Dead Snow

Come on! It was fun! Zombified Nazi soldiers from the war are attacking a bunch of students. And the students fight back. A lot of references to Evil Dead here, a lot of fun, stupendous gore, with all the guts and brains and blood you would ever want.

At times the humour in the film actually hurt the viewing, since it was obviously artificial, so the greatest flaw of the movie, according to yours truly, is that it was not consistent, ever shifting from parody to the real thing. But eve so, it was tons of fun.

Although I have to admit, the funniest part of the movie is when the Nazi zombie officer appears with a spotless officer hat. I can only imagine the poor guy, eternally cleaning his military attire.

Norwegian Zombie terror film about some Nazis dead coming back to life on snowy lands . A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies. This low-budget terror motion picture deals with a group who run into a pack Nazis coming back to life and terrorizing an unnamed Norwegian area .This clever horror movie deals about an ever-dwindling group of hikers. They drink and party until a mysterious scout arrives. He tells them the dark history of the region; during WWII, a force of Einsatzgruppen led by the dreaded Standartenführer Herzog occupied the location . During three long years the Nazis abused and tortured the local people, and near the end of the war, with Germany's defeat looming, looted all their valuables before beginning to withdraw from the place . The villagers managed to stage an uprising and ambushed the Nazis, killing many. The surviving Nazis, including Herzog, were pursued into the valleys , and it was assumed that they all froze to death . Later on , the hikers are afflicted by stalking, vicious flesh-eating stiffs relieved .

Gory, gruesome , pretty repellent , and ghastly cannibal feast in which the stumbling flesh-eating stiffs are reanimated and can be only destroyed by bullets in the brain , slashing and throat-hacking . Unrelenting shock-feast laced with brief touches of black humor and tongue-in-cheek . Army of Zombies appearance roaming the countryside , booth and some people besieged inside a cottage deliver the goods , enough to be interesting .Main great success from Norway cinema is compelling directed with startling visual content and nice production by Tommy Wirkola ; furthermore special mention to excellent make-up by the magnificent Norwegian craftsmen . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills, chills, body-count executed by the eerie Nazi Zombies and photographed in pallid color with lurid images and phenomenal results . This is a classic excruciatingly Zombie film where the intrigue,tension, suspense appears threatening and lurking on the snowy outdoors , shack , mountains and many other places . In Norway considered the plus ultra of thoroughly disturbing movie is less stomach-churning by nowadays's standards . Død snø (original title) is a genuinely frightening story with correct utilization of images-shock and well photographed on location in Alta, Finnmark, Norway and Målselv, Troms. It contains a creepy and eerie musical score and appropriate cinematography . The director creates a special Zombie thriller that manages to be both scary and skilfully made, deserving its cult status . Rating: Good, this is one more imaginative horror pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style and packing lots of blood and gore , but also some laughs . It's just one long unrelenting cannibal feast and average budget horror movie that still packs a punch for those who like to be terrorized out their wits. Other films dealing with Zombies Nazis are the following : ¨Shock Waves (1977)¨ by Ken Wiederhorn with Peter Cushing and Brooke Adams ; ¨Grave of the living dead (1983)¨ by Jesus Franco and ¨Horror of war (2006)¨ by John Whitney.

The mandatory circumstances to watch a movie like "Dead Snow" are as follows: at a horror themed festival amongst hundreds of outrageously enthusiast and derailed fellow genre fanatics - preferably at 3am on a weekend night – and surrounded by booze and snacks. If this shouldn't be possible, try and gather as many friends together for a drunken movie night, but whatever you do, don't watch this cheerfully repugnant and positively demented movie all by yourself as it is too much of a crowd-pleaser! The formula of laugh-evoking zombie splatter movies isn't new (even Nazi zombie movies have been done before, for example "Shock Waves" and "Zombie Lake"), but spirited and ambitious young filmmakers never cease to invent original variations on the sub genre. Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola took his cast & crew high up north, for a splatter film in a beautiful and isolated snowy setting. A group of medical students – that are also die-hard horror movie freaks – trek to a remote mountain cabin for a weekend of snow scooter fun, drinking and casual sex. The first night of their arrival already, they receive a visit from a mysterious and grumpy old local who tells them a grotesquely absurd story about sinister events that occurred in the area near the end of WWII. The atmospheric tale says that fed up villagers combined forces and chased their Nazi occupants into the mountains where they all froze to death. The clique laughs away the warnings, but subsequently discovers a box of old coins that promptly resurrects an army of Nazi soldiers in a far developed state of decomposition. The first half of "Dead Snow" is slow-paced, atmospheric and full of little tributes to classic zombie movies; particularly "The Evil Dead" movies. The students are standard horror stereotypes, including the nerd and the blond bimbo, and thus the first half also contains childish pranks and gratuitous sex sequences. As soon as the Nazi zombies emerge, however, "Dead Snow" is a non-stop spitfire of blood, gore and intestines. Apparently the production of this film required 450 liters of fake blood, and that isn't nearly so surprising if you watch the end result. There's chainsaw action, decapitations, rope pulling with intestines, axe murders, machine gun concerts and disembowelment. The effects are top-notch in spite of the obvious budgetary restrictions, and the make up art on the zombies is very impressive. The rotting uniformed corpses look quite menacing, especially their leader. The snowy landscapes are beautiful picture to behold, although it's even more amusing to see the white snow color red with blood! Tommy Wirkola is a clearly talented director and hopefully a promising long career awaits him.

And that's why I cant give it a rating. I froze my arse of being under shovles of snow, waiting to stand up as a zombie nazi. I do think it's a really fun splatter horror comedy, and the direction by Tommy (Wirkola) told me he would go on to bigger projects. It's by far the most entertaining and cold experience in my short life in movies. More fun was the world premiere in Tromsø, where about 1/4 of the invited audience left the cinema when the gorefest started. Highly recomandation from a biased member of the Død Snø crew!

Tommy Wirkola sure knows how to make a zombie film! Not only does he reference many classic zombie films, but in turn he makes his own unique spin on the zombie tale and he does it well. The plot has striking resemblance to many slashers, as it starts off with a group of medical students taking a ski vacation. However, it takes a turn with random when Nazi Zombies decide to ruin their fun in order to take back their stolen treasures. Dead Snow has many things going for it apart from its odd story; it is well written and directed, all the actors are very good and the gore levels are extremely high and rival almost every modern zombie flick.

It goes to show that foreign horror (especially European) is loads better than most American trash released. This film comes from Norway and is a shining example. Simple in its execution, with a group of like-able characters, a witty script and much disemboweling and de-limbing, Dead Snow is one of the year's best horror films and should make its way into many Top lists soon enough.

4/5