Influencer
When discussing weird war films, Frankenstein's Army will always be a part of the conversation. For such a low-budget film, it has a surprisingly wide reach. The director has retweeted threads on Twitter1 criticizing the game studio Capcom for allegedly stealing parts of Frankenstein's Army for Resident Evil Village. No way such a major game would steal from this movie, right? As someone who has experienced both, I'll go on record saying I think Capcom totally did. A zombie with a plane propeller for a head that explodes is a design I can't imagine 2 separate people coming up with.
On a lighter note, when looking for evidence of the whole Frankenstein's Army vs Resident Evil fight, I stumbled across some Frankenstein's Army fanfiction on Reddit. This inspired me to take to Archive of Our Own to truly investigate how far this movie reaches. At the time of writing this post, there are 3 fanfics available (one was even written this year!). Obviously, I read one. In Stealing Them by LittleBitOffanfic, zombots (what the movie calls the zombies) helpfully carry the reader around the bloody bunker, and into the loving arms of Viktor Frankenstein himself. It’s not my cup of tea, but more power to you LittleBitOffanfic. I will be wiping my search history.
Review
Frankenstein's Army begins at the end of WWII with a group of Soviet forces trekking through the German woods. Their goal is to respond to another Soviet distress signal, but instead, they end up in a Nazi bunker surrounded by increasingly strange and dangerous creatures. Videographer Dimitri films it all, the movie is the resulting tape.
What I enjoyed about Frankenstein's Army is its descending nature. We follow the characters deeper and deeper into the bunker, and consequently into hell. This is a one-way trip. Claustrophobic, bleak, and cruel.
The movie makes the best of its slim budget, focusing on the design of the creatures. These “zombots” are made up of (dead?) people and machine parts, and crafted by a descendant of Victor Frankenstein. The practical effects are glorious, highly unique, and scary. I almost want one as a Spirit Halloween animatronic, and I mean that as high praise.
The guts and gore are major. I'm not generally squeamish but yuck. I've seen some people put this into the “extreme horror” category, something I'm generally not into. Frankenstein's Army isn't for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.
In terms of pacing, we get right down to business. Time isn’t wasted and the most is made of the sub 90-minute runtime. It’s a movie that reaffirms my belief that few films should be over 90 minutes.
What I did not love about Frankenstein's Army are the characters. No one particularly stood out to me, and the plot gives you no real reason to care about them. The film’s low budget holds it back visually, truly an eyesore. The found footage aspect may help explain why the movie looks so bad, but it mostly just felt like an unnecessary gimmick.
Overall it's a movie I'm conflicted about. Movies don't have to be beautiful to be good (28 Days Later looks like it was filmed on a Blackberry), but I shouldn't have such a hard time looking at the screen.
Ugly and mean
In my review of The Keep (1983), I consider it to be aesthetically beautiful but flawed plot-wise. Frankenstein's Army is the opposite. The plot and creature design are crazy good, the aesthetic makes me itchy.
The movie is low contrast, washed out, and lacks any visual or audio interest beyond the zombot design. During the movie's first half, I strongly considered turning it off because I was repulsed. This is an overreaction on my part, but something about the aesthetic of this movie really turned me off.
Frankenstein's Army is mean. It's not gory or violent in a fun way, it's borderline cruel. Sporadic bursts of gore have a shocking adrenaline-inducing effect, but a neverending flood of violence only makes me sick. In many ways, it reminded me of French extreme horror movies like High Tension (2003) and Martyrs (2008). Not as sick as those two, but similarly ugly and mean. Not my scene.
Do I think the director wants me to feel every hit, or do they want me to drown in the pain? Is there an endgame to the cruelty? A movie like Green Room (2015)2 has cruel moments and unrelenting violence, but it's got an end goal. I'm rooting for these characters to escape. Who am I rooting for in Frankenstein's Army? I couldn't see an end for any of them that wasn't death.
I guess I'm spending a whole section calling this movie hideous, so who's really the mean one?
Back to business
Would I recommend Frankenstein's Army? I recommend it to war horror fans in the same way I would recommend Jane Eyre to an English major. It's essential reading, but I can't guarantee you'll enjoy it. If it were up to me, I'd point you towards Overlord and Pride and Prejudice instead.
Bonus
Here are some mean double-feature ideas (but I don’t really like any of them either):
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Baskin (2015)
Hostel (2005)
I will not call it X
Someone count how many times I have already mentioned Green Room in Creatures of War