Screenwriters Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) combine warfare with zombies to create a gory though skin-deep horror in which a mission to destroy a radio-barring tower in France on the eve of D-day leads to the discovery of underground Nazi experiments to revive and imbue the dead with superhuman powers capable of enforcing Hitler’s grand plan to rule Europe for a thousand years.

Directed by Julius Avery in only his second feature and co-produced by J. J. Abrams whose recent credits include Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Overlord has a B movie feel with B minus appeal in which explosives expert Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell) and inexperienced paratrooper Private Boyce (Jovan Adepo in his third feature since Fences and Mother), together with French “scavenger” Chloe (Mathilde Ollivier), join forces to defeat the zombified SS officer Captain Wafner (played with snarling glee by Pilou Asbæk).

The action is fast-paced and gore-tastic from the off, with the script like the emaciated bodies of the living dead pared back to the bare bones. It skirts around the edges of exploring how the powerful few control the powerless many (soldiers from poor backgrounds sent like sheep to their slaughter, common villagers “given a purpose” through forced experiments), but works best when utilising the hallmarks of horror. Enjoyable, if forgettable.

Director: Julius Avery
Writers: Billy Ray (screenplay by), Mark L. Smith (screenplay by)
Stars: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier
Peter Callaghan
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