Dead Snow (Død Snø) Directed by: Tommy Wirkola Cast: Vegar Hoel, Charlotte Frogner Running Time: 1 hr 30 mins Rating: Unrated Release Date: September 11, 2009
Plot: A group of medical students travel to a secluded mountain cabin to spend a weekend engaging in drunken sex and winter sports. Unfortunately, the hills surrounding the cabin are full of NAZI ZOMBIES! So that's going to be a problem.
Who’s It For? If you like slasher films and don't mind subtitles, this is for you.
Expectations: Zombies are badass, Nazis are evil, so Nazi Zombies must be on a whole new unimaginable level, right? Right?
SCORECARD (0-10)
Actors:
Vegar Hoel as Martin: Martin's a medical student who's afraid of blood, so you know that he's going to have issues when the zombies show up. Hoel's credible in his role but I never really liked him, or cared if he lived. He's kind of a douche. You should probably want the main character in a horror film to live, so I'm not sure that this worked out. Score: 5
Charlotte Frogner as Hanna: Despite the blonde dreads that say "I'm the hippie vegan of the group," Frogner's Hanna is one of the more sympathetic characters in the film, if only because she does a reasonably good job of standing up to the zombies. Sure, some of her choices aren't the best, but compared to her friends, she's a survivalist. Still, you don't care too much what happens to her either. Score: 6
Talking: The dialogue's all Norwegian with subtitles. But it's still standard slasher fare stuff. "Oh no, should we be staying at this secluded cabin in the woods? Why sure, there's nothing around for miles, what could possibly happen..." Score: 6
Sights: The film is shot like a reasonably budgeted American slasher flick, so the visuals are pretty nice. Beautiful scenery and ugly, bloody bodyparts are the main juxtaposition. Score: 7
Sounds: The soundtrack contains the sort of rock you'd expect in a film like Final Destination, except they're all in Norwegian, which I found kind of awesome. Score: 7
PLOT SPOILERS
Best Scene: There are many scenes showing creative and horrific deaths. Because the victims are all medical students, they attempt to bandage themselves up when they can using whatever is available. The best of these scenes features Vegard (Lasse Valdal) trying to keep his head on, literally, after it's almost severed. Finally he decides to hold it down by wrapping duct tape around his neck. I wish there had been more creative, fun, moments like that.
Ending: Horrifying and it's actually sort of funny. The ending works even though the vast majority medical students who just wanted to have fun wouldn't agree with me.
Questions: I don't know much about zombies, but shouldn't they be more decomposed after 70 years than they are? Is snow that good a preservative? And how come they aren't eating brains?
Rewatchability: It's not a great movie, but the premise is so novel with the brilliant Nazi Zombie mashup, that it's the sort of thing I'd want to show friends when they come over for a movie night.
OVERALL Back in January I heard this movie was playing at Sundance and got so excited. Nazi Zombies! But unfortunately, this movie has far more in common with a typical slasher movie than a zombie movie. In case you're not sure of the difference, zombie movies tend to be more about what's going on (we have to kill these bastards) compared to a slasher movie (kill everyone off one by one mode until either one person or no one is left). Slasher movies can be enjoyable, but I felt in this case it was a waste of a great premise. Other than thatl disappointment, it's a well done movie. I could easily see Wirkola moving over here and making American slasher movies with larger budgets. If you like horror movies and want something to while a way an afternoon, you could do worse than Dead Snow.
Final Score: 6/10