Dead Snow

Directed by: Tommy Wirkola

Starring: Charlotte Frogner, Stig Frode Henriksen, Vegar Hoel, Jeppe Laursen

Synopsis:

A group of medical students go on a skiing vacation which takes a nasty turn as they discover that they share the locale with a battalion of Nazi Zombies intent on cutting the holiday short...

Review:

It’s hard not to like a movie that wears it’s source references so obviously on it’s T-shirt sleeves; literally in one case. The remote cabin story has been done to death but Dead Snow at least recognises this and has some fun with it.

At the beginning of the film it is established that the joker character, Erlend, is a movie geek and discusses the remote cabin movie references; Friday the 13th; Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 for examples. To his surprise, the single hot girl in the group also knows her horror movies throwing April Fool’s Day into the mix. A twist on the Friday the 13th school of horrors sees Erlend seduced by the girl in the outside toilet before she becomes one of the first victims of the nazi zombies. When he returns to the cabin, oblivious to the girl’s fate, he’s asked if he’s seen her; to which he replies “Yes” communicated through a beer inspired burp. Purile, but entertaining.

One of the medical students has a phobia of blood which is a cheap joke that doesn’t feel capitalised on later. Erlend is used as the mouth piece of the movie’s intentions and gets killed way too early for my liking.

The first two acts give the impression that, despite the humour, the movie is going to be full of spooky scares as opposed to outright scenes of carnage. There is the local who warns the group that something isn’t quite right and the initial visits from the protagonists are more spooky than anything else, with a lot of evil breathing noises, as if they’re related to a certain Dark Lord of the Sith. The Wanderer’s exposition gives the story about what happened to the Nazi soldiers from the village but we never find out why the soldiers reanimated. It seems to have something to do with the treasure that the group find in the cabin but this doesn’t explain why Sara was attacked at the very beginning of the movie and why the Wanderer was killed. Little aspects of the plot like those annoy slightly. Presumably, the film makers were more concerned with the group’s attempts at survival. I liked the slow build up but may have been in that frame of mind after watching the excellent Cold Prey recently. The shot of The Wanderer, dead in his tent, is very effective and chilling.

Erlend’s Brain Dead T-shirt is a big clue to where the movie heads off to in the third act. Though not as mad as Peter Jackson’s Brain Dead, it has a go at emulating some of the high gore levels. Instead of a lawnmower, we are treated to a snow mobile being used as a weapon at the ever increasing number of zombie soldiers. There are some genuine attempts to provide original deaths including one character holding on to a string of intestine whilst hanging from a cliff and another character having his insides caught up on a tree. With all the gleeful revelry in killing I found one sequence slightly distasteful with a female character watching the soldiers picking out her stomach contents. The shot was well done, with the obligatory heartbeat sound effect denoting her dwindling life, but the scene felt out of place and morbid, unlike the feeling of fun throughout the rest of the third act.

Although very obvious, I did like some of the humour including a character throwing a homemade Molotov cocktail and missing the open window, setting alight to the cabin. Sure, it’s been done before but it still works for me. The telephone call alerting cynical authorities to the group’s plight was amusing, too. The final scene was reminiscent of The Fog ,in a good way. Once again, though, it shows a little lack of clarity in the plot; were the zombies mostly interested in keeping hold of their swag or just in keeping their kill quota up?

The cinematography gives the production added gravitas, beginning with some decent aerial shots of the journey to the cabin, panoramic shots of the location, and a memorable shot of dozens of zombies appearing through the snow.

Verdict:

Dead Snow is nothing new, but if you like zombie movies, and like me have seen some real stinkers, you shouldn’t be disappointed. Unlike, for example The Dead Hate the Living and Dead and Deader, the in-jokes aren’t too numerous that they get in the way of the dialogue. A recommended movie for zombie film fans.

6/10 (Wayfarer)