Overlord is the newest film from powerhouse producer J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lost, etc.), producer Lindsey Weber, and relatively unknown director Julius Avery, the man behind multiple short films as well as the feature-length Son of a Gun from 2014. From the first viewing of the Overlord theatrical trailer, one can observe the film’s lofty attempts to dip its toes into multiple genres; it is at once a gritty war drama, an action movie, and a B-rate horror comedy in the same vein as Evil Dead. For this reason, there seems to be an evident confusion online as to what exactly Overlord is; there was even a video posted onto IGN’s website entitled “WTF is Overlord?” with director Avery attempting to clear this confusion. While much respect goes out to the filmmakers for their attempt to make a fun, original, genre-bending flick, the confusion surrounding Overlord seems justified; it’s a messy, tonally inconsistent film that seems unsure of itself and what it wants to be as a whole.
The plot of Overlord surrounds American paratroopers on the eve of D-Day with a mission to destroy a German radio tower placed atop a French church. On route to their drop zone, their plane is shot down right in an admittedly exhilarating opening scene. It’s graphic, terrifying, and claustrophobic, almost akin to the Omaha Beach scene from Saving Private Ryan. Avery shows off his directorial prowess here by delivering a tense and well-crafted opening with smart cinematography and rattling sound design. Unfortunately, the rest of the film never quite matches this level of quality. It makes me confident that with a better, more consistent script, Avery would be an excellent director for a war drama.
The subsequent adventure follows five survivors: Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell), Boyce (Joven Adepo), Tibbet (John Magaro), Chase (Iain De Caestecker) and Dawson (Jacob Anderson). Though Dawson is unexpectedly killed by a landmine almost immediately upon landing, the rest of the survivors attempt to carry out the mission. They then stumble upon a French woman named Chloe (Mathilde Ollivier), who agrees to shelter them in her home next to the church. It’s here where we get a first glance at the more horrific aspects of the film through Chloe’s aunt, whose face, in a very poorly constructed jump scare, is revealed to be disfigured due to Nazi experiments taking place within the church. The war elements here are still at play, but the horror elements continue to be teased, especially with the introduction of Nazi officer Doctor Wafner (Pilou Asbæk) as the film’s antagonist.
Later on, Boyce, in an effort to make it to the scheduled rendezvous point, discovers an underground lab beneath the church and goes face-to-face with the undead (literal Nazi zombies). It’s at this point where any semblance of a war drama is completely thrown out the window; it feels like a completely different movie. What could have been a bold stylistic endeavor here instead reveals itself to be a poorly directed and unfocused mess. There is one scene in particular that is indicative of the entire film as a whole and which highlights both its ultimate strengths and weaknesses. In the scene, Chase is injected with the Nazi’s secret serum, and the tone shifts from horrific to comedic to back to horrific within a matter of seconds. There are shining moments of genuine terror hidden within the film, particularly with the ‘body horror’ elements, but they are unfortunately too few and far between. Even those who are looking for a fun ‘gorefest’ won’t be fully satisfied due to the film’s genre-bending ambitions, which are more of a detriment to the experience as a whole. Maybe if this film was a full-on war drama or horror movie it would make the experience more compelling and watchable. I wouldn’t recommend seeing this film in theaters; it doesn’t do enough to satisfy as a gestalt, but certain individual elements may encourage general audiences to check it out for themselves after its theatrical run.
Score: 2.5/5