The last few years have been a curious time for mainstream horror. For one, pretty much every time a major new genre entry arrives, people seem to go out of their way to insist that it is not, in fact, a horror movie, primarily because the film in question is intelligent, nuanced and character-based, and handles genre tropes in an unexpected way. There’s a lot to be said for this approach, and it’s certainly given us a lot of great cinema (much of which, it should be stressed, dates back a great deal earlier than 2015). However, there’s also a great deal to be said for the more ostensibly straightforward, less high-reaching/inward-gazing mode of horror, in which the filmmakers are not quite so concerned with producing unorthodox, challenging fare than they are with just giving us a good old-fashioned roller coaster ride that gets the blood pumping. Happily, despite the rising tide of understated intellectual horror, Hollywood hasn’t forgotten how to make simpler, crowd-pleasing, shits and giggles horror, as Overlord most agreeably demonstrates.
It’s World War II, and we join an airborne US battalion in the run-up to D-Day. Their mission: to help ensure the success of the Allied assault on Nazi-occupied France by destroying a communications tower situated in a remote French village. Following a parachute jump that doesn’t quite go to plan (and one of the most visually striking sequences of its kind you’re ever likely to see), the few surviving soldiers – among them Boyce (Jovan Adepo), Tibbet (John Magaro), Chase (Iain De Caestecker), and their Corporal, Ford (Wyatt Russell) – struggle through treacherous enemy territory in the increasingly vague hope of achieving their goal and getting out of there alive. However, once they reach the Nazi-riddled village that plays host to the tower in question, it becomes apparent that the occupying forces are up to something even more sinister than your standard war atrocities; some sort of horrific human experimentation which just might help the Third Reich succeed in establishing their new world order.
So we see, from its premise alone, Overlord is pretty far removed from the predominant high profile/high brow horror movies of recent years. After all, nothing screams ‘low brow’ with quite such relish and exuberance as a Nazi zombie movie. While this subgenre dates back decades (to the likes of Shock Waves and Oasis of the Zombies), it’s been particularly popular in the 21st century, entries ranging from the sublime (the Dead Snow movies), to the ridiculous (also the Dead Snow movies), to the somewhat less memorable (the Outpost movies, plus a slew of microbudget, supermarket bottom shelf DVD titles). However, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t recall any big budget Hollywood Nazi zombie movies until now. Kind of surprised it’s taken this long, really; and while JJ Abrams isn’t exactly the first name you’d associate with Hollywood horror, his track record as a producer, most notably the Cloverfield series (which, it seems, this film was initially intended to be part of, until The Cloverfield Paradox appeared to kill off the loose franchise earlier this year), it’s not surprising he’d recognise the mainstream potential of the concept. Abrams also has a knack for recognising relatively untested directorial talent (i.e. Matt Reeves and Dan Trachtenberg on the two good Cloverfields), and brings another good ‘un to the forefront on Overlord in director Julius Avery, who proves himself more than a dab hand at high octane action and shock horror.
Billy Ray and Mark L Smith’s script cannily follows the example of the likes of Predator, and perhaps also The Descent, by fully immersing us in a world of more grounded horror before bringing anything other-worldly to the table. For pretty much the whole first half of the film, Overlord is played more or less as a straight World War II movie; a glossy, clearly heavily fictionalised one, for sure, but a comparatively straightforward military thriller nonetheless. In this time we get to know the characters, in particular central solider Boyce; with another comparative newcomer, Jovan Adepo (who I had no idea was English until looking him up on IMDb just now), getting the chance to shine. The young actor does a great job as an anxious, inexperienced yet principled newcomer to combat, who, it’s made clear from the start, needs to prove himself. Obviously, the audience knows their tropes and knows he will prevail, but Adepo brings a vulnerability to the role which makes him easy to root for, and worry about. By contrast, Wyatt Russell – at last getting a role that his father Kurt might have played in his prime (not that it ever feels like stunt casting, by contrast with just about everything Scott Eastwood’s ever done) – has a much shadier character in Ford, never entirely trustworthy and all the more compelling for it.
Given that, as mentioned, we live in an age of socially conscious horror, not to mention an era of somewhat extreme sociopolitical unease, much could be made of the fact that this film takes on Nazis; with a black guy leading the fight against them, no less. While I’m certainly not against overt social commentary in genre cinema, I have to say I was rather relieved to see Overlord take a leaf out of Night of the Living Dead’s book by never making an issue of its lead protagonist’s ethnicity. As regards the Nazi angle, Overlord certainly goes to lengths to ensure there’s no question who the bad guys are, but it would be a stretch to suggest the film directly reflects contemporary neo-fascism. Any way you cut it, though, not since Inglourious Basterds has a large scale mainstream production taken such glee in sending Nazis to spectacular deaths, with gore, bullets and flaming explosions aplenty. The fact that this spectacle also incorporates living dead super-soldiers, often with freakish deformities in the vein of Re-Animator, only makes it all the more irresistible, even if – as is inevitable for a modern day blockbuster – there’s a little more digital trickery involved than old school gorehounds might prefer.
With its spectacular action, visual panache and frenetic pace, Overlord will doubtless be quite the calling card for Julius Avery (rumours are already linking him, however tenuously, to a Flash Gordon reboot), and one certainly hopes it will lead to more work for its talented cast, with credit also due to Mathilde Ollivier’s tough female lead and Pilou Asbæk’s wonderfully hissable villain. But irrespective of what comes next for any of them, the cast and crew of Overlord can be proud of producing one of the most enjoyable R-rated B-movie horrors to come out of the mainstream for some time, which will doubtless be a Friday night favourite, to be accompanied with beers and pizza, for years to come.
Overlord is in UK cinemas on Wednesday, 7th November, from Paramount.