Overlord reviews: What are critics saying about JJ Abrams Nazi-zombie movie?

Fans of horror, gore, and war movies should prepare to head to cinemas.

Overlord, the Nazi-zombie World War 2 movie, has its UK premiere tonight, Wednesday November 7.

If you thought zombie flicks and war movies did not go together, critics are here to tell you, you are mistaken.

Produced by JJ Abrams company Bad Robot Productions, Overlord has been well received by critics.

What do critics have to say about Overlord?

So far, Overlord has an overwhelmingly positive 86 percent score on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

The critics’ consensus reads: “Part revisionist war drama, part zombie thriller, and part all-out genre gorefest, Overlord offers A-level fun for B-movie fans of multiple persuasions.”

The movie follows a team of American paratroopers drop into Nazi-occupied France to carry out a mission that’s crucial to the invasion’s success with only hours until D-Day.

The official synopsis reads: “Tasked with destroying a radio transmitter atop a fortified church, the desperate soldiers join forces with a young French villager to penetrate the walls and take down the tower.

“But, in a mysterious Nazi lab beneath the church, the outnumbered G.I.s come face-to-face with enemies unlike any the world has ever seen.

“From producer J.J. Abrams, Overlord is a thrilling, pulse-pounding action adventure with a twist.”

Variety’s Amy Nicholson was not as big of a fan as many other critics, and wrote: “Overlord works best as a patriotism booster shot – it’s Inglourious Basterds without a swizzle of irony.”

Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian gave it one out of five stars.

Bradshaw wrote: “Everyone involved in this film might want to reflect that Nazi medical experimentation during the second world war did in fact happen, under circumstances other than these.”

In the positive camp, however, were plenty of journalists including Anton Bitel of Little White Lies.

Bitel said: “A visceral, high-stakes film whose characters are always traversing morally challenging landscapes.”

Screen International’s Demetrios Matheou wrote: “What it lacks in novelty, subtlety or character, it partially makes up in sheer abandon.

“This is a big, loud, violent, gleefully gory sledgehammer of a film with, crucially, a careful tongue in cheek.”

Hedging his bets between overwhelmingly positive and unimpressed was Empire’s Ben Travis.

Travis wrote: “Overlord injects a healthy dose of schlock into familiar war-movie tropes to create an entertainingly grungy hybrid, but it never quite kicks into overdrive.”

Tim Robey wrote for the Telegraph: “For a Friday night horror audience, it’ll play. “

Giving it a B for Consequence of Sound, Dan Caffrey wrote: “Overlord is probably too small-scale and workmanlike to ever be a stone-cold classic, but its overall seriousness, competency, and visceral special effects (digitized blood notwithstanding) make it something to celebrate.”

Overlord is out in cinemas now.