A Call of Duty movie might finally be on the way (which is probably a terrible idea, but that’s not a discussion for today), but if you’ve ever wanted to see World War II zombies on the big screen, the franchise’s best idea already got its chance back in 2018. Produced by J.J. Abrams, the action-horror hybrid Overlord mashed together the blood-soaked chaos of D-Day with flesh-eating Nazi experiments — and seven years later, it’s finding new life on streaming.
Currently the fourth most popular movie on MGM+, Overlord is climbing the charts thanks to its unapologetic mix of pulpy war spectacle and grotesque horror. Directed by Julius Avery (The Pope’s Exorcist), the movie follows a squad of American paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day. Their mission: destroy a Nazi radio transmitter hidden inside a fortified church. Their discovery: something much worse.
The official synopsis sets the stage:
“On the eve of D-Day, American paratroopers drop behind enemy lines to penetrate the walls of a fortified church and destroy a radio transmitter. As the soldiers approach their target, they soon begin to realize that there’s more going on in the Nazi-occupied village than a simple military operation. Making their way to an underground lab, the outnumbered men stumble upon a sinister experiment that forces them into a vicious battle against an army of the undead.”
Is ‘Overlord’ Any Good?
When it debuted in 2018, Overlord won over critics, earning a Certified Fresh 82% Rotten Tomatoes score. Audiences were a little more divided, landing at 67%, and the film never found its footing at the box office. With a $38 million budget and only $41 million grossed worldwide, it was deemed a flop. But with a cast that included Wyatt Russell, Jovan Adepo, Pilou Asbæk, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Jacob Anderson, Iain De Caestecker, Joseph Quinn, Bokeem Woodbine, and Dominic Applewhite, the movie always had more to offer than its receipts suggested.
It’s not historically accurate — though it’s worth asking why anyone expected that from a movie about Nazi zombie experiments — but it is fun, grotesque, and surprisingly well-acted. If you’ve ever wondered what a Call of Duty: WWII Zombies film would feel like, Overlord is the closest thing we’ve got, and its resurrection on MGM+ proves that audiences are finally catching on.
Release Date
November 1, 2018
Runtime
110 minutes
Director
Julius Avery
Writers
Billy Ray
Producers
J.J. Abrams, Jo Burn, John Cohen, Lindsey Weber, Cory Bennett Lewis