Movie Review: Overlord (2018)

Overlord (2018) directed by Julius Avery

A World War II paratrooper unit goes behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day to take out a Nazi radio-jamming tower. After a harrowing trip, five of the original force make it to the town. They wind up with a local woman who has a young brother and a mysteriously ill aunt. They hide in her house as they plan to blow up the church which the Nazis are using for their tower. The US soldiers slowly discover there's more to the Nazi base in town. Many locals have been kidnapped and/or killed as the base's Nazi scientist (complete with round glasses) works on his secret project in the lower levels of the church.

What starts as a standard D-Day action film turns eventually into a zombie horror film. The transition is gradual enough that it doesn't seem fake or forced. The church basement is the standard creepy subterranean mad doctor laboratory and works well. The fights with the Nazi soldiers in the town and at the base are exciting enough, except for the occasional conveniently-timed deaths that seem more dictated by movie storytelling conventions than good writing. The cast does a good job acting though the writing gives a lot of two-dimensional cliche characters. The overall story is an interesting idea but the interesting part gets drowned out by the paint-by-numbers plotting and the excessive gore.

Slightly recommended, if you can handle high levels of gore and predictable storytelling.