** A note ahead of the review proper: this film contains sequences and depictions of extremely over-the-top gore and violence. **
'Frankenstein's Army' is a new entry in the Military/Sci-Fi/Horror genre set from the historical perspective of a small Soviet Army reconnaissance unit and presented as a found footage affair based on the dark deeds of a fictional character from classical literature. Few films in present memory have combined so many genres and sub-genres into one block of cinematic story telling. But has doing the aforementioned benefited or detracted from the overall effort? I suppose that is the question to be answered by the viewer.
The filming method itself is of the shaky cam variety, which some viewers will find issue with off the bat. The movie opens with a brief self introduction from one of the characters who provides explanation for why he will be filming the battlefield exploits of his comrades. The premise is functional enough, but when a writer must blatantly reveal through a character the reasoning for said character's actions I feel that something is missing from the plot. Show us my good man, do not tell us.
Act one follows the combat exploits of a squad of Soviet soldiers during the final push into Germany, as they reconnoiter far ahead of the main Red Army. If you've ever seen a war movie, or a military horror, you know the drill. Here we have the standard sniper, machine gunners, greenhorn, radio man, grizzled sergeant, etc. From the actions of the said recon squad we glean that these handful of men of war have been fighting for far too long as even their leader seems perched on the ragged edge of sanity. One scene finds the men chasing chickens, rousting peasants and donning ladies' dress. Sort of an amalgamation of 'Kelly's Heroes' and 'The Outpost'.
Of course, as in all found footage films of late, the troops do not appreciate the constant filming of their exploits, and so in turn constantly berate and threaten the cameraman. Again, we've seen this before, and so it came off for me as a bit tiring.
The actions sequences are good enough for the budget. The weapons, uniforms, equipment and tactics are all historically accurate enough to make us believe, but the actors who played the soldiers fell over so many times throughout their running from foxhole to foxhole that it was obvious they were not used to the weight of the packs on their backs nor the weapons in their hands.
Act two finds our brave recon squad entering a small villa dominated by an ancient church on a mission to rescue another Soviet unit. It is here that the film veers into both the Sci-Fi and supernatural realms, and I must hand it to the film's creators that 'the reveal' is well done.
The creatures are incredibly well envisioned, well realized on camera and quite horrific. Throughout act two the suspense and action builds to the point where it seems no one will survive for a final act. I must point out that act one really never introduces us personally to any of the main characters, which is a shame because more than one of them seem interesting enough to want to get to know and to root for.
Act three rolls around to find some members of the squad K.I.A. and the overall situation much more dire, and then after a final action sequence, we are left with the perspective of but one of the characters. By the time we see again the rest of them, we will have had to guess what they were up to in the interim.
Act three is also where this film devolves into some serious depravity and needless splatter punk gore. All that we had needed to know about the monsters had been showed us in the previous acts, and we darn sure could have imagined the rest of the horror show ourselves without the film showing us every gruesome bit as it does.
I live for horror/Sci-fi/Military films, but I must admit that I found the level of gore needless and a bit stomach turning. Too much visualized desecration of the human form is never a good thing for a film or novel, and here we get it fed to us over and over from scene to scene until it becomes cartoonish and finally sickening.
Overall 'Frankenstein's Army' is a good entry into my favorite genre, and I could have scored it an eight or nine out of ten for awesome creature design alone. However, the buffet of needless gore soured my stomach - something that does not happen often. Thus I must subtract three or four points from my review score.
I can recommend this film only to very mature audiences, as a child or teen ought to never partake in this kind of cinematic gore and graphic depravity.
5/10 stars ...
'Frankenstein's Army' is a new entry in the Military/Sci-Fi/Horror genre set from the historical perspective of a small Soviet Army reconnaissance unit and presented as a found footage affair based on the dark deeds of a fictional character from classical literature. Few films in present memory have combined so many genres and sub-genres into one block of cinematic story telling. But has doing the aforementioned benefited or detracted from the overall effort? I suppose that is the question to be answered by the viewer.
The filming method itself is of the shaky cam variety, which some viewers will find issue with off the bat. The movie opens with a brief self introduction from one of the characters who provides explanation for why he will be filming the battlefield exploits of his comrades. The premise is functional enough, but when a writer must blatantly reveal through a character the reasoning for said character's actions I feel that something is missing from the plot. Show us my good man, do not tell us.
Act one follows the combat exploits of a squad of Soviet soldiers during the final push into Germany, as they reconnoiter far ahead of the main Red Army. If you've ever seen a war movie, or a military horror, you know the drill. Here we have the standard sniper, machine gunners, greenhorn, radio man, grizzled sergeant, etc. From the actions of the said recon squad we glean that these handful of men of war have been fighting for far too long as even their leader seems perched on the ragged edge of sanity. One scene finds the men chasing chickens, rousting peasants and donning ladies' dress. Sort of an amalgamation of 'Kelly's Heroes' and 'The Outpost'.
Of course, as in all found footage films of late, the troops do not appreciate the constant filming of their exploits, and so in turn constantly berate and threaten the cameraman. Again, we've seen this before, and so it came off for me as a bit tiring.
The actions sequences are good enough for the budget. The weapons, uniforms, equipment and tactics are all historically accurate enough to make us believe, but the actors who played the soldiers fell over so many times throughout their running from foxhole to foxhole that it was obvious they were not used to the weight of the packs on their backs nor the weapons in their hands.
Act two finds our brave recon squad entering a small villa dominated by an ancient church on a mission to rescue another Soviet unit. It is here that the film veers into both the Sci-Fi and supernatural realms, and I must hand it to the film's creators that 'the reveal' is well done.
The creatures are incredibly well envisioned, well realized on camera and quite horrific. Throughout act two the suspense and action builds to the point where it seems no one will survive for a final act. I must point out that act one really never introduces us personally to any of the main characters, which is a shame because more than one of them seem interesting enough to want to get to know and to root for.
Act three rolls around to find some members of the squad K.I.A. and the overall situation much more dire, and then after a final action sequence, we are left with the perspective of but one of the characters. By the time we see again the rest of them, we will have had to guess what they were up to in the interim.
Act three is also where this film devolves into some serious depravity and needless splatter punk gore. All that we had needed to know about the monsters had been showed us in the previous acts, and we darn sure could have imagined the rest of the horror show ourselves without the film showing us every gruesome bit as it does.
I live for horror/Sci-fi/Military films, but I must admit that I found the level of gore needless and a bit stomach turning. Too much visualized desecration of the human form is never a good thing for a film or novel, and here we get it fed to us over and over from scene to scene until it becomes cartoonish and finally sickening.
Overall 'Frankenstein's Army' is a good entry into my favorite genre, and I could have scored it an eight or nine out of ten for awesome creature design alone. However, the buffet of needless gore soured my stomach - something that does not happen often. Thus I must subtract three or four points from my review score.
I can recommend this film only to very mature audiences, as a child or teen ought to never partake in this kind of cinematic gore and graphic depravity.
5/10 stars ...