November 14, 2018 – This is a cross between a traditional WWII action film and a zombie horror film. It's cheesy, but it works. The plot of this Bad Robot production, backed by J.J. Abrams, is reportedly based on “Operation ZZ” a 2010 Belgian short film.

Operation Overlord was the code name for the World War II D-Day Invasion, June 6, 1944, when thousands of troops invaded German-occupied France. This film is set at that time. A band of paratroopers drops into France just ahead of D-Day. Their mission, to disable a key enemy radio installation.

This has all the trappings of a traditional WWII film, complete with an integrated combat unit (troops were still segregated at this time). Hollywood war films made during the 1940 deliberately depicted integrated combat units, attempting to foster more national unity behind the war effort.

In this case, the minority soldier is an African American, Boyce (played by Jovan Adepo of “mother!”) who is harassed by another soldier in his unit, presumably because of his race. The platoon leader ends up being Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell of “Ingrid Goes West”) after the troop plane is shot down and only four soldiers and a news photographer survive the drop.

Ford is a mysterious gung-ho type, determined to finish the mission at all costs. The rest of the squad is not enthusiastic about what looks to be a suicide mission. They find a local woman, Chloe (played by Mathilde Ollivier) walking through the woods alone. Chloe agrees to lead them to her village, where the radio facility is located in an ancient castle.

It soon becomes apparent that something strange is going on the castle. Through a series of extremely improbable circumstances, a dead American soldier in Chloe's house, Chase (Iain De Caestecker) is injected with a mysterious serum developed in the castle by the Germans. Chase comes back to life, only to become a monster with hideous strength and savagery.

The Germans intend to develop this serum to create strong, savage, almost indestructible super soldiers. The secret serum is evidently based on some a form of life found underground, beneath the castle. The Germans appear to be using the blood of this creature in an attempt to develop a kind of zombie serum.

A local SS Officer, Wafner (Pilou Asbæk of “Ghost in the Shell”) grabs Chloe's 8-year-old brother, Paul (Gianny Taufer) and heads off to the castle with him. Ford is determined to finish the mission, but Boyce and other soldiers refuse, arguing that the lab must be destroyed, along with the radio transmitter. Boyce is also determined to rescue Chloe's son. Ford reluctantly agrees to the plan, since Boyce knows a secret way into the castle.

The rest of the film, and the climax is straight up horror mixed with combat, as the Americans, joined by Chloe, storm the castle and attempt to rescue Paul, while also destroying the transmitter and the lab. The Americans sneak into the castle while others create a diversion at the castle gates. Inside, there are German soldiers, a mad scientist, and zombies galore, along with Paul. There is lots of blood and gore for horror fans in these scenes.

This is not a bad action film, and there was one “gotcha” scene that scared me out of my seat. It is pretty slick and well acted, but this is not the kind of film that holds up under scrutiny. The plot is paper thin with lots of holes. The characters have no depth. But it does deliver action and some scares along the way. I am not a horror film fan, but this was not bad. This film rates a C+.

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