Streaming Service: Hulu
Watched: 10/16/2020
Overlord is an alternate history World War II movie from the same group of people who did the Cloverfield films. In fact, this movie was suspected to be a fourth film in the Cloverfield franchise when it was being filmed. By creating an alternate history, it allows a black American soldier to take the lead role. Jovan Adepo as Edward Boyce is a fantastic. I enjoyed his evolution throughout the film from reluctant soldier to hero. Adepo deserves all the accolades he received for playing Hooded Justice in Watchmen and he’s just as mesmerizing in this role. I really loved his character and desperately wanted him to survive and succeed against the Nazis.
The film centers around a group of American soldiers that has been sent into rural France to destroy a tower before D-Day. Everything goes wrong when their plane is enroute to their target. Only a few members of the team survive. Our primary character is Edward Boyce, a black paratrooper (this is where the alternate history kicks in) who is reluctant to kill anyone, even a mouse. Having been drafted into the war, he’s a reluctant soldier. He is the brunt of a lot of jokes among his comrades (none which are racial), but over the course the movie he rises up to become a hero.
Though the film has been described as Nazis versus zombies, it’s really about Nazi experimentation gone very wrong. Boyce and the surviving soldiers reach the Frenchtown that is their target only to discover that horrific experiments are happening within a church that is also at the base of the tower they have been sent to destroy. It’s vital that the Americans destroy the tower, but because of their reduced numbers the task is incredibly daunting. It is vitally important that the towers destroyed before D-Day or the invading force will be able to have air support. Boyce and the others team up with Chloe, a young French woman who has been suffering under Nazi occupation. She has an adorable little brother named Paul and an aunt who’s been experimented on.
Nazis are always the best villains in any film or television show. This film leans heavily into Nazi experimentation and their desire for super soldiers. I don’t want to give too much away, but there’s some truly horrific scenes in this film. I’ll never hear the words “s’il vous plaît” again without feeling a little shiver down my spine.
Overlord is a very good mishmash of a military and horror movie tropes. It has great elements of both. I enjoyed the movie very much and I do recommend it. I like these alternate history films. I was reminded of Inglorious Bastards in that regard. Quentin Tarantino has created a whole alternate universe of American history and the JJ Abrams films, especially the Cloverfield ones, also lean into alternate history stories. If they retcon this film into the Cloverfield franchise, I wouldn’t be surprised.
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Though the altered people in this film are not zombies, they’re still pretty terrifying. The idea of immortal Nazis is definitely terrifying. The weird tar that is the source of the experiments would fit into the Cloverfield universe and I wonder at some point if they’ll return to the idea.
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