ARMY OF FRANKENSTEINS (2014)
Label: Scream Factory
Release Date: September 1st 2015
Region Code: A
Duration: 109 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Ryan Bellgardt
Cast: Raychelle McDonald, Christian Bellgardt, Rett Terrell, Eric Gesecus, Jordan Farris, John Ferguson
Slacker Alan Jones (Jordan Farris) is down on his luck these days, his horny aged landlady who wants the overdue rent but the guy's just spent his savings on an engagement ring for his girlfriend, who might just be cheating on him with her manager at the grocery store, at least that how it would appear to be at first glance.Having just witnessed her mouth-to-mouth with her manager Allan suspects the rumors might be true and storms out of the store only to be beaten senseless by a group of thugs who were hired by the pint-sized genius Igor (Christian Bellgardt), who brings him back to the lab of mad scientist Dr. Tanner Finski (John Ferguson), who subscribes to the stories of the fabled Dr. Frankenstein, if you re arrange the letters of Dr. Tanner Finski you will unravel a rather unsurprising anagram.
Dr. Finski and Igor want Allan to be a part of the experiments to re animate a creature made from body parts harvested from corpses at the graveyard, and they need Allan's apparently keen eye sight to complete the creature. Once they have plucked his eye they insert it into the creature and begin the process of re generation and re animation but something goes awry and somehow they rupture the multi-verse and the trio and hundreds of clones of the Frankenstein monster are hurled back through time to Virginia in 1864 amidst the Civil War, with the multiple monsters now threatening to change the course of human history, the trio must work together to save the world.
This low-budget movie starts off with a fun set-up with a good mix of b-movie charm and young love comedy, rather silly but fun stuff. Once the trio are sent back through time we get some fun steam punk type hi jink as Allan meets-up with his Civil War era ancestor Solomon Jones (Rett Terrell) who fights for the North and his love interest Virginia (Raychelle McDonald). Somehow the Southern soldiers get a hold of the Finski's re animating agent and before too long they have their own version of a pro-slavery Frankenstein, not to mention a Were-Cat of sorts and more silliness ensues.
About half way through this I started to become a bit fatigued by the overly long and convoluted twists and turns of the movie, but I didn't hate it. There's some good gore gags with multiple heads being popped like over ripe tomatoes, heads being ripped off the neck by the monsters and some digital effects that while they weren't fantastic were entertaining, there's a lot of green screen compositing throughout, a few shots rendered more believable than others. The cast of the movie is competent, everyone seems to know exactly what kind of b-movie they're making here and bring just the right amount of camp to their respective roles. Aside om some minor gore this feels more like a movie for the kiddies than for hardcore horror fans, say along the lines of Spy Kids or Shark Boy and Lava Girl.
While I commend the makers of the movie for stretching their budget and making a science fiction-fantasy stream punk adventure hybrid film I cannot see myself re visiting this one anytime soon, this is a one and done viewing for me. The disc from Scream Factory is near bare bones with only a trailer for the movie, no making-of or commentaries are included. Oddly, this non-collector's edition Blu-ray gets a slipcover somehow, while so many other more notable releases have not, which is a bit of a head scratcher. 2/5
Director: Ryan Bellgardt
Cast: Raychelle McDonald, Christian Bellgardt, Rett Terrell, Eric Gesecus, Jordan Farris, John Ferguson
Slacker Alan Jones (Jordan Farris) is down on his luck these days, his horny aged landlady who wants the overdue rent but the guy's just spent his savings on an engagement ring for his girlfriend, who might just be cheating on him with her manager at the grocery store, at least that how it would appear to be at first glance.Having just witnessed her mouth-to-mouth with her manager Allan suspects the rumors might be true and storms out of the store only to be beaten senseless by a group of thugs who were hired by the pint-sized genius Igor (Christian Bellgardt), who brings him back to the lab of mad scientist Dr. Tanner Finski (John Ferguson), who subscribes to the stories of the fabled Dr. Frankenstein, if you re arrange the letters of Dr. Tanner Finski you will unravel a rather unsurprising anagram.
Dr. Finski and Igor want Allan to be a part of the experiments to re animate a creature made from body parts harvested from corpses at the graveyard, and they need Allan's apparently keen eye sight to complete the creature. Once they have plucked his eye they insert it into the creature and begin the process of re generation and re animation but something goes awry and somehow they rupture the multi-verse and the trio and hundreds of clones of the Frankenstein monster are hurled back through time to Virginia in 1864 amidst the Civil War, with the multiple monsters now threatening to change the course of human history, the trio must work together to save the world.
This low-budget movie starts off with a fun set-up with a good mix of b-movie charm and young love comedy, rather silly but fun stuff. Once the trio are sent back through time we get some fun steam punk type hi jink as Allan meets-up with his Civil War era ancestor Solomon Jones (Rett Terrell) who fights for the North and his love interest Virginia (Raychelle McDonald). Somehow the Southern soldiers get a hold of the Finski's re animating agent and before too long they have their own version of a pro-slavery Frankenstein, not to mention a Were-Cat of sorts and more silliness ensues.
About half way through this I started to become a bit fatigued by the overly long and convoluted twists and turns of the movie, but I didn't hate it. There's some good gore gags with multiple heads being popped like over ripe tomatoes, heads being ripped off the neck by the monsters and some digital effects that while they weren't fantastic were entertaining, there's a lot of green screen compositing throughout, a few shots rendered more believable than others. The cast of the movie is competent, everyone seems to know exactly what kind of b-movie they're making here and bring just the right amount of camp to their respective roles. Aside om some minor gore this feels more like a movie for the kiddies than for hardcore horror fans, say along the lines of Spy Kids or Shark Boy and Lava Girl.
While I commend the makers of the movie for stretching their budget and making a science fiction-fantasy stream punk adventure hybrid film I cannot see myself re visiting this one anytime soon, this is a one and done viewing for me. The disc from Scream Factory is near bare bones with only a trailer for the movie, no making-of or commentaries are included. Oddly, this non-collector's edition Blu-ray gets a slipcover somehow, while so many other more notable releases have not, which is a bit of a head scratcher. 2/5
