Neil Marshall is returning to the big screen this week after two year with his new movie Centurion.
Despite penning Killing Time back in 1998, which went on to be directed by Bharat Nalluri, he made his directorial debut in 2002.
And it was Dog Soldiers that really grabbed everyone's attention as Marshall became a hot new British filmmaking talent that everyone should keep an eye on.
Dog Soldiers followed a squad of British soldiers who are sent out on manoeuvres into the wilds of Scotland.
They thought the worst they had to worry about was missing the biggest football match of the decade, but what should have been a routine military exercise turns into a nightmare for Sergeant Harry Wells (Sean Pertwee) and Riflemen Lawrence Cooper (Kevin Mckidd), Joe Kirkley (Chris Robson), Terry Milburn (Leslie Simpson), Phil Witherspoon (Darren Morfitt) and Corporal Bruce Campbell (Thomas Lockyer).
But something's out there ... and it's hungry. Very hungry. And hairy ... very hairy.
Despite being made a on a very modest budget the movie was a big success and has gained a huge cult following.
And Marshall showed that he wasn't a one hit wonder when, three years later, he was behind the camera again for another horror movie The Descent.
This time is was a group of girls who became the hunted as they tried to survive on a caving expedition.
On a daredevil caving holiday, six women friends are unexpectedly trapped underground when a rock fall blocks their exit.
Searching the maze of tunnels for a way out, they find themselves hunted by a race of fearless, hungry predators, once humanoid but now monstrously adapted to live in the dark.
As the others battle for their lives, Sarah (Macdonald), still recovering from a mental collapse brought on by the recent deaths of her family, is fighting for her sanity.
When old secrets are revealed, the friends turn on one another, causing the group to implode. Betrayed and desperate, Sarah realises that to make it back to the surface, she must become as savage as the creatures themselves.
The Descent was even more successful than it's predecessor and was met very well by the critics, the twist at the end is particularly good.
The movie went on to be successful in America and it cemented Marshall as one of the best British directors currently working in the industry.
However his next project Doomsday, which was released back in 2008 was not as successful as his previous movies.
Marshall has been away from the camera for two years but returns this week with a change of pace as he tackles a historic piece with Centurion.
AD 117. The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying Picts.
Quintus Dias (Fassbender), sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus' (West) legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the earth and destroy their leader Gorlacon.
But when the legion is ambushed on unfamiliar ground, and Virilus taken captive, Quintus faces a desperate struggle to keep his small platoon alive behind enemy lines.
Enduring the harsh terrain and evading their remorseless Pict pursuers led by revenge-hungry Pict Warrior Etain (Kurylenko), the band of soldiers race to rescue their General and to reach the safety of the Roman frontier.
Marshall brings together a great cast of the film including Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Noel Clarke, David Morrissey and Olga Kurylenko.
While it may be a change of genre for the filmmaker Centurion is still just as brutal as he told Total Film: "I always meant this to be a brutal film. I wanted to show blood for what it is. I had no intention of glossing it all up and making it super stylised."
And the director possibly has a couple of other projects in the pipeline in the form of Sacrilege and Burst 3D.
Centurion is released 23rd April.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Neil Marshall