Overlord Review

Score: 7/10

Directed by: Julius Avery

Written by: Billy Ray, Mark L. Smith

Starring: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, Pilou Asbæk

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Julius Avery’s war-time horror borrows heavily from the works of Clive Barker and David Cronenberg but manages to retain enough individuality to stand on its own two feet.

On the eve of D-Day, paratroopers of the 101st Airborne division, on a mission to take down a Nazi radio tower from a church, are forced to frantically disperse as their transport plane comes under heavy fire. Finding themselves scattered, the paratroopers struggle to reform in the darkness of the Nazi-infested French countryside; with only a group of four men surviving to advance on the objective. As they near the church, however, the soldiers begin to realise something is terribly wrong and the horrors of war will be the least of their worries.

It’s fair to say the characters are fairly generic stereotypes: the mission-obsessed sergeant with a troubled past, the morally-led raw-recruit outsider who becomes our hero and the evil, scenery-chewing SS officer all feature here. This isn’t necessarily a criticism. It’s a safe choice, one that works and allows the film to concentrate on facets more important to the genre. And anyway, who doesn’t love watching Pilou Asbӕk chomp his way through the scenery?

First-rate performances ensure the unimaginative character writing never really becomes a problem; with standouts from Asbӕk, Ollivier and Adepo being anchored by a solid supporting cast throughout.

The muted colour palette and almost gothic architecture of the French village – where a good portion of the film is based – lend a kind of haunted house vibe to the majority of the film. Only once we enter, the laboratory constructed under the church – a relatively small part of the movie – do we discover a hue of fluorescent reds, greens and that signature Lovecraftian aesthetic.

Not utilising that gruesome body horror the film promises more, may seem like an odd choice. But for me, it worked really well. Allowing the film to build slowly to these moments made them all the more shocking and horrific when they did happen and gave the movie a palpable chill factor. An unusual phenomenon in this genre of film.

Tonally, Overlord is an interesting film. What begins as a full-blooded war movie exploring the horrors of war, soon becomes a full-blooded horror movie set during the war. There is a very subtle but very definite shift from the one to the other. During a scene in which the soldiers make a disturbing discovery in the woods near their objective, the war movie ambience dissipates, leaving horror to take over.

The result? A solid body-horror movie with a Cronenbergian, Barker-esque, Lovecraft inspired atmosphere, that’s more than capable of holding its own. Yes, it sounds messy, and it kind of is, but it is bloody good fun.

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