Overlord's practical monsters even freaked out its star Jovan Adepo: "I tried to keep my distance"

When director Julius Avery was making new horror movie Overlord, he wanted to use practical effects instead of the standard CGI. That might look great on film, but according to star Jovan Adepo in a new interview with our sister publication SFX magazine, it was also a little unnerving to see on set.

"I was easily grossed out by them," he says of the prosthetic creature effects used in the movie. "I tried to keep my distance as much as I could before filming so the feeling of disgust and fear could play naturally, but then the FX guys would make a creature wiggle or something and we’d have a nice laugh from it."

Adepo is a British actor who you might've seen in the HBO series The Leftovers or Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan on Amazon; in Overlord, he plays quiet-but-intelligent army recruit named Boyce. Avery revealed that Adepo's audition made him cry, and once he was hired, Adepo had to go through a real boot camp with the other actors.

"It was incredible and absolutely necessary," says Adepo. "We used the time to learn about navigation, communication within the group, as well as weapon training. Everything we learned in camp we were able to apply to our work in the film."

Overlord will be in theaters on November 9.

To read more about Overlord, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, grab the new issue of SFX magazine - a horror special! - out now. Check out a preview of the latest issue.

Rachel Weber is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+ and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She joined GamesRadar+ in 2017, revitalizing the news coverage and building new processes and strategies for the US team.