The World War II zombie horror movie Overlord, produced by J.J. Abrams's Bad Robot and directed by Julius Avery (Son of a Gun), became one of 2018's most hotly anticipated genre offerings after its explosive trailer premiered at San Diego Comic-Con last July. The film, which may or may not be part of the Cloverfield franchise, will have its world premiere at next month's Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX before hitting theaters nationwide on November 9th.

Overlord refers to Operation Overlord, the code name used by the Allies for the Battle of Normandy (the bloody intrusion into Occupied Europe that turned the tides of war in our favor). Of course, we can expect Abrams and Avery to weave their own terrifying twists into the annals of history.

In {Overlord, it's the eve of D-Day as paratroopers penetrate enemy lines for a special mission. Approaching their target, they soon realize there's something definitely off in this Nazi-occupied village. This is more than a simple military operation.

Today, we're getting our first look at the latest UK Poster for Overlord; it features a terrifying individual sporting the kind of evil grin you'd expect to see on someone's (or something's) face right before they rip you to shreds! It definitely maintains the chilling and bloody aesthetic of the trailer, and you can check them both out at the bottom of the article. All indications are that Overlord will be a harrowing experience; here's what Abrams told Digital Spy last February:

"Overlord ... first of all it's something that I can't wait for you to see cause the director, Julius Avery, has done an amazing job on it. But the specifics, you know, we should wait and see. But that's really a crazy movie."

The stakes are somewhat higher than normal, as fans of Abrams' Cloverfield franchise were more than slightly disappointed by the 3rd Chapter in the series; The Cloverfield Paradox made a surprise appearance on Netflix immediately following the Super Bowl last March. While it pushed high-concept sci-fi to new levels, it drifted from the gritty, grounded sense of reality that made Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane pulse-pounding crowd-pleasers. Even if Overlord turns out to be a standalone, completely divorced from the Cloverfield universe, Bad Robot needs a hit in order to get the bad taste of Paradox out of horror fans' mouths!

The screenplay for Overlord is based on an original concept by J.J. Abrams and was penned by Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Captain Phillips) and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Vacancy). The film stars Jovan Adepo (The Leftovers), Wyatt Russell (Everybody Wants Some!!), Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones), Dominic Applewhite (The King's Speech), Pilou Asbaek (Game of Thrones), Iain de Caestecker (Marvel's Agents of SHIELD), John Magaro (The Big Short), Mathilde Ollivier (The Misfortunes of Francois Jane), and Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo). This arrives from Paramount Pictures.

Overlord poster