Overlord (2018)

        Nasty Nazis and their monstrous creations abound as Paramount release Julius Avery's OVERLORD on Blu-ray, DVD & 4KUltraHD.

World War II. A mission to take out a Nazi radio transmitter in a French village goes a bit wrong when the aeroplane carrying the soldiers sent to do it gets shot down. The survivors have to deal with Nazi patrols, and the church where the transmitter has been housed turns out to be less a house of God & more a place filled with naughty Nazi experimentation.

Yes the baddies are trying to create superhuman soldiers. They have got as far a a serum which, when injected, allows you to almost pull your own head off as well as providing super strength and a generally poor disposition towards others. Will our heroes save the day or will evil triumph?

As you might expect from the above, OVERLORD is what in (much) older times might have been referred to as a Boys' Own Adventure. It's basically a comic book tale of goodies versus very broadly drawn baddies indeed. The movie opens with an excellent (and unnerving) aeroplane crash, then meanders for quite a bit before really getting going with the climax. For older viewers, the sluggish bit in the middle is ideally where one would have gone to get an ice-cream safe in the knowledge you wouldn't be missing much.

Paramount's 4K Ultra HD transfer looks great, and the Dolby Atmos sound mix is a banging, crashing, rattling joy to listen to. This was the only disc provided for review. The US Blu-ray has a number of featurettes as extras but it's not clear if these will be carried over to the UK release.

The Nazi zombie / monster movie is a subgenre that's increasing in numbers with all the rapidity of the laboratory creations themselves. Of all these movies (Richard Raaphorst's excellent FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY and the rather less excellent British series of OUTPOST movies come to mind) OVERLORD is by far the most lavish and definitely worth a view if you're in the mood for a decent action-horror movie.

Julius Avery's OVERLORD is out on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD from Paramount Home Media Distribution on Monday 11th March 2019

Elsa Fraulein SS (1977)

SS Express!

         Welcome to another instalment of ‘Trapped in the Room With It.’ As you can guess from the film’s title, this week we find ourselves once again in the world of the Eurocine Nazisploitation picture. A place of inappropriate use of stock footage, wobbly helmets, officers’ caps worn at jaunty angles, half-hearted Nazi salutes, and abundant nudity. 

Music!

         A German major has a “brilliant” idea for rooting out spies against the fatherland. For this he is promptly rewarded by being shot so he doesn’t have to be in this film anymore. Replacing him in charge of the project is expert prostitute and reasonably good blonde Elsa Ackermann (Malisa Longo). Elsa looks as if she’d be more at home as a hostess on an ITV game show like 3-2-1. Despite her new position of authority she’s not very good at saluting either, which means she fits right in. 

Trains!

         They’re all going on a train! You see the cunning / ridiculous plot is to fill the carriages with sexy ladies, the idea being that officers they pick up on their way to the front line may be tempted to tell the girls all while their guard (and trousers) are down, and thus any anti-Nazi sympathies will be revealed (along with their underpants).

Neither music nor trains. Can't think why they included it

         ELSA FRAULEIN SS aka FRAULEIN KITTY (there are no cats in uniform in this which is presumably why they changed the title) aka CAPTIVE WOMEN 4 (absolutely no idea) is from the gang who gave us HELGA, SHE-WOLF OF STILBERG. ELSA is actually quite a bit better than HELGA, mainly because ELSA has a train in it, but also because it’s more competently made and actually manages to avoid being quite so dull. 

Nice locations!

         Composer Daniel White pops up in one scene to accompany sleaze queen Pamela Stanford (memorably disturbing in Jess Franco’s LORNA THE EXORCIST) doing her Marlene Dietrich impersonation, before going on to provide  the film with soundtrack music akin to what they used to play to accompany the conveyor belt on Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game. 

More trains! 

         Eurocine don’t let us down, though. Just as you’re beginning to think ELSA isn’t too bad along comes an ending that’s as abrupt and inept as anyone who has seen HELGA might be expecting. Anyone hoping for some extras is going to be disappointed, too, as all you get are a couple of trailers for upcoming releases. If you’re a Nazisploitation completist you’ll want to see this. If you’re not you’ve probably already stopped reading. 

ELSA FRAULEIN SS is out from Screenbound on Monday 17th April 2017