Nazi Zombie Super-Soldiers

Yes, “Nazi Zombie Super-Soldiers.”  That’s what ‘Overlord,’ the latest WWII Action/Horror flick from Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams’ production company, should really be called.  We all know that, as the tide turned against Germany in WWII, Hitler increasingly pinned his hopes on game-changing technological “wonder weapons” to salvage his fading dreams of a “Thousand Year Reich.”  Notable among them are jets such as the ME-262 and ballistic missiles like the V-2 rocket.  There are virtually no shortage of speculation on what the “mentally unstable” Hitler had tried as the situation became more and more dire for the Fatherland; some even claimed that he dabbled in the occult.   The dark arts!  Can you imagine???!!!

Perhaps inspired by the horror stories coming out of the concentration camps and the exploits of infamous doctor Josef Mengele in the name of “science,” the idea of Nazi super soldiers, or even better yet, Nazi Zombie Super Soldiers (aka NZ2S,  the name of my new death metal band) have provided much fodder in the genre of science fiction and horror.  While ‘Overlord’ isn’t the first movie about some Nazi secret zombie soldier program, it is most definitely the most ambitious with a decent production budget ($30 million) and the creative talents behind it.  The movie takes place in the hours before D-Day and follows a small group of 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” pathfinders (why does Hollywood always seems to prefer the 101st over the equally illustrious 82nd Airborne?) tasked to take out a German radio tower.  They jump out of a stricken C-47 and find more (oh, so much more) than they bargained for.

With its ensemble cast of unknown actors, ‘Overlord’ nevertheless manages to be an immensely enjoyable pop-corn B-movie, an R-rated blood-soaked affair that revels gleefully in its own excess.  It is pulpy fun, a guilty pleasure through and through, and I simply can’t recommend it enough.

Grade: A