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'Overlord' Not Your Average Zombie Film

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

By Whitney KristinaPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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Overlord hits theaters November 9th, 2018

Overlord, directed by Julius Avery, delivers not just a good gory horror film but a good drama about WW2 as well. With sub-plots about how far a sister will go in order to protect her little brother, to how far a solider goes to not just complete his, mission but to save humanity from the horrors of genetically modified Nazi zombies, and the bonds that form during wartime. And with great performances by Jovan Adepo, Mathilde Ollivie, Wyatt Russell, Pilou Asbæk, and the rest of the cast, Overlord gives you everything you want. From the moment the opening sequence begins and you are thrown into a plane with a group of American paratroopers preparing to invade France on D-Day, amid explosions and gunfire, to the heart wrenching and engaging story, and then to the big plot twist that these American soldiers aren't just fighting Nazi's they're fighting genetically modified Nazi zombies.

The writers, Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith, whose collective resumes include Captain Philips, The Revenant and many other great films, so you know you are in good hands and are in store for one hell of a great story. And you get it, they give the audience a great story with real character development that actually makes the audience relate to and care about what happens to them. Mixed in with all the gore and scares you want out of a good zombie horror film. They also play on the conspiracy theory that Hitler's Third Reich was doing experiments to make immortal soldiers. Which is mentioned subtly in the film by Pilou Asbæk's character, the main villain, in which he says that they are building the thousand year soldier to server the thousand year Reich. Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith's twist on this zombie genre is brilliant. This is a story line that has been used before in other films with a similar premise as Overlord, but what the writers do differently is they don't make it their sole plot. They focus more on their characters and their individual story's and how they fit into that plot twist. Even to the way that they portray the zombies is brilliant. They give you zombies without making them the generic mindless zombies chasing the characters down in order to eat their brains, instead they give you terrifying and intelligent undead Nazi's whose need to kill is not for food but solely for the want to kill. Which is a take on zombies that audiences don't see very often. Often we see the overly campy and an almost comedic take on the zombie genre, and that's not saying every zombie film is like that. I personally have found that for every two zombie films made at least one of them falls into the category of overly campy, and comedic. And with that being said Overlord thankfully doesn't fall victim to that plaque, it's really in a league of its own. It has a few moments that do feel a little campy but it redeems itself many times over with it's great effects, engaging story lines, and wonderful acting.

After watching Overlord I tried to find what I wished was different in it, but I kept coming up with nothing. Any changes to the film would have thrown off the balance it has between being a a great WW2 drama, and being a bad-ass zombie film. Had they added more story about WW2 the zombie twist would have been weak and would just feel like an after thought. If they had made the film more about the zombies they would have lost out on a lot of the story lines and character development that made the movie so engaging. Overlord is a perfect balance of the two genres that they use.

I give Overlord a thumbs up and definiely recommend seeing it.

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About the Creator

Whitney Kristina

Movie reviews by a movie buff

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