Composer unleashed on werewolf flick

Dog Soldiers is composer Mark Thomas's 20th film

By Jon Gower BBC Wales Arts correspondent

There are werewolves on the loose in Wales - at least that's the premise of the latest film that invites cinema-goers to pack a silver bullet and know the taste of fear.

The soundtrack for Dog Soldiers, designed to enhance the atmosphere and heighten the drama, was written by composer Mark Thomas who was born and brought up in Gowerton near Swansea.

Mark Thomas: Used to play violin on Bond films

Thomas used to "work on the shop floor," playing the violin in session orchestras in London.

There he was fortunate enough to work with the likes of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner on films ranging from the Bond movies to Highlander.

Thomas enjoyed himself hugely and decided to try it for himself.

"Composing had always been my first love, having studied it at Cardiff University," said Thomas, who employs state of the art recording equipment in his rural recording studio.

He has built up an impressive list of movie credits, numbering 20 to date.

The soldiers take on werewolves in the movie

These include the Swansea comedy Twin Town and The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, based on the novel by Tenby author Rhydian Brook, along with recent films such as The Final Curtain and Hoodlum and Son.

He has also created music for Sir Peter Hall's radio version of George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, as well as theatre music for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The music for the latest film derives from a close partnership between Mark Thomas and the director of Dog Soldiers, Neil Marshall, who had clear ideas of what he wanted.

Time will tell how the audiences react to their work, but one imagines they both want it to be a howling success.