Frankensteins Army

Plot

During World War II, Russian soldiers on a reconnaissance mission receive a distress call that would lead them further into Germany. The message seems to repeat without any response to their queries, and at the same time that they begin to receive the message, they lose radio contact with their command. Although the others are dubious about the existence of other Russians in the area, Sgt. Novikov orders them to investigate. Dmitri, a Soviet propagandist who is filming the mission, interviews the soldiers and documents the proceedings. As they draw closer to the designated coordinates, Dmitri takes an interest in and films several odd occurrences, such as unexplained dead Nazis, a burnt convent full of massacred nuns and strange machinery. When the soldiers arrive at their destination, they find an abandoned church guarded by an undead person with metal implants; the film calls these creatures zombots in the credits. The zombot kills Sgt. Novikov, and, after they destroy the zombot, Sergei takes charge. The hotheaded Vassili challenges his authority, but the others back Sergei.

When a caretaker enters the church, Dmitri interrogates him, but Vassili becomes impatient and tortures the man for information. The caretaker promises to lead them through the church's catacombs to the captured Russian soldiers, but he instead leads them into a zombot trap and escapes. Overwhelmed, the soldiers flee deeper into the catacombs. Along the way, Sergei discovers that Dmitri has deceived them. There never were any Russian troops; the distress call was a ruse by Dmitri, who was also responsible for jamming their signal. Dmitri reveals himself as a captain and demands the others join him on his secret mission to capture or kill the Nazi scientist who created the zombots. Furious that they were deceived and led unprepared into this mission, they threaten to kill Dmitri, but he takes command after threatening their families with retribution. As Dmitri leads them deeper into the catacombs and they encounter increasingly bizarre aberrations, the soldiers once again mutiny and abandon Dmitri, who enters the main laboratory alone.

Amid the carnage, Dmitri encounters a live Nazi officer, who screams as the zombots collect him for harvesting. Curious, Dmitri explores further, only to be captured and knocked unconscious by the zombots. When Dmitri wakes, he is a prisoner of the caretaker, who reveals himself to be Dr. Viktor Frankenstein, a descendent of the original Victor Frankenstein. Dmitri attempts to recruit Frankenstein, who seems noncommittal about defection. Instead, Frankenstein proposes an experiment he says will end the war: fusing together the brains from Sergei, whom he has captured, and the Nazi prisoner into one whole. Horrified but unwilling to antagonize Frankenstein, Dmitri does nothing to save Sergei, who swears his revenge. When the composite being shows little sign of life, Frankenstein abandons it and moves on to experimenting on Dmitri. Before Frankenstein can proceed, Soviet forces carpet bomb the laboratory, and Sacha, the only surviving member of the Russian soldiers, shoots Frankenstein dead. Sacha takes the camera from Dmitri and flees with Frankenstein's head just as the composite being made of Sergei's body comes to life and kills Dmitri.

The film ends on a photograph of Sacha with Joseph Stalin.

Cast

Production

Stories of Frankenstein's monster disturbed director Raaphorst as a child. When he was thinking of ideas for a monster film, he instantly went back to the Frankenstein mythology, which he extended to World War II. Raaphorst said he was drawn the idea of an army of Frankensteins in World War II specifically because the idea was "insane". Principal photography began in March 5, 2012 in the Czech Republic. Twitch Film reported that it finished filming on the week of March 30. Although the film used CGI, most of the effects were practical; for example, stuntmen were set on fire. The practical effects necessitated what Raaphorst described as long, complicated single takes. He said it was worth it in the end, though he experienced doubt during shooting when he became ill.

Release

Frankenstein's Army premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 26, 2013. It was released in the United States on July 26, 2013. MPI Media Group and Dark Sky released it on home video on September 10, 2013.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 67% of 18 critics gave it a positive review; the average rating was 5.6/10. Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score, rated it 49 out of 100 based on nine reviews. Scott Foundas of Variety wrote that the film is "short on plot and long on ingeniously gruesome creature designs and practical special effects that hark back to the industrious 1980s schlockfests churned out by the likes of Frank Henenlotter and Stuart Gordon." Foundas also compared the film's "junkyard chic" to the steampunk films of Shinya Tsukamoto. John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film's monsters and gory special effects will appeal to horror fans, but it should have focused more on black humor and satire to appeal to broader midnight movie audiences. Andy Webster of The New York Times described the monsters as steampunk cyborgs and wrote, "Narrative depth may be in short supply, but the energy, invention and humor are bracing." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club rated it C− and called it "a ludicrous World War II horror flick bogged down by its found-footage gimmick" that only works near the end when the film plays up the "imaginatively grotesque monsters". Jason Jenkins of Dread Central rated it 3 out of 5 stars and called it "a fun, furious, goofy and gory good time" for forgiving horror fans. Lauren Taylor of Bloody Disgusting rated it 1.5 out of 5 stars and said that the visuals and effects did not make up for the lack of a plot and unnecessary "found footage" style. Bill Gibron of PopMatters called it an "an amazing steampunk splatter fest" whose visual imagery makes up for its narrative faults.