REVIEW: Frankenstein's Army (2013)

Director: Richard Raaphorst | Genre: Found Footage / Horror | Runtime: 84 min.

World War II is almost finished and a squad of Russian soldiers are making their way through eastern Germany when they find themselves in a Nazi lab headed by Victor Frankenstein - it's here that "super-soldiers" are being put together with aid from the limbs of dead Nazi comrades. Obviously.

With the onslaught of horror movies these days, it's easy to dismiss most as just "another horror flick", but it's Frankenstein's Army that tries to break that mold - filled with enough gore to keep the usual crowd happy, there's also much more to this movie in terms of visual appeal. Sure, we're all tired of the "found footage" genre and it's a shame director Richard Raaphorst decided to go down that route as it would have been much better shot like a regular movie. 

Instead, we get this annoying shaky camera, which is understandable as to why but makes the viewing experience generally irritating and no one wants that. It's the incredible sets and monster designs that really make this film worth watching - it's definitely not the narrative, the core storyline is bland and doesn't offer much in terms of imagination, that's where Frankenstein's monsters come in to save the day so to speak. 

Each one has something incredibly grotesque about them whether it's the guy who is stitched together with various pieces of human flesh or the Mosquito man, who's equipped with various sharp objects ready to pierce the flesh of anyone who gets in his (its?) way. There are a few twists and turns along the way, nothing that will shock you too much - during the first quarter or so, it's mildly entertaining to see how the Russian soldiers act around each other providing some laughs here and there, but ultimately you'll most likely be anticipating their inevitable deaths from the previously mentioned monsters.

Overall, Frankenstein's Army will keep you entertained just long enough to get that gruesome horror fix, but it's true downfall is the found footage aspect - it doesn't make the movie scary, which I imagine it was intended to do. This bizarre, yet generally entertaining movie stands as a symbolic reminder of Hitler's last desperate attempts at victory towards the end of World War II, let's just hope this never actually happened.

6/10