Overlord, is not despite what its trailer shows, a war movie with horror elements, but a horror movie through and through.
Despite being set on D-Day, and having realistic combat sequence, Overlord also has reanimated corpses, sadistic torture scenes, and unholy science experiments. The mission, which is paramount in all war movies, is an afterthought to stopping the mad scientists, Nazis and their Frankenstein imbued creations. War is the bookends but horror is its creative matter, ink and reason for living and killing.
Accepted for what it is, Overlord is a reasonably well written, slightly revisionist and nicely acted take on its innumerable to list horror sources. Director Julius Avery and writers Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Captain Phillips) and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) manage to set up a story where ridiculousness is topped by even more preposterousness that works. Overlord is a gore and torture hound’s wet dream.
Wyatt Russell, the heir of Kurt, shows up as the mission leader that has the Escape to New York and The Thing gene of dogged determination no matter what the obstacle in his pedigree. It is nice that the son has been watching, paying attention and absorbing his father’s films.
Overlord, with all of it video game layers, manages to get the mission accomplished.
J.J. Abrams talks about Overlord:
(All photos and videos courtesy of Paramount Pictures.)
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