Dead Snow (2009)
Take one good look at this picture. Now you know what this movie is all about.
I think it’s fair to say that if you think anything that involves Nazi zombies could not potentially be the most awesome thing ever, not only are you a liar, but a very bad one at that. I think the popularity Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies can attest to that.
Dead Snow (Død snø) is the Norwegian story of a group of medical students on Easter holiday. Once they get to their ski cabin, they meet an old man who tells them a story about the Nazi occupation and hints there could be undead Nazis in the area. Needless to say, our heroes don’t heed his warning and eventually find themselves fighting for their lives against a regiment of Nazi zombies.
Dead Snow started off exactly how you would expect a B horror movie to start (the 1982 Czech film Ferat Vampire comes to mind), including the obligatory sex scene. However, after a certain point, you can see that Dead Snow ultimately aimed to parody the genre. I think the point is when Vegard (Lasse Valdal) stares down a second zombie soldier after having taken down a first one and says “Ok” very nonchalantly.
What really exemplified what Dead Snow was all about was when after having burned down their cabin with a misthrown Molotov cocktail, Roy (Stig Frode Henriksen) and Martin (Vegar Hoel) take on a horde of zombies with tools they found in a shed, including the requisite chainsaw. Ultimately, Dead Snow was good, zombie fun much in the same vain as Zombieland (2009), though it felt a little less refined. Nonetheless, Dead Snow works as a way to kill an evening.
Score: 3/4
I make a habit of watching Dead Snow every Halloween. It’s definitely a solid B-movie and parody of B-movies themselves (Nazi zombies…really). It plays around with who you think is going to live to great effect. Not to mention their 911 call is hilarious “You should have told them there were terrorists…then they would have come.”
That was probably my favorite scene in the movie. It was right after Roy throws the Molotov cocktail that winds up burning the cabin down instead of the zombies. Overall, Dead Snow was awkward in a very entertaining way.
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