The best way to describe Frankenstein's Army is "An H.R. Giger fever dream". And that's putting it lightly. This movie is chock full of blood, guts, monsters, and everything a horror fan could ask for. And it's all conveniently wrapped up in a brilliant homage to Frankenstein.
Frankenstein's Army may be a found footage movie, but there were multiple times in the movie where I couldn't tell at all. The camerawork is very professional and almost never suffers from the "shaky cam" disease that most found footage movies have. That may have something to do with the fact that the main character is a professional cameraman that was hired to record a squad of Russian soldiers on their mission to find a Nazi scientist and capture him.
This movie is absolutely perfect. The acting is spot on, the horror is terrifying (this is the first found footage movie that actually had a scary atmosphere instead of just cheap jump scares), and the plot is incredibly original, while still staying true to the Frankenstein story that it was inspired by. The only thing that I have to complain about is that I would've much more preferred if the actors actually spoke in Russian with English subtitles instead of putting on those obviously fake heavy Russian accents over English words. But then again, that's just a tiny nitpick.
Now then, let's move on to the main attraction of this movie: THE MONSTERS! Good Lord, these are some of the most terrifying abominations that I've ever seen in any horror movie. The man who thought these things up must have done so from inside his asylum cell, because these things are absolutely horrifying. They managed to put together just the right mixture of machinery and dead human flesh to make each one of the monsters as shockingly gruesome as possible. You'd think that machine parts and dead skin would not be very original, yet each one of these things is extremely unique. I gotta give major props to the creature designer, these monsters are incredible! Just have a look at some of these terrors!
It's like if Razorsharp from DC Comics and Josef Mengele had an illegitimate love child.
Somehow, removing that scary shark face and giant hammer made it MORE scary.
I'm feeling some strange feelings right now.
I.....I got nothin'....
"Let's see, people are scared of dentists' drills, and mosquitoes. LET'S COMBINE THEM!"
It's like if Isaac Clarke from Dead Space went to see that back-alley robot surgery guy from Futurama.
Third Down! Blue! 24! Blue! 24! Down Set! HUT!
Jesus Christ. These monsters is what really makes this movie. And they're not even the freakiest part! There's one part where the main character discovers the doctor's study and in the middle of the room is a glass cube. Inside of that glass cube?
*sobs* I WANT MY MOMMY!
Good f*cking God. And that's just a still picture! Imagine seeing the full scene, with the bear's arms and legs moving and the head's mouth slowly mouthing the words "Help me"! It's been a VERY long time since a scene in a horror movie has been able to creep me out this badly.
Anyway, Frankenstein's Army is a terrific movie, even if it uses the found footage cop-out. I give it 9 life-scarring teddy bear/human hybrids out of a possible 10. I highly recommend you check this one out. It's bloody, it's disgusting, it's compelling, it's terrifying, and all in all, it's everything a horror fan could ever want in a movie about a mad scientist who takes dead body parts and sews them together to make new zombie people!
I just finished watching Frankenstein's Army, one of those nights I couldn't get to sleep and was scanning the movie channels and a movie that guarantees I will not sleep at all! Holy Zombots! I agree 100% with your review, a horror fan must see! And yes, the teddy bear with a woman's head was one of the craziest scenes I've seen in a long time too! I almost called my mommy, but a call about something like that at 2am and she would be at my door with one of those home drug test kits!
ReplyDelete