Dead Snow
2009 91 Minutes
Achtung!
Here we go with another Nazi Zombie flick.
Whats the Plot?
A bunch of (fairly stupid) Norwegian medial students go to the mountains for a bit of a holiday. The students failed to do research and didn't know that the mountain in question used to be a Nazi controlled area. Nazi Zombie mayhem ensues.
Why do I feel like i've seen this before?
Well thats because you have. As well know, at this point the cabin in the woods movie had been done to death, and it wasn't till the actual movie "Cabin In the Woods" that it was flipped on it's head. The beginning of this movie is a complete choir to watch. Of noticeable blandness is that the beginning clearly looks like it was shot for the new MTV generation - featuring quick edits and non-sense snowmobile jumps. I was honestly very worried from the get-go, it seemed even more pointless than the usual cabin in the woods flick.
Is this about to get good?
Not quite half-way through the movie the set-up (revealing whats going to happen) is provided but some grumpy old man. The movie did not get good at this point either and my worry continued. The set-up seemed like an OK idea, but it really never explains whats about to happen that well.
Am I watching a different movie?
Here is the key to this review, I honestly felt like a different movie started at the 47min mark. It all starts with one gory character death and all of a sudden the tone of this movie completely changes.
Funny one liners, gore galore and hordes of zombies all of sudden come into the picture and the movie stops taking itself so seriously. This was the movie I had been waiting for.
Were Nazi's necessary?
Nah, not really. I suppose they needed some reason for a lot of zombies to attack these kids, and I will say that their use in this film is actually pretty good once it gets going.
How is the gore?
For a movie that was clearly shot for a low budget, they did a pretty good job. There are times when you can see more of a mannequin being used, but it doesn't hurt the film as by the point this is happening, it realizes just how absurd it is and has hopefully gotten the viewer to buy into the circus. There is plenty of blood and guts to be seen, so for you gore hounds, you will likely have plenty to enjoy - you just have to sit through a boring build-up to get to it.
How does it look?
I watched this film on Blu-Ray and was very impressed by how it looked. The film appears very clear and even though it looks grainy at times, I suspect this is because they clearly did not have the budget to use the highest quality film.
Final Thoughts?
I can appreciate what they were trying to do here. My major gripe with this film is just how superior the second half is to the first.
I really liked that they kept the Norwegian music in the film, but I wish they wouldn't have gone for the quick edits to keep peoples attention. The definite lack of relying on jump scares is also appreciated as It would have further cheapened the film.
There is a big payoff if you can make it to the end of this film, because the final action scenes are both gore-tastic and quite funny.
Due to this feeling like a half a movie, but that last half being so good, i'm giving this movie 3 klinks out of 5.
Here is the trailer:
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