Battledogs (2013)

TOPICS:

Posted By: brian@brianschell.com May 4, 2022

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s a zombie apocalypse, only with werewolves this time! That makes for an interesting variation. But when the military decides they want to try and control the outbreak to weaponize the werewolves, what could go wrong? Quite a bit it turns out. Lots of action in this one. It’s pretty entertaining overall.

Synopsis

We get aerial shots of NYC as credits roll. A woman walks through the airport, and she doesn’t look well. She goes into the restroom, and we see that she has a bite on her arm. She goes into convulsions and changes into a CGI werewolf that runs through the airport, killing people as it goes. The SWAT team arrives, and we soon see that there’s more than one of the monsters. It seems to spread very quickly, as the wounded almost immediately change into werewolves. It’s like a zombie apocalypse, only with werewolves.

Very quickly, the President of the United States is notified. This is a big deal, so General Monning is put in charge of the operation. Major Hoffman is ordered to leave the lab and get there immediately. Captain Falcon is ordered to use gas only until they know what they’re up against. All the wounded/infected are gathered up and put into quarantine. Donna Voorhees is the original werewolf, and she checks into the quarantine place with everyone else. Dr. Ellen Gordon microchips Donna.

Major Hoffman talks to Donna She’s a wildlife photographer. He says they need to find Patient Zero, but she doesn’t have anything to say about that. The General warns Hoffman not to screw this up like he did his last job. The soldiers are using excessive force, but Hoffman warns that these are people in there somewhere. General Monning wants to start recruiting the infected as werewolf soldiers.

Hoffman goes to the airport to learn that they’ve installed the brand-new hologram security recording footage. Hoffman spots Donna in the footage, and he wants to see what’s on her camera. Meanwhile, Captain Falcon gets one of the infected to track down Hoffman as a test of their hunting ability. Hoffman calls Monning and thinks that Donna may be Patient Zero.

A werewolf does come after Hoffman, who tries to reason with it. He soon finds out that they can be killed with regular bullets. Monning calls his buddy at the DOD, and talks plans about weaponizing the werewolves. Hoffman can’t be trusted, so Monning wants him dead.

They capture Donna, but she doesn’t hold a cure for the disease. She does, however, have a bit of the original wolf’s tooth stuck in her arm, which may be of use. When Dr. Gordon tries to cut the tooth out, Donna wolfs up, and so do ALL the others. Hoffman does the whole “Good doggy” thing, and wolf-Donna reverts to human. The rest of them, on the other hand, head straight for downtown New York City. Pandemonium ensues.

Major Hoffman calls the President, but The President believes Monning’s lies instead. Hoffman, Donna, and Dr. Gordon have to escape the base, but the President has ordered their arrest. The werewolves attack the soldiers in Central Park en masse. Helicopters start shooting werewolves on the busy streets of New York, but then the wolves fight back.

Falcon shoots Hoffman and Gordon and captures Donna. Meanwhile, the President talks about eradicating New York to contain the outbreak. Gordon cuts out Donna’s tooth and starts working on an antidote. Hoffman, who was left for dead, gets up with barely a scratch. Gordon almost immediately whips up a cure for Donna, which Monning immediately confiscates.

There’s a shootout. Captain Falcon blows up, and then a werewolf attacks Monning. The jet fighters approach the city to blow everything up as Hoffman and Monning fight each other in werewolf form. Donna shoots the Monning-wolf and blows it apart before dying herself.

Hoffman calls the President again, and this time, for no particular reason, the President believes him. It’s too late though, they’ve already dropped the bomb, which wipes out New York City. That’s OK, because they evacuated the city in just the few hours since the action began. Gordon and Hoffman jump off a bridge and survive by avoiding the blast underwater.

Happy ending, right?

Commentary

The super high speed infection process is new and interesting and lends itself to a fairly original storyline. General Monning’s hatred of Hoffman is completely ridiculous; if Hoffman were incompetent, why would he still be an officer? He’s just irrationally evil, because the military=evil. Sometimes anyway.

Donna was clearly infected and afflicted with the disease, so what was the big deal about her being Patient Zero? She may have been the first, but she didn’t have any special antibodies or resistance. That’s not the way cures or immunizations work.

The CGI werewolves are mediocre at best, but since this was made for the Sci-Fi channel, that’s probably to be expected. It’s got a good cast of experienced people, a neat new concept, and the special effects are good enough to get the point across. There is a lot of running around and action here; actually, too much action, which actually makes the film feel longer than it is. So much happens, that you kinda just want it to be over.