Soldiers of the Damned

I have no idea what this movie is all about. It's watchable, but you will be frustrated by it and disappointed as to how it ends. It had potential but fell well short.

This movie is Horrendous. One could not write a spoiler for it because there is no substance to write about in the first place. Script is terrible, Acting is terrible and plot is terrible. What more is there to say. Nothing. I would suggest avoiding this movie like the plague. I am only adding this text after the word nothing because the review was too short.

Soldiers Of The Damned: Time Slips, Spontaneous Human Combustion, The Occult Section of the SS Ahnenerbe. Yes this film is full of Fortean tropes.

Set in Russia in 1944 the Nazis are on the retreat. The commander of a Wermacht Special Forces Unit has clashed with an SS officer over the execution of civilians, shades of The Eagle has landed, This unit (accompanied by the SS officer) is now charged with bringing a female representative of the Ahnenerbe Institute into a forest behinfd Russian lines on a secret mission.

This is no ordinary forest, it has a reputation of being haunted and a company of paratroopers disappeared there in 1942. Some members of the expedition see runing figures, hear strange voices. An oddly mutilated body is discovered. It becomes clear that a previous mission into the forest following the same orders met with disaster.

Directed by Mark Nuttall, starring Lucas Hansen, Gil Darnell and Miriam Cooke. An effective Horror/Thriller: 7/10.

Whilst watching this very odd horror movie (taking place on the Eastern Front), I was already pondering the rating. At one stage it was 8 and another stage it went down to a lowly 2 (out of !0). For once i can understand both a terrible response and loving it, reaction. There are so many positives but an equal amount of negatives to. For a start they should have swapped the English actors for authentic German ones and two thirds of the selected, should seriously go back to acting school (In parts it was pretty dire). On the plus side the story (of searching for a supernatural, super race) was involving and interesting (kind of believable to) and there was some exciting, violent battle action. For once I'm baffled on how to rate it, which I guess is a good sign. On a whim just settled on a 6.

On the surface, the movie seems like a youtube quality fan film made by a group of friends with a good idea. The effect is hilariously bad and ruin the tense atmosphere that the movie desperately tried to build. The pacing is either too slow at the beginning or too fast toward the end once the mystery is unraveled. The story leaves much to be desired since there are plot point that are out of place or completely useless (i.e. the romantic scene). There is an excess of character that are so lack in distinguishing features and personality which made it hard to remember who is who and who mattered. But among the horribly written cast of characters, a few stood out, and that was the reason why I watched the movie for its entirety.

Praises must be given to the actors since they really delivered a strong performance however stereotypical. For example, the stereotypical image of a Nazi commander is of a proud and cold monster in a man skin, with distinctive gestures, head movements, and a almost believable german accent (which is one thing I can appreciate since the everyone have a british accent).

Would I recommend the movie? Absolutely not. However, there is a good chance that if one stumbled across this movie, they might be able to enjoy it at their own leisure.