A thrilling and terrifying subgenre, war horror flicks really boost the blood and gore quotient against the backdrop of historical conflicts. Only the greatest of the best have the power to captivate audiences long after the closing credits have rolled. Storytelling is an undervalued yet powerful form of art that has charmed audiences for decades.
Horror films set during infamous conflicts have made a lasting impression on the cinema, with Nazi zombies, spooky psychological stories, evil demonic spirits, and enigmatic monsters among their many memorable elements. In the critically acclaimed Persian hit Under the Shadow, a strong mother fights off a djinn mystical force, while in the frightening historical horror film Overlord, a squad of American soldiers stumble upon unfathomable evil. Let’s look at some of the best war horror films currently available.
Brotherhood of the Wolf
The fascinating story of a terrifying, enigmatic creature tormenting the citizens of the province of Gévaudan during the French Revolution is told in the 2001 period action horror film Brotherhood of the Wolf, which was directed by Christophe Gans. King Louis XV of France assigns strong Knight Grégoire de Fronsac and his right-hand man Mani the deadly beast’s capture, but when they learn the creature’s actual nature, they find the mission to be far more challenging than they could have ever anticipated.
Brotherhood of the Wolf was a huge hit with critics and viewers alike, going on to become one of the all-time biggest grossing French-language movies in the United States and earning nominations for the César Award and International Horror Guild Award.
Dead Snow
In the 2009 horror comedy Dead Snow, a group of Norwegian medical students’ peaceful Easter holiday takes a terrible turn when they are pursued and attacked by Nazi zombies. In a lonely cabin in the cold highlands of Norway, the companions must struggle to survive while the undead creatures stalk the region in search of their next prey.
The intriguing movie’s plot is inspired on the Scandinavian folktale of the draugr, a revenant who guards buried riches after reviving. Dead Snow’s director Tommy Wirkola decided to include a curse because, as he once said, “We chose the traditional ones that are cursed. There are two categories of zombie movies that I enjoy: curse films and plague or viral movies. So we wanted ours to be like an Indiana Jones and ghost story.”
Jacob’s Ladder
The 1990 psychological horror film Jacob’s Ladder, starring Tim Robbins as an American infantryman in the Vietnam War haunted by strange and horrific visions, follows the troubled young soldier as he returns home and spirals into madness while battling his PTSD and dissociation. The Adrian Lyne movie’s title alludes to the Biblical tale of the same name, which is the location where Heaven and Earth collide.
The horror of the film would lie in the revelation that hope is hell’s greatest torture, that existence is a dream that ends over and over with the final truth: that life was never real, that we are all creatures imprisoned in perpetual suffering and damnation, as screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin once put it.
Overlord
The 2018 alternate history horror drama Overlord, directed by Julius Avery, follows a skilled squad of American paratroopers who are dispatched behind enemy lines just before D-Day to carry out a hazardous mission, only for the soldiers to discover a nefarious Nazi experiment that produces an undead army.
With its heart-pounding action scenes, copious amounts of blood and gore, and ominous Nazi zombies, Overlord went on to win two awards at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and received favorable reviews after its release. According to Entertainment Weekly, “a surprisingly well-made mashup of classic horror film thrills and clichés from war movies. It’s really enjoyable.”
R-Point
The Vietnam War is the setting for the 2004 psychological horror film R-Point, which follows a South Korean platoon of troops who receive a mysterious radio message appealing for assistance, prompting them to trek the perilous jungle in search of the frightened, lost men from the R-Point.
The valiant battalion is beset by terrifying events that cause them to doubt their existence and the cause they are fighting for after coming across a hallowed tombstone. The film studio issued made-up articles, eyewitness reports, and online news about the ominous events that allegedly took place in order to advertise the terrifying movie and heighten the mystique.
The Enemy
The Enemy, a 2011 horror film, is about a unit of Serbian soldiers who are entrusted with clearing fields of concealed mines after the end of the Bosnian War. They soon come across a weird man imprisoned in the basement of an abandoned factory. When the group frees the mysterious visitor, they are alarmed to see that he only requests cigarettes and exhibits no signs of hunger or cold.
Soon after, troops start to vanish one by one, leading those still present to question if the man is a savior or the devil himself. The Enemy, directed by Dejan Zecevic, a leading figure in Serbian cinema, has received a ton of praise for its challenging themes of good and evil, as well as its suspenseful tension and shivers.
The Third Part of the Night
The Third Part of the Night, an experimental psychological horror film from 1971, is set in Poland at the start of World War II and tells the story of a young guy named Michal and his father’s attempt to elude the Gestapo following the terrible death of his wife and children. After escaping to a nearby woodland, Michal discovers a frightening Nazi vaccine experiment and is then thrust into a bizarre other reality filled with startling doppelgängers and puzzling wormholes.
After its debut, critics praised the harrowing film, calling it “a protracted nightmare of societal and personal breakdown, it shows one man’s spiral into lunacy during the Nazi occupation of Poland, while the story is hard to follow (maybe on purpose).”
Trench 11
2017’s Trench 11 follows a group of British Army intelligence officers as they explore a covert shelter in the Argonne Forest where they discover a deadly evil hiding inside. The story is set during the First World War inside the walls of a secret German bunker. As spectators watched the soldiers enter the underground trench’s dark, deep corridors, where sick and rabid adversaries await them to strike, they were on the edge of their seats.
Trench 11 received a lot of positive reviews and recognition, including Best Horror Film at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The horrifying film, which scored a resounding 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, was a smashing success for historical horror.
Under the Shadow
With the psychological horror movie Under the Shadow from 2016, Babak Anvari had a stellar debut as a director. The film follows a mother and former medical student as she battles for survival while trying to keep her daughter safe from devastating missile assaults during the Iran-Iraq War. In a war-torn Tehran, Shideh’s building is attacked, leading the young mother to believe that her house is being haunted by an evil supernatural force and that a djinn is seeking to take possession of her child.
Shideh must fight both the evil lurking and her escalating PTSD in order to keep her family safe. The Daily Beast raved about Under the Shadow in their review, calling it “a ghost story both on its surface and far below it — a haunted house tale in which the tangible dangers of the war outside are so immediate that no one really sees what’s happening within the walls.” Under the Shadow had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival to almost universal acclaim. According to Paramount Pictures, war-themed horror movies really boost the blood and gore quotient against the backdrop of historical conflicts. Only the greatest of the best have the power to captivate audiences long after the closing credits have rolled. Storytelling is an undervalued yet powerful form of art that has charmed audiences for decades.
