Army of Frankensteins

If you stumbled across Army Of Frankenstein's and are expecting something like Schindler's List you are going to be disappointed. However, if you take into account for what this is (a ridiculous low budget C grade horror flick), you should get some enjoyment out of this. A mad scientist experiment goes awry when a bunch of Frankenstein like creatures and everyone in the room get transported back in time to The Civil War. Army Of Frankenstein's is campy, gory and action packed cheesy fun that plays it loose with history. The acting is not great, but if it was I would have probably enjoyed it less. For a movie like this, to be entertained is all you can ask for. Some movies fail to do that. If you don't believe me, try watching Trump Vs The Illuminati. Let me know how that works out for you.

I'm not gonna waste your time with the standard review of how laughably bad this movie is, but the costume person should have done a better job with the facial hair, it's the funniest part of the movie.

Within the first few minutes we can see the less stellar caliber of acting and production. Nearly everything is made for ironic purpose, either it's intentional or not. There's so much exaggerated premise and clumsy delivery, it's hard to take the movie seriously and even as parody it can barely register any response, aside from a few chuckles when the film delivers terribly out of place scenes where you can't help but slightly grin.

The plot is a jumbled mix or time travel and a bunch of sci-fi gimmicks, none of these really fascinate. Actors are often cringe-worthy in their performance, although the lead may be funny since he looks adequately like a normal guy. Characters are variety of unsuitable personalities with jarring costume and hairdo, or just simply over the top misinterpretation of the era. Even it plays with historic and scientific backdrop, the film has no accuracy in either aspect. I guess it's a tad optimistic to hope for those.

It will get worse towards latter half, if one can make it pass an hour of characters waddling on a random field and tons of gibberish. The effect is abysmal, literal green screen mess. It has slightly lengthier runtime than most movies but there's really not much it has to offer. You might find some amusement, but it's recommended to invest time elsewhere.

My quick rating - 5,7/10. Very ambitious and fun filled horror comedy. The writers/creators wanted to hit all genres in full swing and did a fantastic job on a shoe string budget. Good humor, nice gore when needed, hokey action on purpose, this is b-budget quality that should be seen. Enjoyable and I will be keeping this one for later viewing. I make my picks on people to watch, and very rarely am I wrong (last one was the Soska Twins) so keep an eye on Ryan Bellgardht. Aside from some serious camera issues (more the effects really) the quality is quite good. Got distracted at times by the multiple Frankensteins being all hazy, but minor gripe. Enjoy if you can find it.

Army of Frankensteins is a nice B horror film, shot in Oklahoma and recently released on DVD. Running time is 108 minutes, MAYBE a bit long but not really, as most films today, I've noticed, approach the two hour mark in length.

If you are a fan of Back to The Future, Night of the Living Dead, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, or maybe even another B offering from a few years ago, Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula, I am reasonably certain you will like this one. The story line is simple and far-fetched enough to be great fun: a young man and an even younger boy are thrown back into time 150 years, right into the thick of the American Civil War. To stretch credibility even further, an "army" of Frankenstein clones are produced to combat the "bad" monsters, all created by a greenish serum brought from the future. The goals of our heroes are to 1. Assist in helping the North win the Civil War 2. Make it safely home to the 21st century, and 3. Meet their ancestors. Do not assume any of this is necessarily in that order.

You do not a need a detailed critique of this film for several reasons, the main one being, this is a low budget B film and should be judged as such. It is grossly unfair to compare such a film to higher budget, Hollywood productions and I hate to see that when it happens, which is, sadly, pretty often. Also, I do not wish for you to know too much more about plot and story. As they say in show business, "Leave 'em wanting more," and so I shall. Instead, I offer comments and my impressions of what is a fun film to watch.

The young boy who played Igor, Christian Bellgardt, stole the show. I am certain his father, writer/director Ryan Bellgardt, did not plan for that, but what a nice surprise for both of them. Young Bellgardt has a future in acting, and I hope he stays interested enough to pursue it.

Oklahoma horror legend John "Count Gregore" Ferguson has a fairly small but important role as the mad scientist, Dr. Tanner Finski. Many years ago, Mr. Ferguson's career path took a turn towards Oklahoma, and here we see what might have been . . . if. John Ferguson could easily have been John Carradine, and it was good to him in a substantial screen role, one he handled very well.

The special effects were pretty good. I liked the occasional use of filtered lens for a rose tint look in spots, and Solomon's (portrayed by Rett Terrell) arm cannon was very enjoyable. The story was meaningful and poignant at times, campy and fun at other times. The beard on the villainous Confederate officer resembles a large piece of steel wool and the scene where the soldier caught a cannonball and threw it back the other way reminded me of an old Republic serial I viewed many years ago. Dialogue was embellished and over the top in a fun way in places, but the underlying theme of the entire story was the young boy Igor's loss of innocence for many reasons not of his own doing.

The story creators toyed around with what I will call, for lack of a better term, a combination alternate/revisionist history of facts pertaining to that era. You will have to view the film to see what I mean. All in all, they stayed true to history, within context of a fiction story.

I am hoping Mr. Bellgardt will add a director's commentary audio to future releases of the DVD.

You may learn more about this film on Facebook. Look for the Army of Frankensteins page.