Overlord

Overlord is exactly what you see in its trailer. A World War 2 film turned into a what-if Nazi-Frankenstein like experiment gone wild turned into Resident Evil kind of labyrinth thing… or better know as Overlord; a tense, horror espionage film that hits with thrills and entertainment more times than it fails.

Overlord begins as a war film, as we meet the American paratroopers in flight on their way to France led by Boyce (Jovan Adepo) and commanding officer Ford (Wyatt Russell). Their mission is to infiltrate a small French town overrun by the Germans and knock out its communication tower to set up the D-day invasion.

This opening segment is quite remarkable and on par with classic war films as this group of Americans enter French airspace amid heavy artillery, explosions and all out ciaos. The frightened moment is heightened by director Julius Avery’s long take and camera POV as we’re forced to stay inside the heighten moment of survival and deployment.

Upon solid footing, what’s left of the brigade reconvenes and that sets out on their mission with the help of a local French girl, Chloe (Mathilde Oliver), who’s experienced first hand the atrocities that are taking place in her small village.

“Hitler’s thousand year war needs a thousand year soldiers.”

But first it needs test subjects, those dead or those unwilling. These monstrosities of science look like something straight out of Resident Evil, and like that are difficult to kill and come with superhuman strength.

Again, Avery does a good job of setting up this plot device, piece by piece, with no clues and experiences for the audience to enjoy before heading toward its grand climax.

There’s not much here that the trailer doesn’t already give away, yet the characters were believable and for the most part this film played out like a war film until science fiction and horror take its place at the end.

There are parts in the film where suspension of disbelief and intelligence in the German officers is needed but the film is well put together and true to what it presented itself to be.

A war film turned into a Nazi-Frankeinsten movie.   And with the war continuing and Hitler still out there, don’t be surprised to find there’s more to this version of WW2 that we have yet to discover.