“Every Soldier Must Face Their Demons”
Directed by Julius Avery
Starring Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Gianny Taufer, Pilou Asbæk and Iain De Caestecker
On D-Day, a US Paratrooper squad is shot down en route to destroy a key radio tower. Surviving the drop and Nazi forces on the ground, Privates Boyce (Adepo), Tibbet (Magaro) and Chase (De Caestecker) regroup under the driven veteran Corporal Ford (Russell) and attempt to complete the mission, with the aid of local scavenger Chloe (Ollivier).
When Boyce opts to protect Chloe from the sleazing of Nazi commandant Wafner (Asbaek), the squad stumbles on a laboratory extracting some kind of serum which transforms the dead into superpowered mutants. Boyce rescues another paratrooper, Rosenfeld (Dominic Applewhite), but Wafner escapes, leading to a desperate raid to rescue Chloe’s brother Paul (Taufer) and destroy both the radio tower and the lab.
What’s wrong with it?
Overlord is a movie without many surprises to those of us steeped in its particular subgenre.
The relatively small cast means that the threat of death to each individual is limited.
What’s right with it?
The low-profile cast do excellent work with a minimalist script and fairly stock characters, giving the movie its necessary energy. The biggest name is probably Asbaeck (Game of Thrones’ Euron ‘Smasher’ Greyjoy), who once more turns in a brilliantly hissable turn.
The effects work – mostly practical make-up and prosthetics, to look at it – is top drawer stuff.
WWII flamethrowers are an underused piece of history, and they are well used here as the means of purging failed experiments, living or dead.
How bad is it really?
I’m not sure that Overlord adds anything substantial to the canon of WWII horror movies, but if you’ve somehow missed a whole load of the preceding entries in the genre – as I somehow have – then it’s not a bad place to start. It walks the line between the darker aspects of the war movie and the cathartic splatter of horror.
Best bit (if such there is)?
The moment when Chloe goes from survivor of the Nazis’ horrors to vanquisher by strapping on a flamethrower to burn away their abominations is a real standout.
What’s up with…?
- There’s a part of me that wants to question whether there were integrated units in WWII, but all in all I figure representation is good. There weren’t zombie superhumans either.
Ratings
Production values – The film stands on solid use of practical effects, and some particularly gruesome makeup. 8
Dialogue and performances – A largely unknown cast bring a gritty punch to Overlord which enlivens a decent, but unremarkable script. 9
Plot and execution – Overlord knows better than to overcomplicate a simple concept, and follows its throughline plainly enough. 7
Randomness – Like most movies in which zombies or similar monsters occupy the turf of another genre, the whole concept of Overlord is rooted in randomness, and yet it plays true to its own lights. 4
Waste of potential – Could this film have done something more with its concept? Possibly. Could it have been much worse? Definitely. 10
The Bad Movie Marathon 
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