release to more aggressively tout the fact that evidently the negative was found, and even in online interviews like this one, director Neil Marshall seems curiously sanguine about it all, kind of just offering, "Yeah, the producer found the negative", without much attendant intrigue. In any case, that perhaps finally means that three times is the charm with this film, and Shout! is upping the ante by releasing a package with both 4K UHD and 1080 presentations, along with some new supplements.

Dog Soldiers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc. As of the writing of this review, Shout! is not releasing a 1080 standalone disc, and so kind of along the same lines as what I did in our Blood for Dracula 4K Blu-ray review, since Severin didn't release a standalone 1080 disc of that film, this section will include comments on both formats.

Dog Soldiers is presented with either 2160p or 1080p transfers in 1.85:1, and if I may just cut to the chase, the difference between both of these presentations and Shout!'s first release is night and day, or at least night and day for night. There is no arguing about the uptick in detail and especially saturation, as can easily be seen by comparing the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review and the ones I uploaded to accompany the review of the original Shout! release, and the 1080 release in particular doesn't have the artificially brightened appearance that Shout!'s first 1080 disc did. But here's where it gets kind of interesting. The 1080 presentation was to my eyes subtantially warmer than the 2160 presentation, despite Dolby Vision and/or HDR, and in fact parts of the 2160 presentation struck me as actually a bit closer to the almost bleached, CRI, look of Shout!'s original 1080 release. That said, even with these variations both this new 1080 and especially 2160 presentation offer noticeably improved detail throughout, and some easily discernable new shadow detail, so important in a film that is so relentlessly shrouded in darkness, though I have to say it wasn't quite as much as I had hoped. Kind of interestingly, I didn't really feel that Dolby Vision and/or HDR tweaked the actual palette that much in the 4K UHD version, though there seemed to be a somewhat wider range of green tones in particular. This is another shot on film release (with quite a few opticals to boot) where I'm not sure the increased resolution of the 4K UHD version is always "friendly" to grain resolution, and some of the darker material in the 4K UHD version gets pretty splotchy looking, especially when darkness is combined with things like mist or smoke from fires. All in all, though, I can't imagine fans of the film not easily preferring this release to either the First Look Studios or original Shout! Factory releases.

Dog Soldiers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This new 4K UHD release sports the same audio specs as the original Shout! 1080 release, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options, and to my ears there was no discernable difference, so I'll repeat my original observations here. Neither of these mixes is overly bombastic, at least not in the way contemporary horror-action fare soundtracks tend to be, and some of the sound effects are a bit underwhelming. The 5.1 track doesn't offer a ton of placement in the rear channel, though things pick up decidedly in several of the action sequences, which are reasonably immersive sounding. Slight anemia attends the lower range in both of these tracks, but is never overly problematic. Dialogue, score and effects are rendered without any problems and with very good prioritization. Optional English subtitles are available.

Dog Soldiers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While both the 4K UHD and 1080 discs in this package sport some new supplements, they don't share all of the same content, as below. I've starred new supplements with an asterisk (*):

4K UHD Disc

• Commentary with Writer and Associate Professor of Film Alison Peirse*


• Commentary with Director Neil Marshall


• Commentary with Producers David E. Allen and Brian O'Toole*

Note: All three of the above commentaries can be accessed under the Setup Menu.

1080 Disc

• Commentary with Writer and Associate Professor of Film Alison Peirse*


• Commentary with Director Neil Marshall


• Commentary with Producers David E. Allen and Brian O'Toole*

Note: All three of the above commentaries can be accessed under the Setup Menu.


• Werewolves, Crawlers, Cannibals and More* (HD; 38:26) is an enjoyable interview with Neil Marshall, who discusses his love of genre features.


• A History of Lycanthropy* (HD; 33:21) features author Gavin Baddeley discussing this film and others featuring werewolves.


• Werewolves, Folklore and Cinema* (HD; 23:24) is a video essay by author Mikel J. Koven.


• Werewolves vs. Soldiers (HD; 1:01:50) is a wonderfully in depth and informative background piece which includes a ton of great interviews. Some curmudgeons may get a bit of an ironic kick out of Marshall talking about watching an "old grainy print" of Frankenstein when he was a little boy, something that fostered his interest in cinematic horror.


• A Cottage in the Woods (HD; 13:26) looks at some aspects of the production design.


• Theatrical Trailers (HD; 5:02)


• Dog Soldiers Photo Gallery (HD; 4:57)


• Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery (HD; 4:30)


• Combat - A Short Film by Director Neil Marshall (HD; 7:37)

Additionally, packaging features a slipcover.

Dog Soldiers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As I mentioned in my original review of Shout!'s first 1080 release of this film, I'm not quite as enamored of the overall film as Marty was in his review, but there's no denying Dog Soldiers' lo-fi "charms". (I have to give props to the production team, many of whom hail from hardscrabble Newcastle, my father's birthplace.) I tried to toe a middle ground with my review of that hotly debated first 1080 release from Shout! Factory, but I don't think any equivocation needs to enter the fray this time. Improvements are noticeable in both the 1080 and 2160 versions, though I'd warn folks that perhaps defying expectations the 4K UHD presentation actually looked cooler to my eyes than the new 1080 version. One way or the other, technical merits are generally solid and Shout! has gone the extra distance by including several excellent new supplements. Recommended.