I've been hearing quite a bit about this little zombie gem from Norway and finally got around to checking it out. I confess, with all of the snow we had in New York this winter, I vehemently avoided anything with the word 'snow' in it since it was beginning to make me want to remove my eyeballs from the sockets with a blunt butter knife, but I'm quite pleased that I finally got the chance to see this awesome little nugget of a film.
We start out very by watching a woman get chased through the hills by some kind of creature. She is panicked and runs for her life. The film makers waste no time, the girl (who we later find out is named Sara) gets outrun and eaten by what appears to be a bunch of Nazi zombies. Yep, Nazi zombies. Now, Nazis are not exactly exciting and new to the horror scene. Neither are Nazi zombies. But for some reason, Nazi zombies just always sound cooler than a regular old zombie. Let's continue.
Cue to a group of students on their way to a cabin for a ski vacation. Their young minds are littered with thoughts of sex and booze, as well as the whole week ahead of them to goof off in the snow and not worry about class. There's nothing original here, but that does not mean that we can't still have some fun with this predictable lot of knife fodder (or perhaps more accurately, zombie teeth fodder?). So the boozing and the horse play continues until a creepy man shows up at the cabin one night and invites himself in. He proceeds to tell the story of how the Nazis invaded this part of town during WWII and were downright terrible to the locals, abusing them and stealing from them and what not. Of course, the Nazi's who invaded were simply the MEANEST and most EVIl Nazis of them all. The villagers one day stood up for themselves and ran them out of town, right up into the snowy hills of that very mountain that our dear students are biding their time on. Assuming the Nazis just froze to death somewhere, no one gave them a second thought. Every good Nazi movie fan should know,
The next morning, one of the students named Vegard is getting worried that his girlfriend (whom he was cool with letting her ski on her own to meet them at the cabin because she is oh-so-athletic, rather than just driving up with the group in the fucking car) has not yet arrived. He goes off to look for her. Of course, us viewers know the fate of poor old Sara, but the students remain woefully oblivious to their situation. With worry wart Vegard out of the picture, the rest of the crew decide to continue the party, against the advice of the strange old man who showed up the previous night. One of them finds a box full of gold hidden under the floor panel. Teeming with excitement over their new found loot, the students don't realize that they've now piqued the interest of the Nazi zombies. Lesson learned: Don't ever take a Nazi zombie's loot. I don't have to summarize the rest of the film from this point forward, because from now on the film turns into your typical humans-against-zombies fight for survival.
So for anyone who doesn't know, I really love a good splatter film. I especially love a good splatter film when the backdrop is an all white snowy mountaintop. Visually, the film is beautiful. It's also hilarious, which I forgot to mention earlier on. Dead Snow knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to hide from it: a cliche yet clever homage to pretty much every 80's slasher ever. There's a TON of Evil Dead references in here, and even more horror cliches just waiting to be acted on. The gore is plentiful and well executed, and despite the fact that we've pretty much seen it all before, there is something uniquely satisfying about this new-generation zombie epic. Dead Snow is certainly not the best horror movie I've seen, but it is easily the best Nazi zombie film I've ever seen. I'm especially proud that this movie is Norwegian, since off the top of my head I really can't think of any other Norwegian horror movies even worth remembering (sidenote: I'm Norwegian). If you're getting dreadfully bored of the zombie sub genre and need a little faith restored, then I easily recommend Dead Snow. Even if you aren't a huge zombie fan but enjoy an occasional brain munching, I highly recommend this movie. It's one of those high quality zombie films that only come one once in a blue moon, and shouldn't be missed by any horror fan.
RATING:
**** out of *****
We start out very by watching a woman get chased through the hills by some kind of creature. She is panicked and runs for her life. The film makers waste no time, the girl (who we later find out is named Sara) gets outrun and eaten by what appears to be a bunch of Nazi zombies. Yep, Nazi zombies. Now, Nazis are not exactly exciting and new to the horror scene. Neither are Nazi zombies. But for some reason, Nazi zombies just always sound cooler than a regular old zombie. Let's continue.
Cue to a group of students on their way to a cabin for a ski vacation. Their young minds are littered with thoughts of sex and booze, as well as the whole week ahead of them to goof off in the snow and not worry about class. There's nothing original here, but that does not mean that we can't still have some fun with this predictable lot of knife fodder (or perhaps more accurately, zombie teeth fodder?). So the boozing and the horse play continues until a creepy man shows up at the cabin one night and invites himself in. He proceeds to tell the story of how the Nazis invaded this part of town during WWII and were downright terrible to the locals, abusing them and stealing from them and what not. Of course, the Nazi's who invaded were simply the MEANEST and most EVIl Nazis of them all. The villagers one day stood up for themselves and ran them out of town, right up into the snowy hills of that very mountain that our dear students are biding their time on. Assuming the Nazis just froze to death somewhere, no one gave them a second thought. Every good Nazi movie fan should know,
The next morning, one of the students named Vegard is getting worried that his girlfriend (whom he was cool with letting her ski on her own to meet them at the cabin because she is oh-so-athletic, rather than just driving up with the group in the fucking car) has not yet arrived. He goes off to look for her. Of course, us viewers know the fate of poor old Sara, but the students remain woefully oblivious to their situation. With worry wart Vegard out of the picture, the rest of the crew decide to continue the party, against the advice of the strange old man who showed up the previous night. One of them finds a box full of gold hidden under the floor panel. Teeming with excitement over their new found loot, the students don't realize that they've now piqued the interest of the Nazi zombies. Lesson learned: Don't ever take a Nazi zombie's loot. I don't have to summarize the rest of the film from this point forward, because from now on the film turns into your typical humans-against-zombies fight for survival.
So for anyone who doesn't know, I really love a good splatter film. I especially love a good splatter film when the backdrop is an all white snowy mountaintop. Visually, the film is beautiful. It's also hilarious, which I forgot to mention earlier on. Dead Snow knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to hide from it: a cliche yet clever homage to pretty much every 80's slasher ever. There's a TON of Evil Dead references in here, and even more horror cliches just waiting to be acted on. The gore is plentiful and well executed, and despite the fact that we've pretty much seen it all before, there is something uniquely satisfying about this new-generation zombie epic. Dead Snow is certainly not the best horror movie I've seen, but it is easily the best Nazi zombie film I've ever seen. I'm especially proud that this movie is Norwegian, since off the top of my head I really can't think of any other Norwegian horror movies even worth remembering (sidenote: I'm Norwegian). If you're getting dreadfully bored of the zombie sub genre and need a little faith restored, then I easily recommend Dead Snow. Even if you aren't a huge zombie fan but enjoy an occasional brain munching, I highly recommend this movie. It's one of those high quality zombie films that only come one once in a blue moon, and shouldn't be missed by any horror fan.
RATING:
**** out of *****