There's no question of the existence of the horrors of war. I've had anecdotes shared with me by many veterans over the years, but is war horror a movie genre? One could argue with the existence of movies as far back as 1919's J'accuse, and more recent fare like Deathwatch, Below, and others, that it is, and today's entry just adds to that theory.
Operation Overlord was the dropping of allied soldiers behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day. This movie takes that to the next level, mixing in elements that are steeped in theories that Hitler was up to some no good schiesse beyond just what we're aware of.
Jovan Adepo (Emmy nominee for TV's Watchmen and The Leftovers) and Wyatt Russell (Lodge 49, Blaze, and a hilarious exasperated turn on Black Mirror) are two of a handful of unlucky souls that drop into a french village to knock out a communications-jamming tower before the beaches of Normandy get stormed. What they find is an attempt to put meat behind the phrase "a thousand year reich requires thousand year soldiers".
Julius Avery directs a great cast of fresh faces, who do well with the material, a pretty fresh concept. In the past, we have seen Peter Cushing doing some nazi zombie shenanigans in 1977's Shock Waves, and Richard Raaphorst attempted the ultimate nazi zombie movie about 12 years ago with the never completed Worst Case Scenario, (he did make Frankenstein's Army) and there's also Tommy Wikola's Dead Snow. There's a bit more here than all that. More than just undead Fuhrer Flunkies. The entitled hatred of the nazi regime is put fully into the frame, lest ye forget. There's a great snappy, and at times, funny script by Billy Ray, and the special effects work is gruesome and well done.
The idea of war and horror don't seem to get merged together much, despite the fact that, in all actuality, they're married to one another. This movie plays it straight, and outside of the smartass dialogue isn't going for chuckles. Recommended.
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