It’s the surest way to increase box office this side of a 3-D up-charge. Take two film genres and smash them together, hopefully drawing twice the audience. “Overlord” looks to attract fans of WWII flicks and zombie features.
Here, are some of the best and worst of past movie mashups.
BEST
“Shaun of the Dead”
The gold standard for intelligent comedy-horror, this 2004 zombie film had dry wit, memorable characters and braaaaains.
“Kill Bill: Volume 1” and “Volume 2”
It’s part chop socky, part Western, part ’70s revenge flick and then some — basically everything writer-director Quentin Tarantino ever watched when he worked at a video store.
“Alien”
Sci-fi meets monster in a 1979 movie so good you’re likely to forgive them for “Prometheus.”
WORST
“Bugsy Malone”
This one’s for the fans — both of them — of Prohibition-era gangster pictures and cheesy Disney musicals. The 1976 curiosity finds children playing all the roles.
“Cowboys & Aliens”
When cowboys battled aliens, it was the audience who lost. Despite the presence of Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, this 2011 mashup should have been beamed straight to DVD.
“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”
If only the real-life Lincoln had been interesting enough to make a movie about. This 2012 epic dud didn’t score — four or otherwise — at the box office.
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