Review of Frankenstein's Army (2013) by Gaspar O — 02 Dec 2013

Frankenstein's Army is an effective, if not always a good found footage horror movie. What really worked in this movie was the monsters that this "mad scientist" creates. They were terrifying, to say in the least.

They're sewn, stapled, clipped together by rotted body parts, have all sorts of mechanical blades, arms, and legs sticking out of them all sorts of ways. I thought they were a very strong point in the movie and one of the reasons to mainly see this movie.

It was amazing, old school monster makeup like the classic 80's horror films. It felt like it payed a sort of homage to classic horror films. I also thought it was executed very good. It starts off by having these World War II soldiers walking around different areas and invading areas and stealing food and supplies and what not, and they continually stumble upon destroyed android-like "soldiers".

They soon find the source of the supposed said "soldiers." When they enter the dilapidated building, you can't but help feel a sense of eeriness and dread all around. They soon find these scary ass monsters running down the halls and hiding behind walls and it honestly scared the hell out of me.

Having be executed by a sense of mystery throughout the entire film, really made the film good. The directing by Richard Raaphorst was also shot very well. It's filmed like a found footage style movie and having the limitations of the one supposed video camera and was still able to capture all of the monsters and violence and the creepy buildings was really surprising how well they pulled it off.

It was really good for what it was limited to and really surprised me. And yet I did have a few problems with it, however. Firstly, the acting and the characters were very one dimensional. There was no development involved with these characters at all, so that just led me to not care much for them.

I'm not saying these relatively unknown actors are bad, they just weren't given much potential to its script, which was also another problem. It was very bland and fell into the cheesy territory quite often.

The dialogue between the characters just borderlined ridiculous sometimes and wasn't believable at all. Another problem was that it seemed to favor drowning the audience in a bit of overused violence at times and heavy blood and gore.

Almost every scene involved someone getting their guys spilled out or blood spilling everywhere. Not that I have a problem with violence, it's just that when movies overuse it at times it's kind of gets repetitive and we sort of become desensitized to it and just get a bit tired of it.

I did enjoy Frankenstein's Army a but and thought it was entertaining but it was bogged down by a ridiculous script, an over usage of violence, blood and gore, and one dimensional characters. But it many redeeming qualities as very good direction, great execution, and terrifying monsters.

Frankenstein's Army is recommended for a good rental night-in.