My Review Of “Frankenstein’s Army”

“Frankenstein’s Army” is a sci-fi/action, horror blend leaves me a little conflicted. The Richard Raaphorst directed film which features monsters created by a descendent of legendary Frankenstein offers everything a video game/horror fan could ever dream in a live action film. Told in a documentary style the movie creates a first person level of intense action filled with explosions, violence, gore and adrenaline pumping bravado. Soviet military go behind enemy lines to capture the mad scientist, and proof of his rumored experiments for their own purpose. It is a sci-fi war between zombie-Nazi monsters and vicious communist war-dogs. So what about the film left me conflicted?

First in “Frankenstein's Army” , the story is a simple and allows only for testosterone grandeur, devoid of emotion or care for personality. The characters on both sides of this brutal opera are despicable in nature. You want to see the Russians die because essentially they are portrayed as war-mongering, heartless thugs- with no visible humanity. So that puts the uncomfortable light of heroics on seeing the Nazi monsters slaughter these a-holes. Yet Nazis are inherently disgusting reflections of man, so I never allowed myself to entertain that concept of pleasure in watching the creatures kill the soldiers. However something about the way the story was directed lead me to believe the writers and director wanted me to see the Nazis as some antihero, because the Russian soldiers where put in an obviously bad light in the film.  That was conflicting for me. Plus the actors kept slipping in and out of their characters accents. Half the time the hinted toward American or British accents before returning to Russian or German twangs.

There is the opposite side to the film though- The gore and action was killer. The intense, constant atmosphere held my attention the entire film. The monsters where some of the most creative designs I have seen in cinema in a long while, and the special effects pretty much rocked it from start to finish. In the end pretty much every one dies so that was pleasurable to watch-because they all really needed to so I could walk away from the film without feeling dirty for watching something that seemed to glorify the whole Nazi science-occult theme, under the guise of sci-fi-fantasy. I have to note that this is my issue I deal with when watching pretty much any of the Nazi themed sci-fi-horror stuff that has been coming out. I am always focusing on the story’s intent, fearing that the film will over romanticize Nazi fetishism. In a superficial sense I enjoyed the film based on the gore and monsters, but on a deeper level I never connected with the story or the characters, so I didn’t enjoy the film as much as I was hoping to.  I am 50/50 with “Frankenstein’s Army”.