Aux

"Soldier Of War" is a great microbudget fright flick that embraces all the familiar tropes and thrills British horror has always provided. The story is too original, but it is creative, and intriguing. Instead of the unknown furry beast in the woods, the film brings in an undead killer still locked into the war that created him. It is both zombie and slasher.

The cast offer above par, sometimes compelling performances. Some scenes trip up a bit and the dialog gets clunky, but most of the time the delivery and chemistry is spot on. The story becomes exciting due to the presence of some talented actors and one lethal killing machine. Even with the overall product seeming formulaic and familiar, Adams offers a great semi-indie fright flick.

Overall I recommend "Soldier Of War". It isn't your typical zombie movie. It rests comfortably between classic and contemporary horror. The special effects, for the most part, is practical bloody awesomeness. Now there are elements that are recognizable in other films, but none of that encombers this flick, which starts of with bloodletting and maintains that level of carnage till the bloody end.

Aux otherwise known as Soldier of War is an independent British horror movie, but one which badly suffers from mediocrity and incompetence.

You see Aux is really poorly made, awfully structured, dreadful sfx, naff creature effects and a mediocre cast. They swung above their weight on the budget they had, a point I'm often making that badly needs to stop.

To make up for the lack of budget they use a time tested method, namely not showing us what we want to see and hiding the antagonist away with selective camera angles. This makes the whole thing look cheap and nasty, because it simply is.

John Rhys-Davies looks out of place here, he's simply too good for this movie. He does however have a long history of acting in such roles which raises questions, is he "Paying back to the industry that made him"? alike people like Robert Englund? I mean this is the man who got fired from Sliders (1995) for criticizing the scripts, I highly doubt he's impressed with the writing in all these dreadful b-movies he pops up in.

What saves it to a degree is the concept. It tells the story of an undead soldier who has risen believing that the country is under attack by the Germans, thus a bloodbath ensues. Truth be told I liked this and the more that comes out about the soldier and the entire situation it gets better.

Great ideas, poor execution.

The Good:

John Rhys-Davies

Neat concept

The Bad:

Stock scream

Poor cgi

Some ropey acting

Suspense, thrills, excitement, not in this film. I am sorry to say this is one of the worst films I've ever seen. The script was unbelievable, in the sense it was not remotely plausible and just shockingly bad. Despite having some good actors involved it appears they couldn't manage to breathe any life into this dreary film. The failure to develop any characters to any meaningful level meant there was no attachment to any of them. This lead to a lack of any feeing of suspense or any interest at all in their fate. It was a struggle to watch this film. I wasn't squirming with fear of a supernatural psychopath but of a fear it would never end. A good premise but very poorly executed.

This has no redeeming features at all, from first couple minutes you know how bad this is going to be. Two boys in forest one tries to shoot rabbit from 4 yards and misses target hitting metal post 2/3 foot higher up. Gun didn't appear to be shaped like a banana ! Next they go down a secret trapdoor with a torch, hold on there are two paraffin lamps alight but nobody mentions them or appears to see them. It goes on like this getting worse and worse. Whom ever directed this has too much money and not enough ability

Aux is low budget movie and it shows: there are too many scenes where people do nothing but talk, the special effects are pretty lame and the locations are mostly exteriors (a wood).

Yet, I found it weirdly likeable: it's surprisingly well acted, the core concept is good (despite some illogicalities) and the zombie has a moving backstory. Overall it's a small project that gives its best and certainly not the worst WWII zombie movie out there.