Wednesday, February 27, 2019

OVERLORD: SUPER NAZIS


World War II movies and horror movies have been thrown together more often than you would think. With films like RED SNOW and becoming hits with the horror crowd it was only a matter of time before a mainstream film took the subject in hand. After all Hitler was supposed to have believed in numerous superstitions and various programs have discussed his search for ancient relics to help him win the war. Now we have OVERLORD.

The time is D-Day and a group of soldiers are being flown behind enemy lines with the intent of taking down a radio tower so that the air support for the beach invasion can assistance. Before they can get to their jump point their plane is shot down, half the men are lost in the plane and the rest tumble out in the nick of time. Boyce (Jovan Adepo) is lost and confused but find the remaining members of the team.

Now in charge is Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell), the munitions expert whose job it is to take out the tower. Also on hand are the wise cracking New York accented Tibbet (John Magaro), wanna be writer Dawson (Jacob Anderson) and Chase (Iain De Caestecker). As they regroup and head into town Dawson is killed by a landmine. Continuing on they come across French girl Chloe (Mathilde Ollivier) from the village where the tower is located. With her own reasons for hating the Nazis she aids them by taking them to her home.

Living with her are her 8 year old brother and her aunt who has been disfigured due to some strange experiments taking place at the German headquarters where the tower is. While the team discusses what to do next a squad of Nazis arrives at the house. Led by SS man Wafner (Pilou Asbaek) he enters the house while they hide, flirts with Chloe before sending his men outside and then attempts to rape her. The team comes to her defense and captures the SS leader and kills his men.

Using what information they can gather from Wafner they devise a plan to get into the underground headquarters and blow up the tower. Separating with plans to regroup, Boyce comes across a group of Nazis dumping the bodies of disfigured experiments gone wrong and burning them. Concerned that more is taking place he gets on their truck and finds his way into the underground location.

As he wanders the halls attempting to avoid being discovered Boyce finds out the types of experiments that have been going on. Various dead bodies are being brought back to life. The most disturbing is a head with spinal cord still attached that is living. Sneaking out of the headquarters via a sewer tunnel, but not before taking a syringe filled with the Nazi serum, he meets the team and tells them what is taking place. They head back to the house to determine what to do.

Once there they begin discussing what to do next. Unfortunately they’re interrupted by a group of soldiers who shoot and kill Chase before they are all dispensed with. Not knowing what to do Boyce injects the Nazi serum into Chase who rises but begins to change. His body contorts, he strength increases and he loses control of himself. They then realize that the serum will be used to turn the Nazi soldiers into superhuman battle ready combatants that must be stopped.

The movie works well on many levels but at the same time becomes far too involved at others. It features so many story points that overlap and run on top of one another that by the end you’re left trying to remember if all of them have been answered or not. In spite of that it does provide an interesting film that will hold your attention from start to finish.

While most of the cast is rarely unknown (for me I only recognized Bokeem Woodbine as the squad leader killed early on and De Caestecker who stars as Fitz on TV’s MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D) they all do an admirable job here. Their fear is palpable and their incredulous looks when confronted by what could be the ultimate evil are quite believable.

In the end I would recommend the movie for an evening’s entertainment but perhaps not for the squeamish. The effects are well done and compliment the story and that story does draw you in. It ended up being a movie I enjoyed watching but also felt I’d never revisit.

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