A Film Addict Reviews! Overlord

Now that we are quickly approaching Halloween, I figured that I should maybe celebrate it a little but watching a few Halloween favorites. I’m personal fan of Beetlejuice which is my go-to Halloween film. This year, I’m starting to branch out a little bit more and watch some more of the horror oriented ones and not so much comedic. One can never go wrong with watching the original Evil Dead or Army of Darkness but I have been wanting to watch Overlord since it first came out. I have finally seen it (obviously) and let me tell you what an adventure this was.

2018’s Overlord is about a group of soldiers consisting of Boyce (Jovan Adepo), Ford(Wyatt Russel), Tibbet (John Magaro), Rosenfeld (Dominic Applewhite), Chase (Ian De Caestecker), and Dawson (Jacob Anderson) drop behind Nazi lines to take out the communications tower to assist of the assault of D-Day. Little did they know that the Nazis have something super secret hidden led by their officer, Wafner (Pilou Asbaek).

The Story

This story was very easy to understand and figure out which works in their favor to throw in additional story points to spice up the film. The way the story played out was set at a good pace. It flowed smoothly from scene to scene and felt like the film was actually going somewhere. Everything that the audience would need to know is shown through actions than told through dialogue. The only time dialogue is used to explain something is to affirm the suspicions of the main characters. Another point that made the story good was how it held the tension almost entirely through the film.

The Acting

The acting was pretty solid. For me, all of the actors are relatively unknown. I did like the comic relief of Tibbet played by John Magaro. He played the sarcastic asshole character really well. Another strong actor in this was Dominic Applewhite. His character went from a cameraman to an actual soldier. It was actually quite a turn around for his character and he pulled it off convincingly enough that I actually hardly noticed a change. Jovan Adepo portrayal of Boyce was good. He was always looking out for the team it seemed like and making sure that everyone was fine before himself. The main bad guy, Pilou Asbaek, was fun to watch. He truly felt evil in regards to the film and Pilou seemed like he gave into that evilness.

The Effects

This is another case of the effects make the film. There were times the CGI was obvious like when during a transformation but it was done well on the makeup side afterwards. The practical effects are fantastic. A pipe goes through someone and I have no idea what it was done but I love it. It gives the film a more cinematic look of injuries. Everything on screen felt like it truly real from the makeup down to the sound effects and atmosphere of the film. Sound effects are a big part of horror films and this hits the mark with it. It gives the audience the feeling of eeriness. I felt that throughout the entire walking through of the secret Nazi facility.

The Cinematography

Surprisingly, it was very well lit for being a dark film. You can see a lot of the scene and set design even when its dark and it helps create depth in the picture. Granted, with it being partially a horror film, being in unlit, dark areas should work in its favor but it works pretty well in well lit areas too. It was cool seeing there was a one shot in the film that I didn’t entirely notice until my brother pointed it out and then I realized.

Opinion and Verdict

Overall, Overlord was a great experience. I like the violence and gore of it and how it depicted the lab experiments. It was a good ride of a film that actually has a very nice story attached to it. You will laugh, you might cry, and its possible that you might get scared. In all honesty, it doesn’t lean too much into the horror genre but it was there. I would recommend that you should see this during any time of the year. Also, if anyone of you that are reading this are Call of Duty fans, it feel likes a prequel to the zombies storyline.

If you enjoyed this review, please read my last one: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters