FRANKENSTEIN’S ARMY TFF ’13- Movie Review

Well Frankenstein’s Army was an interesting one. I didn’t quite know what to expect when I walked into the theater my first night at Tribeca Film Festival. What I ended up seeing was one of the more original, and messed up, movies I’ve seen in a long time.
Set in World War 2, a group of Russian soldiers are assigned to hunt down Dr. Frankenstein who is working for the Nazi’s to create weapons. But it’s not the weapons you would expect. These weapons are dead bodies, sewed back together with various machine parts, that are killing machines.
But there’s one problem: no one in the troop knows about these machines, except for the camera man, an undercover agent posing as a reporter. Upon their arrival, the “zombots” start appearing, and killing everyone in sight. Graphically. Hostel on steroids graphic. What follows is essentially an hour long blood bath that is entertaining at times, but for the most part, is so cringeworthy it’s difficult in its entirety.
As soon as the director, Richard Raaphorst, came up to introduce the film, we knew we were in for an adventure. You could instantly tell that he had a quirky love with this film, and it was clear that he was proud of the lengths that he went to make a movie that is literally unbelievable and yet looks incredible realistic and possible.
The story isn’t very well fleshed out, but it doesn’t really need to be. You know what to expect from the film about 10 minutes in. There are a couple twists and turns here and there, but for the most part, it’s 90 minutes of gory action porn. If that’s what you are into, then you need to look this movie up immediately. However, if you are a tame movie viewer, you may want to skip this one. I feel like I fall in the middle there, as I enjoyed parts of the gore mixed in with the story, but after about 45 minutes I was over it. Still, I don’t regret seeing the movie, as it certainly had a few entertaining parts, even if they were simply due to shock at times.