Released: November 2018
Director: Julius Avery
Rated R
Run Time: 110 Minutes
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Action/War/Horror
Cast:
Jovan Adepo: Boyce
Wyatt Russell: Ford
Mathilde Ollivier: Chloe
Pilou Asbaek: Wafner
John Magaro: Tibbett
Iain De Caestecker: Chase
Jacob Anderson: Dawson
World War II, historically speaking, is one of the most devastating wars fought in history. It’s one of the most fascinating periods in history, because there was a lot that went on during that war that most people probably wouldn’t understand or dream of. It was brutal and cost the lives of hundreds of millions of people, both soldiers and civilians. It is no mistake that when it comes to war movies, World War II is one of the most popular wars to use because there’s a lot of great stories that can be told. Not just real-life stories, of which there are thousands upon thousands, but also when it comes to fictional stories and movies. Some of my favorite movies take place during the 30s and 40s: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan, and Hacksaw Ridge just to name a few. You would think that setting a horror movie during World War II would be easy, considering the actual horrors that took place, but there really aren’t a whole lot of full-fledged horror movies set during this period. So, J.J. Abrams and director Julius Avery bring us Overlord.
Set just prior to the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, Overlord follows a small group of American paratroopers as they are forced out of a plane over France due to high amount of flak cannon fire. Led by Corporal Ford, the soldiers regroup in a nearby village aided by a female French resistance fighter, Chloe. Their mission: To destroy a communications tower in a nearby church so the invasion of Normandy can begin unhindered. They begin to discover that the Nazis are doing a lot more than just jamming communications. It seems the local commander, Wafner, is conducting experiments that have the potential to lead the Nazis to a “thousand-year Reich.” That’s pretty much the gist of the story. It’s actually not that bad, but it isn’t the first film where Nazis are tampering with forces they really shouldn’t be messing with. It is no secret that Hitler and his Nazi thugs had been trying to find really strange ways to win the war, even go so far as to dabble in the occult, so it is no surprise to a lot of people that movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark would have the Nazis scouring the world for religious artifacts exist. Not a lot of them have a lot of basis in reality, but they make for entertaining reading or watching nonetheless. As far as Overlord goes, it’s not the most original film of its kind, but the way the story is handled is pretty interesting, but it takes a little too long before the film really embraces its B-movie roots. It’s a war movie first, horror movie second, and that kind of works against it in a way.
This movie starts off with a bang, literally. The moment the film opens with part of Eisenhower’s address to the troops, it goes directly to one of the planes carrying the 101st Airborne. The plane gets wrecked with flak from enemy cannons and tears the plane and soldiers apart. It’s really intense. After Boyce lands, it slows a bit to where his platoon are trying to regroup so they can finish their mission. But as soon as Boyce infiltrates the Nazi base, things really start picking up. This is a very violent and gory movie. The war violence is realistic enough, especially when people get shot in the face. It’s when you get to the underground lab that the film really goes off the rails…in a good way. The film definitely embraces its bat-shit insanity, but truthfully, I don’t think it goes far enough. Are the soldiers dealing with zombies? There’s really no direct answer given for how some of these corpses are reanimated. We see some of a tar-like substance that seems to be running underneath the church that affects living things in a very….interesting way, but no further explanation is given. On one hand, I love the mystery of that, but on the other hand, not having an explanation forces to take the film at its word. The last act of the film is easily the best part of the movie. It’s just nuts. Nazi zombies and crazed Nazi commanders just wreck things. It’s glorious.
Character-wise, these characters aren’t really unique, and are mostly cardboard cutouts. Don’t get me wrong, the actors really do their damndest to try and make some of these characters relatable, but it’s mostly for naught, with the exception of Boyce, Chloe and Wafner. Those three characters are the real standouts, and the actors are absolutely fantastic. Jovan Adepo is really likable as Boyce and he’s kind of the straight-man to everything that’s going on. Pilou Asbaek almost steals the show as Wafner. Pilou is good at playing villains, as his turn Euron Greyjoy in Game of Thrones is something to behold. He really goes all in, and the film is all the better for it. You can’t really overestimate how evil Nazis are, but Pilou just pulls it off. Mathilde Ollivier is really strong as Chloe, the only female character in the film, but she holds her own with the boys. She’s a serious bad-ass a young woman trying to protect her little brother from Wafner’s cruelty. Wyatt Russell is pretty good as Ford, but the character is kind of a one-note guy and doesn’t really do anything aside from being a hard-ass. Wyatt, being the son of Kurt Russell, does the best he can with what he’s given, but it’s a role that really could’ve been played by anyone.
The special effects in the film are actually really good. A lot of the practical effects are enhanced with some CGI to kind of exaggerate some of the wounds and violence, but considering the film’s B-movie nature, I’m not complaining at all. I prefer practical effects, but having some CGI is not awful. The practical and make-up effects are pretty top-notch. The set designs are pretty good as well, with the underground lab looking a lot like what you might expect a hidden Nazi laboratory to look like: Grimy, dirty, and bleak. Overall, the movie looks pretty good. That being said, the film plays it a little too safe, as it doesn’t really take advantage of its B-movie nature. It really needed to go all out in delivering Nazi zombie carnage, but it pulls some punches when it shouldn’t have. The Nazi zombie carnage that we get is pretty good, as the last act of the film is utterly insane, but more could have been done with this. It’s not a bad movie, by any means, it’s a solid action and horror flick that gets enough right to make it worth viewing at least once.
My Final Verdict: More Nazi zombie carnage, please! 8/10