DeadSnow

Dead Snow (2009)

This little gem of a zombie movie hails from Norway and tells the story of a group of students that take their vacation on the wrong mountain. After heading out to an isolated cabin for some skiing, snowmobiling, and drinking the group of friends find themselves surrounded by Nazi zombies. Yes you heard that correctly, the mountain is home to the Nazi undead who have been guarding a secret since the end of the war. Before you know it the zombies are chomping their way thru the students and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Will anyone escape the mountain? And what are the zombies after, other than a good meal of course.

I always try and temper my excitement when I hear about a movie like Dead Snow. This is especially so when I know that I’m not going to see it right away. See I know I can set expectations so high that the movie will never live up to them and then disappoint me. But honestly I have to say this movie delivers the goods. The story, while not terribly original, is paced quickly and is fun. With the exception of one chubby goofy movie fan that strolls around in a Brain Dead t-shirt you have the typical group of good looking young people that are going to be torn up by the zombies. Though unlike many of the other horror films that I’ve seen the only sex scene involves the chubby guy into movies and one of the cute girls. I for one applaud such forward thinking in a genre movie! Getting back to the plot I liked the fact that the movie makes no real effort to explain why this particular mountain is infested with Nazi zombies, it just is. There is the old creepy guy that shows up and gives the cast a brief background on the history of the mountain and warns them they need to live (another staple of the horror film) and then is quickly dispatched himself. Again Dead Snow isn’t a terribly original movie, but it is a well executed and entertaining one. Though I do need to put one little caveat in here. If you are the sort of fan that is turned off by some silly comedy and references to other horror films then steer clear of Dead Snow. Personally I rather enjoyed the silliness and the references and think the movie handles them brilliantly.

Of course since Dead Snow is a zombie movie we have to talk about the special effects. I was rather impressed with the practical effects, and not bothered by some CGI assists. You get some nice gut munching (heh couldn’t help myself), a head that is cracked open like an egg, some eye gouging, lots of violence to undead Nazis, an Evil Dead style amputation, and a really funny bit with some intestines and a cliff. And I’m not even scratching the surface here. Really it has been a long time since I’ve seen a movie with this many effects shots in it. Oh and the Nazi zombies are awesome looking. All in all I think that the gore hounds are going to love this movie. I love a bit of the red stuff myself and I know that I did.

My 2 favorite comedic zombie flicks are Return of the Living Dead and Shaun of the Dead. While not quite up to those movies I still think that Dead Snow belongs in every horror fan’s collection. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that it is available in the U.S. yet. But I can’t imagine we won’t be seeing a DVD release sometime in 2010. In the meantime it has been making it’s way around theaters so keep your eyes open for a screening near you. I really think everyone should check it out.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer