Frankenstein's Army (Blu-ray) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Hatchet III, Stitches, The Innkeepers Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Creature Spots Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	84:03
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Richard Raaphorst
Studio Distributor	Dark Sky Films Madman Entertainment	Starring	Karel Roden Joshua Sasse Robert Gwilym Alexander Mercury Luke Newberry Hon Ping Tang Andrei Zayats Mark Stevenson
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Reyn Ouwehand

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (2304Kb/s) English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Spanish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

“What is dead may never die”

     Yet another found footage movie you say? Well yes – but this one’s got WWII Nazi reanimated mechanised zombies and a mad professor. Could this be a case of a movie being so bad that it could be good?.

     Dimitri (Alexander Mercury) is a Soviet soldier with a secret mission who is also working for the Soviet propaganda division in supposedly documenting the push of his small unit into Germany. It is the last months of the war and German resistance is crumbing rapidly. The Soviet advance is fast and ruthless and Dimitri struggles to keep filming in difficult circumstances. Another Russian unit has broadcast a distress signal and Captain Novikov (Robert Gwilym) orders his team to attempt a rescue. Along with Dimitri and Novikov are Ivan (Hon Ping Tang), Vassili (Andrei Zayats), Alexei (Mark Stevenson) and Sergei (Joshua Sasse). Arriving at an apparently deserted village the unit find a convent and massacre scene where nuns have been murdered and burnt. Inside the convent are more horrors with the appearance of a mutant creature with arms in the form of a mechanical jack-hammer and drills. “Burnt-Match Man” is only the beginning of more bizarre discoveries as the underground laboratory of Dr. Viktor Frankenstein (Karel Roden) is uncovered. From this point onwards Dimiti’s unit becomes embroiled in a fight to the death with “zombots” constructed by Frankenstein from the corpses of Nazi soldiers fused with various devices. Imagination gone wild is the only explanation for zombots with giant lobster claw hands, metal stilts, mouth drills, spinning propeller heads and the like – all committed to wiping out the Russian soldiers. The plot becomes irrelevant at this point as the Russians become zombot fodder with Dimitri struggling to stay alive, film the proceedings, and thwart the ambitions of Dr Frankenstein.

     With monsters reminiscent of the Silent Hill and Wolfenstein video games Frankenstein’s Army can’t help but charm. The film makers obviously had great fun designing the zombots and the special effects team did a great job in turning that imagination into reality without CGI. The story and acting is total rubbish, but once the mayhem starts there is a lot of fun to be had even if the tension and scares are just not there. How Dimitri manages to keep filming in widescreen colour and surround sound while being attacked by monsters is quite a feat! Director Richard Raaphorst might have been tripping out during production, but he just manages to keep the last half of proceedings balanced between gut shredding violence, and camp gross-out humour.

Video

    The film is coded using MPEG-4 AVC at around 30Mbps and 1.78:1 aspect. As with most “found footage” films it is difficult to rate the video here, and it being a supposedly 1940’s vintage source makes it even harder. There are deliberately induced artefacts aplenty, with burn marks, jumps, jitters, flaring, flecks and lines throughout most of the presentation. There is no evidence of video compression however, which is not surprising given the short length of the feature on a dual layer Blu-ray disc. Shot on 16mm Arri Alexa digital cameras sharpness was never going to be top quality, and so the grainy texture might have been intentional or just a by-product of the production. Colour is very haphazard with greys often having a green hue and skin becoming bluish. For what it is the video can only be scored a pass - not because of any inherent mastering flaws, but because it’s impossible to determine what is intentional and what isn’t.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio options are an English DTS-HS Master Audio 5.1 at around 2400 Kb/s and English LPCM 2.0 at 1536 Kb/s. Listening to the DTS-MA track in entirety it is obvious that Dimitri was a sound recordist par-excellence. There are induced faults to enhance the vintage feel such as pops and crackles but the surround experience is very immersive with accurate and effective directional effects. The LFE presence is very dominant, but at times I thought it was too massive and became obtrusive. When the full mayhem starts there are a lot of industrial effects coming from all directions which adds a lot of fun to proceedings. Dialogue is always clear and easy to understand which makes the bad accent lapses even more noticeable. Audio and video are always in sync. English and Spanish subtitles are available in big clear yellow font which is easy to read and accurate.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

     The menu featured looping audio with background scenes from the movie.

Movie Trailers

     All playing sequentially before the opening menu. HD video and Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256 Kb/s. Hatchet III (1:56), Stitches (2:06), The Innkeepers (2:09).

Making Of.... (32:13)

     HD video and Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256 Kb/s. Raaphorst (mostly speaking in Dutch) with actors and crew talk about the location, sets, and behind the scenes challenges of filming on a low budget. Well worth a look to see the art and special effects design which features predominantly Raaphorst’s own work. Looking at the very realistic prosthetics and how they are melded into the action is a real hoot. Of special interest is the included footage from the director's original test/promo shoot for Frankenstein's Army which is shot using an authentic WWII era style and look.

Creature Spots (0:16 each)

     HD video and Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256 Kb/s. Brief look at five of the main zombots: Burnt-Match Man, Mosquito Man, Propellerhead, Teddy Bear Woman, and Razor Teeth. There is no play-all function.

Trailer (1:58)

     HD video and Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256 Kb/s.

    The Region A release seems identical to this version. You can also get a Region A package which includes three small monster toys.

     Forget about the plot and bad acting. It’s not even particularly scary. The only reason to watch Frankenstein’s Army is to see the zombots. Fortunately these are very well done and are not CGI enhanced. Everything you see is done the old fashioned way – with lots of silicone, wires, fake blood, and ingenuity. The first third of this film is a bit tedious, but once we get to Frankenstein’s lair the fun really starts. Accompanied with a great sound track this is well worth a lazy 84 minutes of your time.

     The video quality is good.

     The audio quality is very good.

    The extra are reasonable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall