Film Review: Overlord

Well, that was a pleasant surprise.

I was honestly going into Overlord with a little apprehension. The trailer was rather tacky, the conceit of Nazi zombies is pretty well torn territory, and despite the insistence of producer, J. J. Abrams, leading up to the release that it is not a part of the Cloverfield franchise, I couldn’t help but feel that the film was potentially hiding something that could’ve overcomplicated its seemingly simple story.

That story being one about Boyce (Jovan Adepo), who is a paratrooper taking part in a mission led by Ford (Wyatt Russell) to destroy a German radio tower before the D-day invasion. However, things take a turn when Boyce discovers a lab under the tower where the Nazis are performing mysterious experiments on the locals.

To my surprise, the Abrams mystery box is really nowhere to be found. The film is as simple as it seems. We meet the characters, they’re given a mission, they find out a seedy truth (you know, aside from the general Nazi stuff), and with the help of a friendly local, Chloe (Mathilde Ollivier), they work together to stop the Nazis. That’s it.

I was initially unsure of what to make of it, wondering if the film needed the Cloverfield connection to give it some semblance of substance or overall significance because it can be considered hollow, but to my delight, I was so engaged and entertained by it that I didn’t care if it didn’t have anything grand or interesting to say other than “killing Nazis is awesome!” The simplicity ends up working to the film’s benefit, and it’s clear director, Julius Avery, and writers, Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith, understand that its thrills are best experienced lean, mean, and with a lot of visceral nastiness.

It’s a kind of film you generally don’t see in the mainstream anymore. If this movie was described to me, I would imagine something with less than half its $38 million budget, and a limited theatrical run before unceremoniously hitting On Demand services where most of its audience will dig it up over a period of time until it builds a cult following among horror fans. Instead, it’s a mid-budget studio release hitting theaters nationwide featuring the kind of actors and production values that indie filmmakers would kill for. All those resources being given to a genre film that’s as splattery and weird and unapologetically straightforward as this is rare for a project that has zero roots in comics or any other pre-existing IP (though, it could easily have passed as Call of Duty: Zombies – The Movie, and easily become the best video-game movie ever made) in today’s market, and the fact that this even got made is so refreshing that I’m more than willing to overlook its lack of depth.

What also helps the film is the fact that it moves at a breakneck pace, and it’s filled with actors who are likable and know how to keep a straight face. Jovan Adepo is a compelling and empathetic lead, Wyatt Russell continues to show just how much of his father’s charisma he inherited, and even supporting players like John Magaro, Iain De Caestecker, Pilou Asbæk, and Bokeem Woodbine, among others, get to throw a lot of personality into the kind of archetypes you’d typically see in a men-on-a-mission style war movie.

And on that note, it is worth pointing out that while it is an overall effective genre bender, it does lean more on the WWII action end than it does on the zombie horror end (although, it’s less “zombie” and more super-soldier serum gone bad, but whatever). That could be a deal breaker for anyone coming in for the hopes of seeing countless Nazi zombies being slaughtered, but that isn’t quite what you’re going to get. If you want that, go see the two Dead Snow movies because frankly, they can’t be topped, and I’m glad this film wasn’t focused on that, and instead leaned more onto the idea of a standard WWII movie that just so happened to bump into a gory exploitation movie. If you’re willing to roll with that, you’ll have a good time.

It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve seen a modest genre film being given the blockbuster treatment without forcing it to act as some kind of advertisement for sequels, spin-offs, or a cinematic universe. It makes the film feel like something that would’ve come out over a decade ago, making it feel out of place coming out in the current Hollywood landscape, but I’m honestly here for it. I had such a blast with this film. I liked its characters, it’s handsomely put-together, the action is delightfully gruesome, and features top notch practical blood splatter and makeup, and it goes by with a quick pace. Avery’s 2014 debut, Son of a Gun, was solid, but not necessarily impressive, but he handles himself well here. If this becomes a hit, I hope studios learn that audiences are willing to come out for projects that aren’t based on pre-existing IP, especially if they’re as well made, and deliver exactly what they promise. It may not be a film that will blow you’re mind, but it’s focused, tight, and it gets the basic fundamentals that a lot of modern blockbusters have lacked, and could really learn from.