I never thought about it, but Saving Private Ryan would have been scarier if zombies were involved. Overlord successfully merges a zombie movie with a war movie to create something completely terrifying and fresh at the same time. Turns out the Nazis really were even more terrifying than we thought…
It’s the day before D Day, and the Allies need a radio tower in northern France taken out. So a battalion sets out to destroy it, led by corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell) and sergeant Rensin (Bokeem Woodbine). After parachuting out of their plane, the battalion gets separated, with only Ford, Boyce (Jovan Adepo), Tibbet (John Magaro), and Chase (Iain de Caestecker) left to assault the tower, which is inside of a church. With help from a local French woman Chloe (Mathilde Ollivier), the soldiers attempt to break into the church unaware what the German scientists and general Wafner (Pilou Asbaek) have been working on.
With zombies involved, there was a worry that the serious material Overlord is engaging in would be swallowed by stupidity. However, director Julius Avery and writers Billy Ray and Mark Smith make sure this movie is always grounded in the war playing out around the soldiers. What makes Overlord stand out though, is because of the zombies, the entire movie can be shot like a horror film. It’s amazing how this idea has never been floated for a war movie before, because it fits so, so well. The deserted French town is a perfect place to do some “fear of being caught” sequences. Torture porn could not be more applicable, obviously. The infiltration of the church leads to the reveal of the grotesque imagery that will propel the third act, revealing the grisly cost of fighting dirty; it’s amazing how a movie can become fresh by merging two cliches from different genres into a genre hybrid, but here we are. The best directorial addition to Overlord is the first person camerawork. The opening sequence is simply terrifying, as we see a plane get repeatedly shot and we are thrust with private Boyce out of the plane and are spinning to the Earth with bullets, metal, and bodies flying in every direction. Then there’s a scene where we follow a character frantically navigating through a collapsing building. My mouth was wide open, wondering how the hell someone could think clearly during that situation, a testament to how well crafted the sequence is.
Character development isn’t paramount in a zombie World War II film, but there’s enough there to keep us invested and watching. Private Boyce is basically our hero, and Jovan Adepo does a good job selling us Boyce’s empathy and naivete. Adepo also makes us believe Boyce’s transformation into a hardened warrior by movie’s end. Wyatt Russell, who I mostly know as a pot smoker, get’s to play a battle hardened sumuva b*tch in corporal Ford. He and Boyce get the most shading, conflicting over how far each is willing to go to battle the Nazis. Our one lady Mathilde Ollivier gives Chole a similar resolve to Ford, surviving the Germans as best she can during these awful times, while still caring for her family. Finally, General Wafner is clearly an awful guy, but there’s enough ingenuity and sinister devolution that makes him a truly terrifying villain we love to hate.
I think Overlord was released a month too late; this would have been a stellar pre-Halloween release, capitalizing on the horror audience primed for something cool and interesting. I do hope it finds an audience now though, because Nazi zombies are more terrifying than anything that came out this Halloween anyways.