Soldiers of the Damned

If someone were to ask me what Soldiers of the Damned is about all I could think to say is "damned if I know".

Lets start off by saying the acting is good, the sets are good, the general premise of this film is good. Where this B grade film falls down very badly is in the storyline department.

I had assumed as the film progressed the threads would be drawn together and we would gain some insight into the inexplicable events that take place. This however, is not the case. The result for the unfortunate viewer is one of those "what the...." moments. As in, what the hell did I just waste my time watching?

This is an incoherent, borderline silly film. Its watchable but the lack anything like a finale/conclusion is a substantial shortcoming. Four out of ten from me.

Whilst watching this very odd horror movie (taking place on the Eastern Front), I was already pondering the rating. At one stage it was 8 and another stage it went down to a lowly 2 (out of !0). For once i can understand both a terrible response and loving it, reaction. There are so many positives but an equal amount of negatives to. For a start they should have swapped the English actors for authentic German ones and two thirds of the selected, should seriously go back to acting school (In parts it was pretty dire). On the plus side the story (of searching for a supernatural, super race) was involving and interesting (kind of believable to) and there was some exciting, violent battle action. For once I'm baffled on how to rate it, which I guess is a good sign. On a whim just settled on a 6.

1944, Romania. A group of German soldiers is tasked with taking a scientist into a forest that is believed to be haunted.

This movie started well, as a decent war movie. Good action scenes, with a decent degree of accuracy and grittiness. However, over time the movie degenerates from a war movie into a horror movie and becomes at best mediocre. Quite silly towards the end.

A pity. If they had left it as a conventional war movie it could have been pretty good.

Soldiers Of The Damned: Time Slips, Spontaneous Human Combustion, The Occult Section of the SS Ahnenerbe. Yes this film is full of Fortean tropes.

Set in Russia in 1944 the Nazis are on the retreat. The commander of a Wermacht Special Forces Unit has clashed with an SS officer over the execution of civilians, shades of The Eagle has landed, This unit (accompanied by the SS officer) is now charged with bringing a female representative of the Ahnenerbe Institute into a forest behinfd Russian lines on a secret mission.

This is no ordinary forest, it has a reputation of being haunted and a company of paratroopers disappeared there in 1942. Some members of the expedition see runing figures, hear strange voices. An oddly mutilated body is discovered. It becomes clear that a previous mission into the forest following the same orders met with disaster.

Directed by Mark Nuttall, starring Lucas Hansen, Gil Darnell and Miriam Cooke. An effective Horror/Thriller: 7/10.

I was in so much awe of how a movie could be so incoherent and lack any entertainment that I was compelled to see it through. - Mason