Dead Snow Movie Review
Dead Snow Movie Review
The title Red Snow was already taken.
Nazis love their gold to death… and beyond. A group of hard-partying, sex-crazed young'uns find that out when they discover treasure from World War II hidden beneath the floor boards of the remote cabin they're in, and decide to keep it. This does not sit well with the gruesome Gestapo, who rally their troops from the beyond using their reanimated corpses as means to protect their hidden spoils.
An obvious homage to the hoary holy horror trinity of Raimi (Evil Dead 2), Jackson (Braindead) and Cunningham (Friday the 13th), Norwegian writer/director Tommy Wirkola lovingly lavishes on the clichés: college-age geeks and gorgeous gals converge in an isolated cabin without telecommunication or transportation, do something bad, then suffer the consequences. There is some light humor, but Wirkola misses the longboat when it comes to laughing out loud. Which is fine: he more than makes up for it with a fast-paced, horrifically gory, and shockingly well done third act.
The movie begins innocuously enough (after one "This is a horror movie!" assurance at the very start), showing the eight med-students joking and chatting their way to the isolated, snow-bound ski cabin. Once there, they play twister and trivia games, flirt with one another, and get drunk. Night falls, and as if on cue, a Wise Stranger with a Warning appears on their doorstep, imparts his info, then departs.
After a couple of the kids are picked off, the others figure out that something bad is afoot and they team up (then split up… yessss!) only to get hacked up. It's all good in the name of grue, and there are some real doozies of death scenes which are equally horrifying, complex and comical.
The special effects are sloppily great, there is no shortage of blood, and the undead are awesome (I don't say that very often; zombies aren't my fave — but these baddies are clearly inspired by the stepped-up gaming world). Merciless, unstoppable, and brutal but detached SS Colonel Herzog (Örjan Gamst) definitely deserves his own spinoff. (Which is not to say that Dead Snow itself is a keeper; I liked it once, but it's not a movie I'd watch over and over.)
Dead Snow opens in theaters in limed release tomorrow (Friday, June 19, 2009), or you may simply tune in to IFC in Theaters On Demand and watch it now.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson
