Also Known As: DOD SNO
The only good Nazi, is a dead Nazi—and what’s even better than a dead Nazi? An undead Nazi. Why? Because Nazi’s were the epitome of evil—yet they dressed really cool. They’re perfect fodder for a horror movie villain. Tommy Wirkola’s DEAD SNOW is not the first film to tackle the subject of Nazi zombies, but it has definitely set the bar pretty high. The subject has previously been explored in 1977’s SHOCK WAVES (aka DEATH CORPS) and while it’s one of my favorite zombie movies, it has left a big cross section of horror fans under whelmed. Prior to that was THE FROZEN DEAD (technically the very first Nazi zombie movie), which many people haven’t seen or even heard about. Let’s not even get started on Jean Rollin’s craptastic, ZOMBIE LAKE—let’s face it, it takes a certain kind of b-movie freak to find anything worthwhile in that French turd of a flick. Then there’s Jess Franco’s OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES, which may be one of the worst films of all time (I like it, but I’m that rare breed of b-movie freak that I mentioned in the last sentence). That leaves the forgettable, NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES. Hmmm, in reflecting on DEAD SNOW’s predecessors, I guess the bar wasn’t that high to begin with, but the movie packs about 10 tons of fun into a 2 pound sack, that’s for sure.
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The film seems to be getting a lukewarm response from most people in the states (the film is Norwegian) and I don’t really understand why…well, okay maybe I do. First, the film is not a serious zombie film, it’s laced with black humor and is as campy as all get out, and that sort of business usually sticks in the craw of most “serious” horror fans, i.e. the kind of horror fans with sticks way up their collective asses. From the opening scene of a girl running for her life in the snow, to the tune of “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt (one of my all time favorite pieces of music, which is also Norwegian BTW), which concludes with a very cheesy jump scare (I jumped, I’ll admit it)—you know exactly what kind of movie you’re in store for. At less than two minutes in, I already liked the film. The rest of the film would have had to suck pretty hard for me to have been swayed at that point. Luckily, the film only got better.
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Story wise, DEAD SNOW breaks no boundaries. A group of med students and their girlfriends head up to a remote cabin (a tiny cabin at that) to snow mobile, have snowball fights, drink beer, fuck, and play Twister—you know, the normal stuff. That night a creepy old dude stops by the cabin and asks for some coffee and tells the twenty-somethings about the area’s dark history. He goes on to explain that during WWII the area was a key harbor for German battleships, and the particular group of Nazis that were stationed there were the meanest, nastiest bunch of S.S. baddies to leave boot tracks in Norwegian snow. Their leader was the even nastier, General Herzog, a cat that made Joseph Goebbels look like Mr. Rogers (okay, I made that last part up, but you catch my drift, he was a bad dude). The gang writes off the old man’s tale and continues on with their evening. Their fate is sealed when they discover a small chest in the freezer under the cabin, filled with riches that belonged to the General and his men. This apparently awakens and pisses off the Nazi’s and they come back to claim what is theirs…wait, are these guy’s Nazi zombies or pirate ghosts? Whatever, it doesn’t matter, the zombie’s origins are not what make the film entertaining, it the all out carnage that follows.
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Zombie movies all seem to follow a formula, and DEAD SNOW does the same, but it’s the way the action plays out that makes it great—none of the victims go without a fight (for the most part). The gore in the film is just amazingly over-the-top, but I’ll get to that later. It’s no coincidence that one of the med students wears a BRAINDEAD T-shirt, because DEAD SNOW is way closer to Peter Jackson’s classic than anything in the Romero or Fulci class of zombie flicks. BTW, the guy wearing the shirt is also a tubby film buff—and he’s the first to get laid (the only guy really)—I wonder if Wirkola was trying to win anybody over with that move, hmmmm? Besides that lovable character, the rest of the cast earns their stars throughout the course of the film. The only character I didn’t care for was the chick with the dreadlocks, for a few reasons, among them that I hate white chicks with dreadlocks more than white dudes with dreadlocks. Black people are the only people that can not only get away with the look—but can also make it look good, and white people just need to get over it. It would be no spoiler for me to tell you that the gang eventually get whittled down to one person (if you were expecting a different outcome, you really should watch more horror movies), and I must say the last person was a bit of surprise, in fact the whole surviving order of the cast was a little out of the box and I appreciated that.
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Now onto the gore. While I love that the film is loaded with blood and entrails, I do have one complaint—what the fuck is up with CG blood spaltter?!!! Really? Blood needs to be digitally added in? Really?!! Isn’t fake blood one of the cheapest props one could use in a horror film? This is a trend that has been growing as of late and I just don’t get it. The only reason that this effect doesn’t totally kill the movie for me is that it is used sparingly—and because there’s plenty of real-fake blood used in the film, thankfully. I am an admitted gorehound and proud of it, and digital blood aside, this film did fulfill my insatiable gore lust. There are tons of great kill scenes, but there are about 3 scenes in particular that are just incredible, I won’t give them away, but I will say that one includes someone hanging off the side of cliff by a rope of intestines. There are also a few scenes that had me wincing in pain, including a scene where one of the guys has to suture his neck wound.
DEAD SNOW is bound to appeal to some horror fans and not others because—god forbid it uses humor, but fans of movies like BRAINDEAD, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and Troma movies will probably eat it up and ask for seconds. I for one will be giving it many a re-watch in the years to come.
DEAD SNOW trailer