Dead Snow

Blood and Gore: 9/10

Zombies: 9/10

Hope: 0/10

Here’s a fun one: Nazi zombies.  How great is that concept?  I only wish that I had watched it sooner, because this movie kicked some serious ass.  True, I’m not in the least bit knowledgable of Norwegian culture, so I am sure that there are some things that I missed as a result, but this is a shining example of how a fresh and fun zombie movie can be made from anywhere in the world.  The bleached white landscape is the perfect backdrop to contrast the crimson-red of every victim’s blood, and you can’t help but smile when a Nazi takes an axe to the face.  Welcome to Dead Snow.

It’s Easter vacation, and a group of medical students have decided to rough it out in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.  They park their cars in a random lot, and then have to hike 45 minutes to reach their destination, all the while becoming completely disoriented.  It’s not all bad times, however, because they have a snowmobile and a lot of booze, so the good times start to roll.  After they spend the day doing every cliché snow activity, a mysterious old man shows up and tells them a seemingly pointless story involving some very greedy Nazis.  They laugh off his warnings, and he leaves in a hurry, wanting to get away from the stupid children and their “science”.  He decides it would be safer to set up his tent in the middle of a dark valley all by himself, so of course he dies.

Meanwhile, everyone in the cabin is a little on edge, and they begin to worry about one person who hasn’t shown up yet.  Martin, the owner of the snowmobile, decides to go out and look for the late-comer, while everyone else decides to calm their nerves with some more booze!  The fun then begins as people stop coming back from the outhouse, and the zombies finally make their appearance.  The survivors barricade the door and arm themselves as best as possible, but that doesn’t stop one guy from getting his head crushed.  They suffer through the night and make a plan to escape, the two men staying as a distraction while the two women run for help.  Bad idea, because they have no idea where they are, so they have no idea where to run.

Its business time.

The men eventually suit up for war, using a tool shed for its rich supply of zombie-killing staples.  Pick axes, sledgehammers, and the always-classy chainsaw are among the featured weapons, and the murder-montage that ensues is just beautiful.  Just when they think that it’s over, and the commanding zombie officer is all that remains, said zombie calls for reinforcements, and the hills become alive with the sound of Nazi resurrection.  Our two heroes make a break for it, but only one survives to come up with a plan.  He realizes that the zombies are after treasure, so he races back to the cabin to relinquish a box of gold that was found earlier.  In doing so, the Nazis let him go, and he makes it all the way back to his car before he discovers that he still has a singular golden coin.  F#%$.

 

Great fun!  The big fight scene is reminiscent of Shaun Of The Dead, and you’ll know why if you watch it.  I did enjoy a lot of the banter between the characters, and they managed to throw a few pop culture references that its hard not to appreciate.  Having a character who is a movie buff that breaks the fourth wall by mentioning horror films which start with a group of friends in a remote cabin is also a nice touch.  Honestly, the only thing that really made me mad was that the Nazis would just let the last guy go because he gave them gold.  Why weren’t they aware that he still had that gold piece?  Yeah, I know, the shock ending, but still.  Anyway, I highly recommend this one to anyone, especially the zombie fans out there.  It has a short run time and great pacing, plus an extremely visceral feel to it.  Enjoy!

Until next time, kids, keep watching those bad movies with your friends.  If you watch bad movies alone, you watch bad movies with Hitler.

P.S. I would rather be a zombie than chainsaw my own arm off.  Still, that is a pretty badass thing to do.

They prefer gold over brains. A superior zombie race.