I first learned about this movie when I saw the preview on my Hatchet 3 DVD, and I was instantly dying to see this movie. After weeks of waiting, I stumbled across a copy of it at Target and didn’t even think twice about throwing it in my basket. As a fan of Dark Sky Films, I was fairly certain this movie would not disappoint, and I was right. I love the whole World War II mechanical zombie monster making Nazi mad scientist premise.
The whole “found footage” thing made me really iffy at first, because usually I cannot stand “found footage” films. In this movie, however, I didn’t mind it. I think the main reason it didn’t bother me was that the “shaky cam” was limited to a few scenes where it made sense. Honestly, at some points, I even forgot it was a “found footage” movie, because it was so well done. There was, however, a bit too much splatter cam for me. (I’m jumpy and I flinch every time)
I like that this movie had a bit of a build up, instead of just suddenly dropping in the crazy “monsters”. It starts out with just normal dead bodies, which isn’t surprising in a war. Then comes the first body with only a few mods, who I’m assuming was a failed experiment, and this one catches your attention and makes you begin to wonder. Then at the church comes the first “monster”, and all hell breaks loose.
I noticed a few subtle nods to the original Frankenstein story, which I really loved, because if you’re going to use the name of one of the original monsters, you have to at least give some kind of acknowledgement to that story. The first one that I noticed, was the dug up graves to use the stolen bodies in the Doctors experiments. The second one was actually only a few seconds later, and I didn’t even notice it the first time I watched the movie. This second one was the fallen church steeple covered in lightning rods and wires. The last one that I noticed towards the end of the movie, was the “monster” that, in my opinion, was very reminiscent of the “Bride of Frankenstein”.
Overall this movie was very well done. It’s got an interesting storyline that keeps you interested. I think the best part of this movie is, by far, the “monsters”. I had to watch a second time almost immediately, just to get a better look at all the different disturbing “monsters”. My favorite “monster” was a tie between the “Bride” and the propeller creature. The teddy bear monster was extremely creepy. I can’t say it enough, but the SFX in this film blew me away.
