OVERLORD REVIEW: War is Hell. War Experiments… are even more dangerous!

When Culturedemandsgeeks found out J J Abrams was producing a horror movie, well, we thought, erm… a PG setting another Cloverfield movie was on the cards?

But gearing up for a night at the cinema, (popcorn fodder in-hand), Culturedemandsgeeks gathered a platoon of enthusiasts and went to watch the new movie.

There really aren’t nearly enough horror movies set during the carnage, mayhem, and inhumanity of World War II, and there are even fewer good ones. Outpost (2008), The Devil’s Rock (2011), Frankenstein’s Army (2013)… and at a stretch Dead Snow the (2009) Norwegian zombie splatter film (it’s a short list).

But…

Fans of the sub-genre will be happy to know, though, that not only has a new one arrived, but that Overlord is also one of the very best.

The Allies are mere hours away from storming the beaches of Normandy (and as History stands, at the beginning of ending one of the bloodiest conflicts the world has ever partaken in), and a secret mission is underway to ensure the invasion is a success. Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell) yeah, the legendary (Kurt Russell’s offspring) drops behind enemy lines alongside his newly assigned squad of soldiers with a single goal — blow up a secret radio tower to help clear the skies for Allied air support.

Climax moments in the first 10 minutes aboard the aircraft from German Anti-aircraft fire leaves the squad down a few men (well, almost all the squadron are dead), but the survivors gather their wits and explosives and head to the small French village that’s home to their target. Private Boyce (Jovan Adepo) is the fresh-face among them, and as this is the first mission.

But once surviving foursome of Boyce, Ford, Tibbet (John Magaro) and war photographer Chase (Iain De Caestecker) who later on in the film has a disturbing transformation! pitch up at their mission destination. They find an ally in a young local named Chloe, an excellent ally (Mathilde Ollivier), but a grim and grisly discovery jeopardizes the mission in unexpected ways.

The damn Nazis are resurrecting the dead, and the horrors of war become more literal with the nightmarish creations of Nazi scientist Dr. Wafner (Pilot Asbæk).

While surviving platoon members hide out in Chloe’s house, played by (Mathilde Ollivier), who is forced to enter into a sexual arrangement with the Nazi officer in order to keep her remaining family, little brother, and seriously creepy Aunt and her life free.

Dr. Wafner (Pilou Asbæk), a man you know is evil because he is a Nazi and he rapes women, but not much else about him. Soon they discover Wafner’s plan to develop secret serums to create thousand-year soldiers needed for the thousand-year Reich.

While Asbæk’s sneering baddie pales in comparison to Inglourious Basterds’ Hans Landa or Pan’s Labyrinth’s Captain Vidal, he still terrifies the bejeezus outta you.

Afterward, most of the film is spent inside Chloe’s house, with characters planning the rest of their mission, dealing with Chloe’s little brother – who has some great comic relief scenes with John Magaro’s wisecracking character.

Eventually, our Band of Brothers have to strike the German encampment and destroy the radio tower, but not before moral compasses are turned, and original orders are disobeyed.

Director Julius Avery takes the real-world horrors of Josef Mengele’s WWII Holocaust experiments to a more terrifying extreme: the Nazis have developed a special serum to reanimate their dead. Either by picking up deceased troopers off the side of the road, or simply kidnapping and murdering the locals, the S.S. has weaponized the villagers of an occupied French town.

Julius Avery also makes the smart choice of presenting the paratroopers as racially integrated. While the casting bucks historical accuracy (the American military was still segregated in World War II), it subtly gives more thematic weight to the film’s narrative.

There is a surprising question’s to be asked: What separates the Allied forces from their enemies when the only way to beat the Nazis is to sink to their level?

One scene depicts, the Corporal tortures a captured S.S. soldier (Pilou Asbæk) for information, nearly beating the man to death, Private Boyce (Jovan Adepo) is the moral compass of the group and a man so innocent and good he couldn’t even kill a mouse, and as stands by and begs his superior officer to stop, but to no avail. The violence is disturbing to the point that it flips the moral compass in play to provocative effect. But it works, showing that even our heroes in this film can be turned into right, awful bastards.

In His Father’s (Bloody) Footsteps: Wyatt Russell has already forged a career much different than his father’s, but Overlord is notable for placing him in what ends up becoming a close-quarters horror movie to The Thing, (a cult classic).

Russell gives good gruff tough-guy grumbling, and the body horror sequences are impressively gnarly.

STANDOUT SCENE OF THE MOVIE:

Watching Boyce’s plane gets shot down and his eventual parachute from the exploding plane, as he tumbles through the sky, rollicking around like an out of control bumper car. He finally lands into a lake. Bound by loose cords and trapped at the bottom, the terrified soldier cuts himself free and floats to the surface, only to wind up entombed within a blanket of nylon, gasping for air. Watching his face emerge under a coat of suffocating white fabric is akin to a baby bursting from the womb as he slits a hole in the surface and takes his first breath. Struggles to dry ground, and the air is thick with fog, and bodies hang from trees illuminated by a hazy orange glow. He eventually finds his platoon leader at the mercy of a German firing squad. It’s intense, and sum’s the general mood of ‘Overlord’.

CONCLUSION:

J.J. Abrams’ House, (Bad Robot Productions) has made an excellent Nazi Monster Movie, which is Intense, ravishing, and surprisingly deep at times, asking questions of our heroes in severe and ultimately dire situations, ‘to help others’ and ‘disobeys orders at the same time’.

Director Julius Avery delivers a fast-paced genre hybrid with deeper questions than one might expect. It’s an exhilarating ride through the tumultuous life of a WWII soldier, amplified by its boisterous sound design, and grounded by intimate, personal performances by Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell.

Yes, this is a B-movie about American soldiers battling Nazi zombies in WWII. But despite some underdeveloped characters and obvious B-movie tropes, “Overlord” goes beyond the call of duty with a fantastic story that digs far deeper than this material usually goes for.

A great cast, great lines, great gore and scares too.

5/5 STARS