Frankenstein's Army

I expected a low-rate B movie with maybe a few good scenes. I was very surprised with how well the film was put together. The story is simple: the Russian army is battling Germany during WW 2. They respond to a distress call put out by another Russian troop. When they get to the location they only find a hand full of Germans. I won't give away much of the plot except to say they that their expeditions lead them into a Nazi factory for making monsters run by none other than the monster-making maestro himself, Dr. Frankenstein. The monsters are good: kinda like more mechanized versions of those in Hellraiser, and the factory is like a weird mixture of Ed Gein meets Willy Wonka. The acting and dialog were also above average. I would overall characterize the movie as fun, not just the same rehashed Nazi experiment movie, and definitely worth a try

One in a wave of Nazi zombie films to come out in the past decade, FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY is a deliriously insane slice of B-movie film-making. The plot is as simple as anything, but what this Czech film lacks in intricacy and subtlety it more than makes up for with its sheer visual inventiveness.

This is another 'found footage' movie which follows a squad of Russian soldiers trekking through east Germany in the dying days of WW2. They soon come across a seemingly abandoned complex which turns out to house a mad scientist and some decidedly odd creations. The zombies in this film are some of the most creative ever put on film, and the camera-work and music make them into fearsome creations.

The acting is nothing to write home about, aside from another solid turn from stock bad guy Karel Roden (HELLBOY), but the technical values are very good. The creations are the best part of it, of course, but this is also an extremely gory film in which the blood and body parts flow freely. It sure as hell isn't high art, but it is viciously entertaining and thoroughly engrossing for what it is.

Okay...

The only reason I watched this movie was because of the recent cover of Fangoria and the article intrigued me. I gave this movie a 7/10 because the POV / found footage concept was far from having the realistic feel to it and the acting was only so-so. BUT! The zombots were pretty frickin' awesome, minus the walking Nazi yoga ball, the female zombot who reminded me of the Oola from Return of the Jedi and the Robo Cop looking one. The gore aspect was very well done, but I'm up in the air on if I will be adding this to my DVD collection down the road. I'll have to watch it again to see how I feel about it the 2nd time around. But that's just me personally.

This was a movie that could have gone either way. The idea of it could have easily been executed a little tediously with a CGI created zombie army going around causing perturbation and despair. However, the good news is that Frankenstein's Army has been made by a team with a great deal of imagination. And this one should attain considerable cult value I reckon.

The basic set-up for the story is typical enough in that this is a found footage movie. It has a group of Soviet soldiers entering Nazi Germany during the final days of the Second World War. They wind up at a dilapidated factory where they discover bizarre creatures that appear to be half human half machine. It's these monsters that are the real angle for this film. Named as zombots in the credits, these creations are extremely original in design. They have a definite steampunk styling and pleasingly each creature has a completely different look. Knives for hands, propeller-heads, head-crushing heads, stilts legs, face-drills…you name it, these monsters are nothing if not original in design. What makes it even better is that this is a movie with a lot of proper physical effects and costumes – it's not rammed to the gunnels with CGI effects. This ensures that the look is more convincing. The factory location has a suitably grungy feel too, which works well alongside the creatures.

Things eventually move into the lair of the mad scientist Frankenstein. It's at this point we get to see some of his insane experiments, including combining half a Communist brain with half a Nazi one! Yeah, there is a lot of crazed imagination in this one. Surely there must be a sequel...Dracula's Army anyone?

The only difference between this found footage film and footage that may have actually been taken by a real Russian soldier is that the real Russian soldier probably would have been able to hold the camera without shaking it and would have kept it in focus.

Enough of this found footage technique. If it brings nothing to the storyline, then it's not worth the pain of watching it. To me the filming technique was overbearing and outweighed anything the movie might have been. It is just annoying to watch. And again there is zero character depth or development, partly due to the filming technique.

Alright, the monsters are great, good enough to rate all the five stars. If you want to see good monsters, then watch it. The acting is dodgy, the plot minimal, and you just won't care who gets gored because again there is no depth to the characters. If you're plain tired of found footage, give this one a pass.