One of the coolest things about the J.J. Abrams produced “Overlord” is that with the slightest of tweaks it could work as a gritty and visceral World War II Picture or a fun old-school horror gorefest. It settles on being a crazy genre mashup full of far more surprises than you would ever expect.
The film begins with a high-powered opening sequence set in the night skies over France. It’s the evening before the D-Day invasion and a paratrooper squad is set to drop behind enemy lines to destroy a German radio jamming tower strategically placed atop an old village church. Director Julius Avery’s camera hones in on Private Boyce (Jovan Adepo) whose wringing hands, bouncing knee, and sweat-soaked forehead give away his nervousness.
German AA guns begin pounding the skies and bullets rip through the hull of the plane killing many of the young troops. Boyce is pushed out into the dark war-torn sky and parachutes to the Nazi-occupied countryside just south of the village. This entire sequence is exhilarating and chaotic, full of striking visual touches and some truly intense sound design. It definitely gets things off on the right foot.
On the ground Boyce is reunited with the small handful of soldiers who survived the drop. Among them is the hard-nosed Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell) and the obnoxious chatterbox Private Tibbet (John Magaro). They cross paths with a French Resistance fighter named Chloe (a very good Mathilde Ollivier) who reluctantly agrees to sneak them into the village where they’ll put together a game plan to take out the tower.
So far everything could pass for a thrilling WW2 film in the vein of “Saving Private Ryan”. But oh how things change when we discover what’s going on in and underneath the church. This will only speak to gamers, but “Overlord” becomes something that would be right at home in the “Wolfenstein” video game universe. I’ll let you discover it for yourself but let’s just say the horror elements you see in the trailer are only the tip of the iceberg. The film has much crazier (and gorier) things up its cinematic sleeve.
“Overlord” is best taken as straight-forward, unbridled entertainment. It doesn’t shoot for much more than that. We see this most in its handling of the characters which we learn practically nothing about. It’s not particularly necessary for the story, but it is one thing that could have given the movie a little more depth. Still the characters manage to have their own unique contributions to the story. For example Boyce serves is the film’s conscience. Ford is the grit. Chloe is the heart. Tibbet is the humor.
While the trailers scream horror, “Overlord” packs just as much period war-time action and suspense. In fact, one of the most welcoming things is how deliberate Avery and co-writers Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith are with unleashing the horror elements. When they do come it changes the movie significantly and that’s not a bad thing. I gotta say I enjoyed the second half’s blood-soaked nuttiness and its commitment to seeing its crazy concept through to the finish line.
VERDICT – 3.5 STARS
keithandthemovies.com 
Interesting!
Not sure if you would like this one. The horror elements become pretty pronounced in the last act. But it is a really cool genre mash-up.
Just watched the trailer and in spite of not liking horror, my love for all things WW2 and flamethrowers wins out! Will defo be doing this!
Awesome! I’ll be honest, it’s not a scary movie so you should be okay. And I think you’ll be impressed with its first half and how intense it visualizes the WW2 setting and combat.
Was fascinates with the cross genre concept but was ultimately disappointed with the end result. 😦 caught this a few weeks ago too.
Didn’t care for it? Honestly I can understand that. That’s one reason I mentioned only seeing it as “straight-forward, unbridled entertainment”. It doesn’t give much incentive to dig very deep. But admittedly I had a good time with it.
Yup. That’s the only way to enjoy it. It wasn’t a bad movie per se but it just wan’t what I was expecting.
For sure. My wife checked out about half-way. Her exact quote…”nope”. 🙂
I’ll probably check it out if it’s on TV though I have to remind myself that it’s not the 1975 Stuart Cooper film of the same name which is a film I think a lot of people should see.
Definitely not that film! 😁 It’s still worth a watch. Not a ton of depth but certainly fun.
I want to see this movie! It screams “Call of Cthulhu” and Lovecraft, which is a good thing on my book! Thanks for the review!
You bet. It’s a surprisingly good time. And there is a lot of visual craft that I wasn’t expecting. You should give it a look.
Really had a fun time with this, I did. I didn’t think the mix of horror and WWII action would work as well as it does here, with more than a few decent scares within. great review!
Thanks man. I gotta say it really surprised me.
I really liked this too. I’m not sure if I would’ve watched it had I not been a huge fan of Iain De Caestecker, but I’m glad I did.
It’s such a crazy genre mash-up that’s better than I ever expected it to be.
This one is a gem. I knew the critics loved it going in but was surprised how much I loved it as a horror fan. I like how you drew the distinction between a war flick and horror. It was totally that.
It was a really nice surprise, wasn’t it? I didn’t know what to expect from it and turned out really pleased by its grit and its appreciation for both the war and horror genres. Anxious to see it again.