Guest Blog: The Weirding Dead – Author Jamie Russell’s Top 10 Strangest Zombie Movies
Debi Moore
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Frankenstein’s Army (2013)
What’s scarier than a zombie? A Nazi zombie, of course! But what’s scarier than a Nazi zombie…? Dutch commercials director Richard Raaphorst reengineers the classic Fascist ghoul into a crazy man/machine mash-up in this bonkers found footage WWII horror. When a Soviet platoon stumble across a secret factory, they discover Nazi scientist Viktor Frankenstein (Karel Roden), grandson of the infamous Baron, creating “zombots” – weird, steampunk living dead cyborgs that look like they’ve escaped from an Otto Dix painting. One walks on stilts like a human spider; another wears a huge diving helmet like a Big Daddy from videogame BioShock; a third has an aircraft propeller in lieu of a head. By the time Dr. F goes truly nuts – trying to meld Fascist and Communist brains together, crying, “I can end the war by creating a new being!” – Frankenstein’s Army delivers on its midnight movie promise.
The Frozen Dead (1966)
More Nazi zombie mayhem: This time Dana Andrews plays German scientist Dr. Norberg, who’s hiding in England and experimenting with an “instant freeze” technique to resurrect frozen Nazi corpses. As the Third Reich fell, 1,500 of the Nazi Party elite where cryogenically frozen and stashed in caves in Germany, France and even Egypt, waiting to be resurrected. Fortunately for us, Dr. Norberg’s technique leaves a little to be desired. All he’s revived so far are lobotomised automatons in Nazi uniforms: One constantly bounces an imaginary ball, another repeatedly combs his hair. The most dangerous is the doctor’s own brother (played by Edward Fox; yes, that Edward Fox), who exhibits a desire to strangle anyone who gets too close. It adds up to not a lot, although there’s fun to be had with a wall of severed zombie arms and a decapitated head in a box. Take that, Gwyneth Paltrow.
