If you’re looking for the perfect Veterans’ Day horror action movie, see Overlord! I was planning to wait until it was available for home viewing because this type of movie (Frankenstein’s Army, which is from Soviet soldiers’ perspective or Dead Snow) has burned me before, but the buzz surrounding the movie (thanks, Rod and Karen and coworkers) has been overwhelmingly positive so I changed my mind. I’m delighted that I did. It was worth the effort, and I have no regrets.
Overlord is a horror movie at its best. There was enough development of every character, including the supporting characters, that I was invested in whether or not the characters would live or die. There were also enough dire consequences that I felt as if they were genuinely in danger. The best horror movies resonate on a deeper level. This movie’s mission statement asks what is the best way to beat the Nazis, i.e. evil: by being like them or not. Boyce, who is played perfectly by Jovan Adepo, personifies the right answer to that question.
Boyce is not an easy character to play or write. If he goes too far in one direction, viewers may start thinking that he is a dumbass and stop rooting for him then the movie loses what it wants, the moral high ground. If he compromises, he loses the high ground. So how do you keep it? Set the events on D-Day when all the characters are at the peak of discombobulation; the most senior officers don’t stand a chance; and there are no right answers. It is a brilliant way to rationalize stumbling around. Place your hero in unfamiliar terrain with people speaking multiple foreign languages behind enemy lines with the responsibility of a mission that can change the fate of the world, and we have not even gotten to the weird Nazi experiments going on in a now desecrated church.
Adepo, who is best known as the son in Fences, also has to be frightened, but not fall into a trope of the black man scared of ghosts and his own shadow. It is not fair that black people are not allowed to experience and depict the normal range of human emotions, especially in the face of the supernatural when anyone should be afraid. Because of past stereotypes about black people in media, filmmakers and actors have to be cognizant of and guard against these historical pitfalls. I like John Boyega, particularly in his most famous role as Finn in the most recent Star Wars movies, but there were plenty of complaints about his character and performance, which I disagreed with in detail, because he was considered comic relief and was (credibly) scared. I don’t think that Adepo will have that problem because he is the hero of the film even though the film does not solely focus on him. Viewers are instructed by his character’s repeated example: the mission is nothing if we only focus on it and not help people along the way. I kept wishing that Wonder Woman were set in World War II because then they could have backed each other up. In a time when following orders was an excuse for being complicit in wickedness, Boyce is deliciously ahistorical, a sidequel that Tarantino is incapable of creating, but that belongs in the same spectrum as his Inglorious Basterds to how we wish the war was won, especially how his decisions then empower other people who are usually cast as victims in WWII so those recently empowered can turn the tables on their oppressors. He changes hearts and minds.
I usually despise chaos cinema because I prefer my action to be shot as Fred Astaire preferred to shoot dancing. I want to appreciate the artistry of the violence being depicted on screen and see everything. Fighting is just dancing with antagonists. Quantum of Solace wasn’t just a dreadful story. It wasn’t as beautifully shot as the other Bond films so viewers could not fully appreciate the tricks. Overlord is a perfect example of when chaos cinema is appropriate—to illustrate the emotional and psychological turmoil being experienced by the characters on screen. For a person like Bond, we don’t want to feel him flounder. We want him cool and collected under fire, prepared for any and all types of attack. The American soldiers in the first sequence experience everything, and when Boyce survives, he becomes the primary person that we latch on to hoping for safety, but completely aware that everything can become uncertain and go to hell in seconds, literally and figuratively. It heightens our investment in the story and the characters. The shooting style creates empathy with the characters and their situation.
Boyce’s foil and the other (wrong) answer to Overlord’s question is Corporal Ford, played by Wyatt Russell, and to a lesser extent, Rensin, played by Bokeem Woodbine. The movie suggests that even an American who wants to fight fire with fire can never be as bad as a Nazi. They just become a psychologically wounded ancestor of Jack Bauer. Not since Revolt have I seen a movie perfectly illustrate what an ally looks like. Realize that just because someone put you in charge, and you are the literal image of what a hero looks like, you may not have all the answers, and your decision making process may be inherently flawed because you have been mimicking the enemy, i.e. white supremacy. Put your body and your privilege on the line against the demented way that you view the world and those who seek to oppress it further in service of the greater good and those who are vulnerable. Defer to those with the moral high ground. I did appreciate that a deep distrust of the good guys kept parts of the mission secret based on subjective discretion.
Overlord also reminds us of a valuable fact. If you want movie magic, feature tons of sequences of people beating up and killing Nazis. I experienced a similar cathartic relief that I got after watching Bushwick or The First Purge. If you are familiar with Pikou Asbaek from Game of Thrones who plays one of the best villains ever, Euron Greyjoy, a crazy, rockstar pirate who would rip Johnny Depp to shreds for breakfast, then you know that he will ham it up and still be scary as SS Hauptsturmfuhrer. Trigger warning: he is also a rapist, but it is mostly implied. The denouement is guilt free destruction particularly with one well-placed grenade that acts as a fuse to a particularly inventive bomb.
When the horror hits, Overlord did not go in a zombie direction, but was closer to Resident Evil. I would have loved to know more about the mysterious substance found underneath the church, but it is completely unnecessary. There is tons of great body horror, but it does not feel like gore for gore’s sake. It feels serious. I would not have minded more, but based on prior experience, more is less. I thought that the movie was going to finally work on a clash between the legends of voodoo and zombies, but it is implied, not elaborated, which is probably for the best.
If you enjoy horror action that doesn’t insult your intelligence, Overlord is a satisfying entry that provides an ahistorical take on the traditional WWII mission movie and the best of creature features such as Resident Evil meets Frankenstein without Frankenstein. It has equal parts heart and horror with affable characters. Even the kid did not annoy me.
