What I’m watching: a horror film that will be new to some but familiar to others.

In theaters: Overlord

One of my most treasured friendships was with the late film producer Richard Gordon who carved out a successful career as an independent filmmaker. Richard specialized in horror and science fiction films – he made two with the great Boris Karloff – and was a real student of film.

He once told me the life of an independent producer such as himself was made more difficult when in the 1980s, major studios began making more science fiction and horror films with larger budgets than the independents could muster.

“Overlord” is an example of Richard’s observation.

“Overlord” is a well-made, thrill ride of a film that I thoroughly enjoyed. For a horror fan, such as myself, its theme of the Nazis creating, for lack of a better phrase, zombie soldiers is not new.

“Nazi zombies” is a real genre within horror films. Films such as “Dead Snow” and “Frankenstein’s Army” are among many that have explored that theme.

The genre is fueled by the fact the Nazis submitted many people to various experimentation supposedly to understand the limits of the human body so better soldiers could be developed.

“Overlord,” produced by J.J. Abrams, may be coming late to the party but is miles ahead most of the other films of this type with superior effects and acting.

The film follows a small group of advance troops assigned to take down a transmitting tower in an occupied French village. The tower is sending out signals that would impair communications among the Allied forces about to launch the D-Day invasion.

The unit of Airborne paratroopers is a reference to classic WWII movies – there is the gruff sergeant, the Jewish soldier, the gum-chewing Italian soldier, a seasoned soldier who prefers to be on his own and the thoughtful soldier.

The plan for the unit is quickly undermined by flak from Nazi guns on the ground and only a handful of them make it alive to the shore. The survivors find each other and are led to the village by a French woman who slowly realizes they are the good guys.

She hides them in her home and explains something is going on at the town’s church, an unusually massive structure where the transmitting tower is located. The Nazis are taking the villagers in for some kind of experiments.

“Overlord” opens very strongly with a depiction of a WWII Allied armada as good as one would see in any conventional war movie. When the plane is struck by flak, the horror and confusion of warfare is made truly apparent.

While the story takes a while to get to the horror film components, it does so with a vengeance.

That is part of the film’s strengths: it delivers the elements of a war movie and then makes sure horror fans won’t feel cheated.

The film is written for an ensemble with three leads, Jovan Adepo as Boyce, the aforementioned thoughtful soldier who rises to the occasion; Wyatt Russell as Ford, the battle-hardened corporal; and Mathile Ollivier as Chloe, the French woman who is resisting the Nazis.

Director Julius Avery allows the story to build to a series of scenes that top one another in a rollercoaster type of way. He knows to how stage action and suspense.

Now, “Overlord,” like other films of its genre, is flat-out unapologetic gory. If that kind of imagery bothers you, I would strongly suggest you skip this one. Plus, it is most definitely not a film for children.

If you’re looking for the Mercedes of Nazi zombie movies, though, “Overlord” should be on your viewing list.