Frankenstein's Army

First and foremost, I rated this a 7/10 for creature design alone! They are truly unique and remarkable, even if the movie itself falls short. The acting is sub-par and there is no real character development at all. Some of the characters were so disgustingly horrible that I was begging for them to be taken out by the zombots immediately and all but cheered the moment they were.

If you want to see some fantastic creature design, give this movie a try. My husband and I paused the movie several times just to take in the whole creature design aspect. It is entertaining enough from start to finish to warrant a viewing. It's not really thought provoking, but if you are looking for some mindless fun then give this flick a go!

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?

Toward the end of World War II, Russian soldiers pushing into eastern Germany stumble across a secret Nazi lab, one that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

This film comes from a very great starting point -- the idea that Nazis would use mad scientists to do terrible experiments on cadavers. That much is more or less true. Then, to make it horror and not just history, you add in the journal of Dr. Frankenstein. That is a purely genius decision. Even more bonus points for putting the story from the Russian point of view (the group that actually reached Germany) rather than the American, as would be more common.

The creature design deserves top marks. If this was eligible for a costume Oscar, I think it would be a shoo-in. The creatures are some of the most incredible I have ever seen. Sort of like a steampunk Castle Wolfenstein (which seems to have clearly been an inspiration, with this coming across much like a first-person shooter). The overall set design is pretty great, too.

In fact, my whole positive rating revolves around the design aspect, because I would be much more comfortable panning it based on the aspects I greatly disliked. All of these things revolve around the camera -- why was it shot hand-held when it would look better shot normally? How plausible is it that a Russian army team would be filming? Did cameras at that time film that well and not need changing every five minutes? How does the camera -- and its operator -- take such a beating?

So basically, if they had replaced the point-of-view camera with a traditional camera, and scrapped the Blair Witch-meets-Wolfenstein video game thing they had going on, this could have been one of the better horror films out there today. Coming from Dark Sky, a company I love, I am disappointed it did not pass muster.

And, despite the positive rating, I cannot truly recommend it. You really have to see the design, but I would rather not say you have to see the film. Better Nazi horror films exist (from "Shock Waves" to "Dead Snow"). I do look forward to whatever these creature designers do next, though.

During the World War II, a Russian troop in Germany receives a distress call in the radio from a group of Russian soldiers under siege by the Germans with the respective coordinates. The leader Sergeant Novikov (Robert Gwilym) decides to seek out the soldiers through the countryside of Germany. The soldier Dimitri (Alexander Mercury) is filming the troop to make a documentary and while they walk, they find weird bodies, slaughtered nuns in a convent burnt to the ground and open graves in a cemetery. They arrive at a deserted church where they meet a lethal army of undead with implanted weapons and tools. Soon they learn that the deranged but brilliant grandson of Dr. Viktor Frankenstein with the same name (Karel Roden) has a secret laboratory in the church and is responsible for those monstrosities. Further, they discover that their troop has been secretly assigned by the government to find and kill or bring the mad scientist to Moscow.

"Frankenstein's Army" is a campy horror movie with a silly storyline for fans of trash and gore. The creatures are original and funny and there are entertaining and bloody situations. Unfortunately the option for the hand camera as if it were footage upsets me despite the good explanation for its use. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Exército das Trevas" ("The Army of the Darkness")

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