Frankenstein’s Army (2013)
The Gist: Toward the end of World War II, a small band of Russian soldiers and a documentary filmmaker, push into eastern Germany and stumble across a secret Nazi lab that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of Dr. Viktor Frankenstein. A new Viktor has used the legendary Frankenstein’s work to assemble an army of super-soldiers stitched together from the body parts of their fallen comrades.
Axis & Allies: Karel Roden (Viktor); Joshua Sasse (Sergei); Alexander Mercury (Dimitri); Luke Newberry (Sacha); Andrei Zayats (Vassilli); Hon Ping Tang (Ivan); Mark Stevenson (Alexei)
My Take: After seeing the trailer for this flick there was some hesitation on watching it – how much sick and depraved human torture and mutilation could I handle? Defiantly as much as this movie had to offer since it wasn’t nearly as graphic or gory as I was anticipating. Honestly, the only time I had to look away was when one of the guys beats a bunny on a table to kill it. That bothered me more than watching the good Doctor poke around with a brain and trim it to fit in its new hosts skull. So, the story is a small group of Russian soldiers and one Polish soldier are searching for comrades when they hear a distress signal and head to the coordinates with the hope of finding their fellow soldiers. They come to a nearly abandoned village and after having some fun, decide to check out the church after stumbling across the burning remains of a pile of nuns. The inside of the church resembles a factory and the group come across a disfigured and mutilated former person that sparks to life when the generator is turned on. It looked pretty cool but also pretty creepy. Sort of reminded me of the nurses in Silent Hill with jerky movements and obliteration of the face.
The soldiers return to village and come across a lone survivor who they torture and demand take them to whomever has created that creature in the church. This is where things gets ugly and scary as the group traverses through a maze like subterranean area and face the monsters at nearly every turn. Things continue on the way you expect in a horror movie where everyone is fodder for a new creation as the soldiers delve into the laboratory and we see more of the monsters along with the discarded pieces of people.
Final Thoughts: I had low but gory and horrific expectations for this flick and the verdict is….I really liked it. The best thing was seeing all the different kinds of creations and monsters because I could separate them from being torture/mutilated humans and just see them as being freaky as hell. It didn’t have unbearable or unwatchable horror or torture (except the bunny, why do movies do that?) and the dismembered limbs and blood weren’t appalling and almost bad haunted house like. That’s kind of what this movie reminded me, going through a haunted house and encountering a shock or monster around every turn or behind every door. The found footage style added to that feel as we watch everything unfold through the camera lens of the filmmaker, Dimitri. Over all, I recommend this one but if you can’t stand moderate gore, exposed brains or bunny murder, skip it but if you can take the moderate violence, go for it!
Dawning Creates 
This was one of my fave films last year! It was like a good old fashioned monster movie with modern trimmings 🙂
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Yes it was. I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did. Defiantly worth a second viewing to see more of the monster factory.
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If you have the dvd, watch the ‘making of…’ special feature – it was fun to see them create these creatures.
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