'Overlord (2018)' certainly has tonal issues, often being properly horrific but seeming to want to inject humour at the most inopportune of moments. It's also quite schlocky essentially every time it tries to do anything more traditionally 'war movie'-esque. This is especially prevelant in the moments where it wants us to believe its heroes are being overtly and defiantly heroic, in spite of their army-given orders or previously quite unlikable (sometimes contemptible) character-traits, or in the times where it tries to tie its events directly into the narrative of the overall Second World War - which is actually quite disturbing not in its slightly jingoistic and strangely campy ending but in its undercurrent of Nazi experimentation, something that did really occur to an extent perhaps less sensational but far more despicable than what's seen here. Really, the issues come down to the writing, which isn't as nuanced as it perhaps thinks it is but also isn't as straight-forwardly 'genre-specific' as it perhaps ought to have been. There are times when the flick works, though, which mainly come when it slips straight into the fantastical, horror territory where it feels most at home and, indeed, adept. Here, it puts the historical context further into the background than before, using it as a backdrop for a sort of silly but played-straight science-fiction flick that actually works well when it tries to scare and make squirm. The visuals are pretty much universally good and, aside from a couple of unnecessarily glorified gore-shots, the violence is presented as believably painful and properly gruesome, too. Ultimately, this makes for a flawed experience that's at its best when it just lets the viscera fly like it is slick, big-budgeted and generally very well put-together grindhouse-bound 'trash art'. 6/10
Review of Overlord
