Frankenstein’s Army – Movie Review
Frankenstein’s Army follows the pre-paved path of low quality zombie movies and should definitely not be watched for the originality of the script. Fortunately, it is very probable the director Richard Raaphorst didn’t take it all too seriously when making this movie.
At the end of World War II, a herd of Red Army soldiers who are trying to enter East-Germany, wander into a remote village where everything may not be as it seems. They discover a secret Nazi factory where they have to face horrific experiments that have been done based on the diary of Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Scientists have created an entire army’s worth of bio-mechanic super soldiers out of the limbs of the fallen. This is desperate Hitler’s last plan to escape humiliating defeat.
The movie starts out lame and doesn’t improve much in the running. It has been woven together without the slightest understanding of storytelling ability, rhythm, or consideration for viewer motivation. Even when at some point they manage to create a bit of excitement and you feel the structure has finally come to stand, the film takes a deep plunge for the rest of its time. The fight scenes look downright amateurish and we cannot even really talk about characters until Karel Roden enters the screen to impersonate the mad doctor. Having portrayed Rasputin in Hellboy (2004), even he does not get to show his real talent to the fullest although he does, as per usual, nail the role he was put to play. Other than him, we get to meet a who’s that? cast who die off continuously, leaving them with not much time to convince us of their talents and us with little to wonder about. There is no one to get attached to or identify with as the characters simply don’t survive long enough. This could be a bump in the road for many who desire a story line to go along with, in stead of just associating the flick with the thought of gore. But if that is what you like, then that is what you will definitely get in this case.
Personally I am not a fan of the hand-held camera filmed stuff (or „found footage” style as it is called) the movie is presented in, but since there are pleasant exceptions now and again (e.g. the Norwegian created Troll Hunter), they need to be given a chance. Considering Frankenstein’s Army, the time setting added to my interest. The Second World War is not usually the obvious choice for such films. Yet it did not have much more to offer than the introduction tells us and thus scored high on the predictability level. It lacks consistency. I don’t think a Russian soldier at the end of WWII could have been in possession of a color camera with microphone, let alone one in HD quality. The picture quality destroys all illusion of the era, if there was any to begin with. Remember Apollo 18 (2001)? Just as an example of how-to, using found footage yet sustaining the era.
However, I could praise to heaven and back the monsters in this movie; Clearly a lot of effort, and most likely the largest share of the filming budget, had gone into creating those blends of iron and human flesh that go around toddling and killing on your screen. It is of course much more entertaining to watch these guys than it is to see another ghost, doll or small child be the creator of havoc. It pretty much saved the movie. They looked damn impressive. Unfortunately, their murmuring bad Russian-English accents, in which they of course had to speak, were often barely understandable and made parts of the dialogues go lost here and there.
Conclusion
All in all, the title does not leave a potential viewer guessing. It is what it is, a blend of war and Frankenstein. If you are familiar with both concepts, you pretty much know what’s ahead of you when you start viewing this film. Either way, horror film-fans should definitely at least glance through the monster scenes as in this movie there is a shining emphasis on the visual aspect, perhaps at the cost of all the rest. But when you’re already at it, why not watch the entire thing… With a duration of under one and a half hours, it barely has the time to get annoyingly boring.
Frankenstein's Army - Movie Review,
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