Frankenstein's Army

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")

Okay...

The only reason I watched this movie was because of the recent cover of Fangoria and the article intrigued me. I gave this movie a 7/10 because the POV / found footage concept was far from having the realistic feel to it and the acting was only so-so. BUT! The zombots were pretty frickin' awesome, minus the walking Nazi yoga ball, the female zombot who reminded me of the Oola from Return of the Jedi and the Robo Cop looking one. The gore aspect was very well done, but I'm up in the air on if I will be adding this to my DVD collection down the road. I'll have to watch it again to see how I feel about it the 2nd time around. But that's just me personally.

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.

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.

The only difference between this found footage film and footage that may have actually been taken by a real Russian soldier is that the real Russian soldier probably would have been able to hold the camera without shaking it and would have kept it in focus.

Enough of this found footage technique. If it brings nothing to the storyline, then it's not worth the pain of watching it. To me the filming technique was overbearing and outweighed anything the movie might have been. It is just annoying to watch. And again there is zero character depth or development, partly due to the filming technique.

Alright, the monsters are great, good enough to rate all the five stars. If you want to see good monsters, then watch it. The acting is dodgy, the plot minimal, and you just won't care who gets gored because again there is no depth to the characters. If you're plain tired of found footage, give this one a pass.