Overlord is not what I was expecting. Based on the trailers, I expected a goofy, over-the-top horror/comedy in the vein of Evil Dead 2 or Demon Knight. Instead, the closest comparison that I can make is From Dusk till Dawn. Not in terms of plot, but in the sense that this is basically two different movies that switch somewhere around the halfway mark. This is part war movie and part horror movie, like what would happen if the plot of Resident Evil suddenly happened halfway through Saving Private Ryan. And, fortunately, both halves work pretty damn well. Overlord is the best Resident Evil movie ever made and it isn’t even a goddamn Resident Evil movie.
It’s World War II on the eve of D-Day and our heroes are a bunch of paratroopers tasked with destroying a communications tower in France to disrupt Germany’s response to the invasion. Once they reach the tower, they discover that the Germans have been tinkering with the creation of zombies (the thousand-year reich will need thousand-year soldiers, as they say). Basically, the Nazis are Umbrella (the evil company from Resident Evil) and the paratroopers are STARS (the military team from Resident Evil). Not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but it’s a lot like Resident Evil.
The most surprising thing about this film is the tone, as this was far more serious than I expected. That’s particularly true in the first half, which features some of the best war footage that I have seen in a while. The opening scenes of the paratroopers attempting to fly into occupied France while other planes are being blown up and people are being shot to pieces are shockingly well done. I was not expecting this movie to have more visceral and dramatic war footage than freaking Dunkirk, but this shit is pretty brutal. It doesn’t reach the bloody chaos of the opening of Saving Private Ryan, but this movie takes this far more seriously than what I expected from a zombie flick. It also takes the time to establish that these characters are just kids that were thrust into this after receiving their draft letters, which makes it even more impactful when they get mauled by machine gun fire. The movie continues as a straight war film for quite some time as the soldiers find a brutalized French village and plan their attack on the tower. I was starting to forget this was even a horror movie at one point and, frankly, I would have been just as happy if it continued without the supernatural elements. Minus the second half, the movie could have been a great adaptation of Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.
Once the horror elements do kick in, the film shifts gears but I give the writers a lot of credit for making the transition less jarring than it might have been in less capable hands. The zombie movie portion is a bit weaker than the war movie portion, but its still quite strong with solid monsters, a good amount of gore and a bastard of a main villain (more on him in a moment). The finale even features an escape sequence that is right out of a Resident Evil game. I hope the people at Capcom and Sony are taking notes on how to make a Resident Evil movie that doesn’t suck donkey balls.
As for performances, the main characters are solid but not remarkable. For a cast that I barely recognize, these are some great performances that make you feel bad when somebody gets shot by a Nazi or eaten by a zombie. My only issue is that these characters are, for the most part, fairly unremarkable. There aren’t any traits or quirks that make them stand out (unlike the Gecko brothers from From Dusk till Dawn), which makes it even more impressive that the actors are able to carry the first half of the film with relatively little to work with. There are two standouts, though. Mathilde Ollivier is amazing as the main French villager, a young woman who has seen most of her family killed and has been sleeping with the Nazi leader in exchange for keeping her little brother alive. Again, this character and performance are seemingly ripped from a far more serious film. I’m not familiar with Ollivier, but I’m looking forward to seeing more performances from her because holy shit do you feel bad for this character and root for her. Pilou Asbæk, another unknown name to me, is also great as the SS captain that serves as our main villain. This guy is the scariest film Nazi that I’ve seen since Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds and, like the other performances, is played completely straight as if this wasn’t a zombie movie. In fact, he’s probably more scary before the zombie shenanigans start.
I highly recommend Overlord. This is somehow both the best war movie of the year and the best horror movie of the year at the same time (though Hell Fest is still close in the horror category). Much like Ready Player One, it’s also a great video game adaptation without officially being based on a video game. Be warned that it does take a long time to get to the horror stuff, so you may be disappointed if you are just looking for a zombie movie. But if you equally enjoy both halves of From Dusk till Dawn and enjoy movies that shift gears between genres, check out Overlord.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlord_(2018_film)#/media/File:Overlord2018Poster.jpg
