Movie Review: Dead Snow (2009)

I know it's cliche these days to say Europeans really know how to do horror, but damn is it true.

I went to see Dead Snow last night as part of the Toronto After Dark film festival. While I could have been going to see any number of hot new movies (District 9, Ponyo, and what have you), I opted to see something completely ostentatious and highly entertaining: a gory comedy horror about zombie Nazis (Yes, zombie Nazis. Why aren't there more movies about zombie Nazis?). What I did end up getting was something that was actually created with a good deal more talent than you'd expect of this sort of thing.

Was it ridiculous? Of course it was. It's about a bunch of students who get attacked by Nazi zombies while on a skiing trip. I'm not expecting Eraserhead here. There's not a lot of psychological depth and motivation, and the plot has more holes than Charlie Brown's ghost Halloween costume. The characters are likable enough, even though most are essentially gore-fodder, but then again, I'm one of those dinks who feels sorry for horror movie teens (mostly, unless they're just stupid and deserve to be eaten). I will say, without spoiling, that some of them must have balls as big as their heads.

Dead Snow doesn't care about realism, though, or plot development, it cares about giving you a fantastically good time. It begins with some old-fashioned uni student partying up in the (actually very lovely) Norwegian mountains, complete with booze, loud music, and an admittedly very icky sex scene. A creepy old guy shows up to spoil the fun and warn the students about the area, cursed due to some very evil Nazis who froze to death during World War II. Of course, this is exactly when all hell breaks loose and we are treated to gory, action-packed goodness that just gets more and more demented as time goes on, to the point where I thought, with amusement rather than exasperation, "I wonder if this is going to turn out to be all a dream?"

The over-the-top violence and gore, as well as the darkly comic script, is hysterically funny one minute and intensely chilling the next. I wouldn't go so far as to compare Dead Snow with Shaun of the Dead, but there are moments when it pays homage to, while simultaneously taking jabs at, classic horror of yesteryear.

A surprising aspect of Dead Snow is the fact that the cinematography is fairly impressive. The audience is treated to fantastically framed shots of beautiful Norwegian mountains in winter just as much as lingering, almost affectionate shots of brains and intestines.

I saw this with a crowd of about a hundred and fifty people, some of whom were dressed in zombie attire, and were clearly all in the mood for a blood-splattered good time. We laughed, cheered, and screamed at the most intense moments, which just made it all the more entertaining. Definitely a film to watch with a big group of gore-addicts or just those who appreciate the blackest kind of comedy there is.