Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'War of the Dead'

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“War of the Dead”

In the seemingly endless mutations and permutations of campy, low-budget zombie movies, “War of the Dead” (due out on DVD Tuesday) offers up a fairly unusual twist. It’s a straight-up, largely un-ironic action movie featuring a ghoulish army of flesh-eating Nazis.

Shot in Lithuania (reportedly the most expensive movie ever made in that country), the film took nearly eight years to complete. It was originally titled “Stone’s War” and featured James Van Der Beek in the title role. But after many delays and major cast changes, it was finally completed in 2007 and, due to financial difficulties, its initial release was delayed until 2011.

Directed by first-time Finnish filmmaker Marko Makilaakso, the story is set during World War II on the Soviet/Finnish border and follows American Army Capt. Stone (Andrew Tiernan) and his platoon on a mission to locate a bunker held by the Germans. In the course things, they uncover the remnants of an abandoned Nazi medical experiment designed to kill captured Russian soldiers and then reanimate them as “undead” Nazi warriors.