Film Review: Dead Snow

I have to say, I entered Dead Snow with some doubts. I mean, Nazi zombies? Really? Although at the same time, I have to admit it is a surprise it took someone this long to do it. Also, the cover of the Blu Ray has the mirthless pun "Ein! Zwei! Die!", which did even more to put me off, but I finally had a watch and was pleasantly surprised...

A group of Norwegian medical students journey to a remote cabin for a ski holiday, but after finding some treasure they awaken a horde of vengeful Nazi zombies.

Bear with me here, it's better than it sounds. Firstly, it manages the rarity of having a cast that is totally likable. And when they eventually start to get picked off, you do feel a bit sad. It's not something that happens much in this type of film, usually the students or whatever random teenagers that feature are so annoying that you can't wait to see them die! It's the first film I've seen since Hatchet where I've liked the soon to be murdered cast!

Another massive positive is that Dead Snow doesn't take itself too seriously, in fact in places it's downright hilarious, and you can see a huge influence from Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies throughout (in fact Evil Dead 2, along with some other films, are name-checked near the start of the film.)

The films builds up nicely in the first half, complete with random stranger warning the students about the Nazi menace in the area (In the Second World War, villagers staged an uprising against looting Nazis, and killed or ran them off...or so they thought), then as soon as they find the treasure, all hell breaks loose!

It's a spectacular second half filled with some fantastic zombie carnage, and one or two brilliantly inventive moments (there's a great 'cliffhanger' moment), and a continuing sense of humour throughout.

The only real problem stems from the fact that there's not a whole lot you can do with the zombie genre of horror movie. Sure it's always great to see zombies terrorize people, and the hilarious ways the people battle back, and the Nazi element is an interesting twist, but when it boils down to it, it's been seen before.

Now, that's not the fault of the film, in fact it tries to make things a bit different by having slightly different zombies. Imagine a more developed version of the undead we saw in Romero's Land Of The Dead (but they are fast, not slow) and you may get an idea. The zombies seem almost methodical at times, and even have a commander, so have some kind of hierarchy (The commander actually uses binoculars at one point), so these aren't your usual eat and destroy ones. But don't worry, they do plenty of that if they have to!

While zombie films are never going to top the classics like Dawn/Day Of The Dead, they still prove entertaining and films like Dead Snow and The Horde (reviewed here) prove there's still some life in the undead.

****
Save the Nazi element it's not particularly original but Dead Snow is still a riotously entertaining zombie romp that will please gorehounds everywhere. Top stuff.