Frankenstein's Army

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Movie
German title Frankenstein's Army
Original title Frankenstein's Army
Country of production Netherlands , USA , Czech Republic
original language English
Publishing year 2013
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Richard Raaphorst
script Chris M. Mitchell ,
Miguel Tejada-Flores
production Todd Brown ,
Nick Jongerius ,
Daniel Koefoed ,
Greg Newman
music Reyn Ouwehand
camera Bart Beekman
cut Aaron Crozier ,
Jasper Verhorevoort
occupation

Frankenstein's Army is a Dutch-American-Czech found footage - horror movie from 2013, whose director Richard Raaphorst has taken over. Scriptwriters are Chris M. Mitchell and Miguel Tejada-Flores . Karel Roden , Joshua Sasse and Robert Gwilym can be seen in the leading roles .

action

The film is set towards the end of World War II . A Soviet reconnaissance group receives an emergency call from other Soviets that would lead them further into Germany to follow. The message keeps repeating itself without you getting an answer to your queries. At the same time as receiving this message, the group loses radio contact with their commanders. Although the group disagreed about the existence of other Soviet troops in the region, their commander orders Novikov to answer the call. A Soviet propagandist, Dmitri, films the mission, interviews the soldiers and documents their progress.

As they approach the given coordinates, Dmitri notices some strange occurrences and films them. For example, the path leads you past dead Nazis, strange skeletons that look as if they are half human, half machine, a burned-down monastery full of massacred nuns and strange machinery. When the soldiers arrive at their destination, they find an abandoned church that is guarded by a "zombot" ( Zom bie Ro bot er), an undead with metal implants . The zombot kills Novikov, after which Sergei takes the lead. The hot-headed Vassili challenges his authority, but the others in the group support Sergei.

When a janitor enters the church, he is interrogated by Dmitri, but Vassili becomes impatient and tortures the man for information. The caretaker leads them into a trap of the zombots and escapes. The surviving soldiers flee deeper into the catacombs , where they meet some surviving Nazis.

In the midst of the carnage, Sergei discovers that Dmitri has deceived her: the emergency call was just a ruse by Dmitri, who had also blocked the radio signal. Dmitri demands that the others join him on his secret mission. He wants to capture or kill the Nazi scientist who created the zombots. Angry that they were deceived and led into this mission unprepared, the soldiers threaten to kill Dmitri. But after threatening their families with retaliation, he still takes command. When Dmitri leads them deeper into the catacombs and they encounter increasingly bizarre incidents, the troop mutinies and they leave Dmitri after throwing him down a shaft.

Dmitri explores the main laboratory, but is discovered by the zombots and knocked unconscious. When he wakes up again, he is a prisoner of the caretaker who claims to be Dr. Viktor Frankenstein turns out to be a descendant of the original Victor Frankenstein . This created the zombots and turned as an apostate against the Nazi rule. Dmitri tries to recruit Frankenstein, who does not want to commit to defection. Instead, Frankenstein suggests an experiment that he says will end the war: putting the brains of captured Sergei and a Nazi officer together into one whole. Dmitri does nothing to save Sergei, who swears revenge on him. Frankenstein continues to experiment with Dmitri, but planes bomb the laboratory and the last surviving Soviet soldier, Sacha, shoots Frankenstein. Sacha takes Dmitri's camera and flees just as the composite body of Sergei comes to life and kills Dmitri.

production

Director Richard Raaphorst took the inspiration for the film from the fears of his own childhood. As he pondered ideas for a monster movie, he recalled his own disquiet about the Frankenstein story. So he took these and expanded them to include World War II. He said he found the idea of ​​a Frankenstein Army in World War II so attractive because the idea was so "insane." Raaphorst had previously worked on a film called Worst Case Scenario , which should also feature zombots. However, this film was never released due to financial difficulties and Raaphorst stated that the films had nothing to do with each other.

Filming began in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic in March 2012 . Although the film used Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), most of the effects were depicted in real life. For example, stuntmen were actually set on fire, which required long, complicated individual shots. He took inspiration for this approach from John Carpenter's film The Thing from Another World . Raaphorst said he had doubts about the procedure while filming, but in the end it worked.

publication

The film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 26, 2013. It was released on July 26, 2013 in the USA. It was released on DVD in Germany on September 24, 2013 , shortly after its DVD release in the USA on September 10, 2013.

Reviews

So far, the film has won over 63 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics (out of 19 critics in total, as of October 17, 2018), which gives a rating of 5.6. Scott Foundas from Variety concluded that “with this found footage horror thriller, director Richard Raaphorst will appear on Hollywood's radar.” Stefan Dabrock from Filmstarts awarded 3.5 / 5 stars and summed up: “Richard Raaphorst sets in his found footage film on absurd ideas, with the help of which he not only gives the madness a fitting face, but also satirically drives the Nazi superhuman ideology to the pathetic extreme. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Frankenstein's Army . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 139910V). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Haleigh Foutch: Richard Raaphorst Talks FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY on Blu-ray, Directing His First Feature Film, Designing the Zombots, the found footage format, and More. In: Collider. September 19, 2013, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  3. ^ A b Q&A with Frankenstein's Army Director Richard Raaphorst. In: Daily Dead. November 9, 2013, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Brad Miska: It's Official: 'Frankenstein's Army' Is Filming! In: Bloody Disgusting. March 5, 2012, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Brad Miska: 'Frankenstein's Army' To Premiere At 42nd International Film Festival. In: Bloody Disgusting. December 17, 2012, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  6. ^ John DeFore: Frankenstein's Army: Film Review. In: hollywoodreporter. July 26, 2013, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Frankenstein's Army: Ascot Elite surprises with unabridged FSK 18 release. In: Scary Movies. July 17, 2013, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Brad Miska: 'Frankenstein's Army' Dated For Home Video and Jam-Packed With Extras. In: Bloody Disgusting. August 7, 2013, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Frankenstein's Army In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  10. ^ Scott Foundas: Film Review: 'Frankenstein's Army'. In: Variety. July 17, 2013, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Stefan Dabrock: Critique of the Filmstarts editorial team: Frankenstein's Army. In: film starts. Retrieved November 9, 2018 .