Who is popular today?

Neil Marshall’s witty 2002 flick about troops on manoeuvres in the Highlands gets a fresh release for Halloween
Out in time for Halloween, writer-director Neil Marshall’s tidily assembled, witty and cheerfully gory horror flick from 2002 gets a rerelease. And how nice it is to reacquaint ourselves not just with this low-budget/high-concept thriller, but with a simpler, gentler time when the only things we needed to be afraid of were jump scares, werewolves and the dark.
A cast comprised mostly of game but limited performers and a few familiar, considerably more competent, character actors who went on to have reasonable careers (such as leads Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd and de facto human villain Liam Cunningham) are compelled to scream, run and get covered in fake blood as they play British soldiers on manoeuvres in the Scottish Highlands. You can tell that McKidd’s Cooper is meant to be the film’s closest thing to a good guy because in the prologue he refuses to shoot a dog simply to prove that he will obey orders from Capt Ryan (Cunningham), during a tryout to join special forces. Continue reading...