When a small group of American soldiers are thrust into a German-occupied French town. Their mission to take out a radio tower takes a terrifying turn when they discover Nazi doctors conducting human experimentation in order to create super soldiers.
With the release of the World War II action plus zombie super soldier laden Overlord we take a look at some films that we think you should check out after you’ve gone to see it.
Dead Snow
When a group of young friends decide to have a holiday in the ski mountains, their R&R time is abruptly thrown into chaos when they stumble upon zombie Nazi soldiers. Where Overlord prefers to refer to its monsters as “reanimated super soldiers” rather than “zombies”, the Norwegian film Dead Snow directed by Tommy Wirkola embraces the term “nazi zombies” wholeheartedly. The film has a distinct schlocky horror vibe, isolation and impending doom tropes and some surprisingly great makeup and prosthetics. It’s pretty low-brow but it fits the bill of B-grade horror movie.
Frankenstein’s Army
Nearing the end of World War II, a battalion of Russian soldiers stumble upon a secret Nazi lab where a descendent of Victor Frankenstein has been reanimating corpses and building monstrous zombie-robots. Richard Raaphorst’s found-footage horror fest is goofy and ridiculous but it also has wildly inventive and grotesque creature designs. It’s probably most similar in plot and concept to Overlord, but it goes next level in the weird factor. Yet another schlocky B-grade horror fest, proceed with low expectations.
Inglourious Basterds
A group of Jewish American soldiers work towards assassinating a faction of SS Nazi leaders. Simultaneously a Jewish theatre owner with her own traumatic past connection to the regime, plans to do the same. Quentin Tarantino’s foray into a War period drama is a completely fictitious take, but playing loose with actual history means he leans heavy into the violence, and dark comedy and not so subtle references to other war period films. It was a divisive film on its release, but like Overlord, it has clearly defined good guys and bad guys and a clear objective of killing Nazis, because Nazis are the worst.
Saving Private Ryan
Set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II a group of soldiers are recruited to go find a missing paratrooper – Private First Class James Francis Ryan – as he is the sole survivor of four servicemen brothers. Legendary director Steven Spielberg helms one of the most lauded war movies ever made. Beautiful, harrowing, emotional and won a stack of awards after its release with good reason. It’s still lauded as one of the best war films, and is often cited as an inspiration in other war movies.
Captain America: The First Avenger
After repeatedly being rejected for enlistment due to health issues, Steve Rogers is recruited for a test of a super-soldier serum developed by Dr Abraham Erskine and Howard Stark. The serum works, creating the world’s first, and at the time, only superhero. Director Joe Johnston brings us the origin story of Captain America, but throws in a healthy mix of war drama, patriotism, superheroes and supervillains and Hydra, a terrorist organisation that replicates the Nazi regime. Comic book movies have now become cinematic fodder but one of the reasons why this particular film is worth watching (or rewatching) is because it combines some real world history with comic superheroes.
Overlord is out in Australian cinemas now.
Read our Overlord film review here, and our interview with director Julius Avery and star Pilou Asbaek here.
