18 TV&Satellite Week

Films This week’s p

reviewed by Jason Best

STARRATINGS HHHHH Excellent HHHH Very good HHH Good HH Average H Poor

On the eve of D-Day, a band of US

paratroopers undertakes a do-or-

die raid on which the success of the

Allied landings depends – but

deadly anti-aircraft fire, lethal

landmines and crack German

soldiers are far from the only

terrors they face behind enemy

lines – and it isn’t only the GIs

who should stiffen their sinews.

The experience that producer

JJ Abrams, director Julius Avery

and screenwriters Billy Ray and

Mark L Smith have in store for

the viewer is a brazen mash-up

of guys-on-a-mission adventure

and outlandish horror fantasy.

The film’s plucky band of

brothers is the war movie genre’s

typically mixed bunch – with an

extra, ahistorical dash of diversity

for good measure. There’s the

nervous but noble new recruit,

African-American Boyce (Jovan

Adepo, Denzel Washington’s son in

Fences); the hard-bitten explosives

expert, Ford (Wyatt Russell, son of

Kurt and Goldie Hawn); the cynical,

gum-chewing loudmouth, Tibbet

(John Magaro); and the genial

southerner, Dawson (Jacob

Anderson); plus photographer-

soldier Chase (Iain De Caestecker)

and the spunky French civilian

they encounter early on, Mathilde

Ollivier’s Chloe.

This Dirty Half-Dozen’s mission

is to destroy a German radio tower

atop an old church in a Normandy

town, thereby allowing air cover

for the imminent beach landings.

Beneath the church, however, is a

laboratory where a Nazi scientist is

hard at work on grisly experiments

to create an army of un-killable

zombie soldiers. ‘A thousand-year

Reich needs thousand-year soldiers,’

explains chief villain, Pilou Asbæk’s

revoltingly vile SS captain Wafner.

Brace yourself, then, for an

onslaught of gory action and

disgustingly icky horror. Overlord

certainly isn’t for the squeamish,

or for anyone who objects to the

bad taste of using the real horrors

of World War Two as a backdrop

for splatter thrills (don’t even

bother pointing out that the US

army didn’t become racially

integrated until 1948).

If, though, you are in the

mood for some down-and-dirty

exploitation movie fun, Overlord

is a literal blast. 2018, 18, 110MIN

HORROR FANTASY

Friday, Sky Premiere HD,

10.20 pm 3

Jovan, Dominic and

Mathilde got the distinct

impression they were

in the firing line

k hh f h

Star Wars director JJ Abrams returns with a

shattering horror fantasy set during World War Two

PREMIERE

OF THE

WEEK

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Overlord