O Exército de Frankenstein

It took quite a while for Richard Raaphorst to have his first feature length film canned but now we can all enjoy "Frankenstein's Army", which debuted at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film had its world premiere at a sold out screening of the International Rotterdam Film Festival. And at long last the audience had the chance to have a look at Raaphorst's creation(s) in full splendour. I think a lot of horror fans have been looking forward to the debut of "Frankenstein's Army"; we've been teased by some excellent trailers of his "Worst Case Scenario" and when that project got stuck in development hell, artwork and teasers for his new film surfaced.

In "Frankenstein's Army" everything's filmed from a first person perspective, that person being the soldier Sergei, who's part of a Russian squad that is slowly moving further in Germany. He has the task to document the march of Mother Russia into Germany. So yes, you've read it right: this is a found footage film. When the squadron goes further into the countryside some weird skeletons and soldiers are found. When they pick up a radio signal from some comrades the trail leads them to a church / factory and then shits starts to hit the propeller.

The first half builds up slowly towards the second. Starting off with quite some shots of running and some occasional shooting, it gets more interesting when they come up a village where things don't seem right. The part where they start to encounter the first zombots (as Richard has named his creations) almost reminded me of a mix of the video game "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" and more steampunkish elements. Zombots suddenly appear and create havoc amongst the Russians. The second half steps down a bit and offers a better look at Raaphorst's monsters. The encounter of Viktor -the creator of the monstrous nazi soldiers- provides the director to go all out with special effects in the 'laboratory'. This is a place where a gorehound's heart starts beating faster: there are some geeky references, all the monsters and gory effects are real (so almost no computer effects) and that choice pays off. The effects feel real, the zombots are brought to life in a weirdly, wicked way, most of them wearing working mechanical features that gives each of them a unique look.

Raaphorst reaps I was a bit thrown off because of this film being another one in the 'found footage' style. Even though it doesn't bring nothing new to this way of drawing the audience into the film, it is well done: you know you don't get these lame something-was-there-and-now-there-isn't kind of things but you will be treated with some in-your-face gore and great zombots. Also it was hard to get over the accents used by the actors throughout the film, that is always a hard choice to make. Raaphorst his strength is his vision, visuals and details. I expected the film to be a bit more sinister and dark because of the teasers but in the feature itself there is more focus on gore than tension. Luckily he knows his gore and all the effects are really well done. It's great to see his sketches come alive on the big screen and they work well in all their bizarre glory.

I really hope this film will give Richard Raaphorst a chance to create another feature film in which he can explore more of his directional skills outside the found footage genre and is able to provide us another look in his bizarre, creative mind.

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

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?

Another Nazi weird science and hand-held camera movie. So fasten your seat-belts! There's gonna to be a whole lotta shaking going on. This one follows an undisciplined and sometimes comical Russian reconnaissance team as they march, hike, and yeah, stagger and stumble thru German territory trying to get the goods on the Germans for mother Russia. As they progress, they encounter evidence that later becomes horrifying fact that the Nazis are trying to advance there cause with some seriously f!!cked-up science: the re-animation and mechanical weaponization of the dead.

This, Reader, you gotta see. Every kind of scrap, junk or part is imaginatively used in the reconstruction and re-animation of the dead. Now while horrifying, there is also no escaping the comical effect of this. This movie is only scary in the sense that "bizarre killer robots" are after you. It is not scary in traditional creepy and supernatural sense of the dead coming back to life. 2 reasons: The merging of people with metal and mechanical parts "dehumanizes" them you tend to think of them more as "machines". As well, this movie leans towards being an over-the-top dark horror comedy; especially at the end.

Normally I don't like hand-held camera movies or "jerky-cams" as I think of them. However there are exceptions and this is one of them. There is a "real-life or documentary voyeur effect" to these types of movies which is chiefly what distinguishes them (along with the jitters, of course). As well, since the camera person is a character in the movie, it always amuses me that when all hell breaks loose and everyone is scattering and running for dear life, they have to hold there ground and act like the bravest or most reckless person in the world and continue filming or else there's no movie. Sometimes the makers of this type of movie get creative and have the person drop the camera in the excitement of the moment; but note that the camera never stops working and always lands in a position where it can continue filming the action. You gotta love it. Boloxxxi.

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.