Overlord is a 2018 war horror flick about a little squad of American soldiers find horror behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day.
For fans of the popular Nazi Zombies spinoff from the uber successful Modern Warfare video game franchise, look no further than Overlord. Here we have a film that mixes in a serviceable enough plot for the movie to get by, some jumps and thrills to keep you on your toes, and plenty of action during a shoot em up climax. By no stretch is Overlord a WWII masterpiece, nor is it a zombie fright fest that you’d expect from a Resident Evil type of film. Where Overlord succeeds is by finding a middle ground between the two, making it a rather enjoyable watch.
It’s the night before D-Day in 1941, and a group of American paratroopers are heading into Nazi-occupied France. Their mission – head to a small French town to take out a radio tower located in a church that will otherwise impede the Allies the following day during their massive beach invasion. During their approach to France, they take on heavy enemy fire and are forced to deploy early.
Once on the ground, a small team of survivors regroups, including Private Boyce (Jovan Adepo) and explosives expert, Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell). With the rest of their team they head towards their destination. Along the way they come across a local citizen, Chloe (Mathilde Olivier), who they capture and have lead them to the town. Once there, she concedes that they mean her no harm, and agrees to give them shelter in a house she shares with her sick aunt and brother, Paul (Gianny Taufer).
Upon arriving at the house, the soldiers begin to witness the horrors of the Nazi regime, as they gun down civilians in the street, and the commanding officer, SS Hauptsturmführer Wafner (Pilou Asbaek), comes into the house to rape Chloe. Having seen enough, Boyce stops Wafner in the act, and they take him hostage after knocking him unconscious.
Afterwards, when attempting to reach a rendezvous point, Boyce accidentally winds up going inside the church after hitching a ride on a Nazi truck. Once inside, he begins exploring the site and comes across a communications station and a secret Nazi lab. In the lab he finds all kinds of mutilated human experiments being conducted by a mad scientist, Dr. Schmidt (Erich Redman). He also comes across one of his fellow paratroopers, Rosenfeld (Dominic Applewhite), who was soon to be experimented on. Together they escape back to Chloe’s house and rejoin the soldiers.
Back at the house, mayhem ensues after one of the soldiers, Chase (Iain De Caestecker), is shot by Wafner while attempting to transport him. To save him, Boyce injects Chase with a serum he’d found in the lab that had brought a man back to life. Chase does come back to life, but with superhuman strength and raging temperament. Wafner informs them that Dr. Schmidt had been creating thousand year soldiers for the thousand year war. Shortly after, Wafner escapes and captures Paul, taking him to the lab. It’s now up to the small, rag tag group of soldiers and Chloe to storm the church, knock out communications, and rescue Paul, with the impending D-Day attack growing ever closer.
What’s so unique about this movie is how it has three distinct acts, each with a completely different feel. The movie starts off as a total war flick. Soldiers sneak into an enemy town in the middle of the night, they make their plan of how they’ll accomplish their mission, and we see Nazi atrocities along the way. Just reading that description you might guess that you’re reading a brief synopsis of Saving Private Ryan. The middle act of the movie is mystery mixed with thriller/horror. Boyce sneaks into the enemy base, finds their secret lab, and learns about the horrible human experiments that are being conducted. The whole time director Julius Avery delivers a perfect eerie and creepy vibe that keeps your palms sweating and heart racing. Finally, the climax of the movie is pure action. They storm the base, shoot anything that moves, and treat the audience to some good ole zombie fighting. The unique blend of different tones here works well to provide the audience pure fun and cinematic entertainment.
The acting was a bit of a roller coaster ride. At times I thought actors did a great job delivering believable performances despite the subject matter, and at other time the lines were hard to swallow. Game of Thrones fans won’t be surprised to see Asbaek nail playing an utterly hateable and inhumane villain as SS officer Wafner. Russell I was very back and forth on. He’s the American hero and leader of the group, and it was great to see him rough up Wafner in the middle act. Having said that, he certainly delivered a few cringeworthy lines. And then we had up-and-comer John Magaro who brought some comic relief as the smart-mouthed New Yorker, Tibbet, who develops an unlikely friendship with Paul.
As much as I enjoyed this movie, when hearing the plot out loud, it’s hard to score it higher than 3 out of 5 stars. I have no doubt that there is a portion of movie audiences that this will not appeal to, but if you go in with the right mindset it should deliver exactly what you were hoping for. It certainly has a heavy B-movie vibe to it, but Overlord is all fun, plenty of action, and spares you of any dull moments.