Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead

Invigorating sequel to the popular Norwegian horror movie of 2009 is good - sometimes great -fun. It brings back the much tormented Vegar Hoel as Martin, once again forced to battle zombie hordes. In a delicious twist, his severed arm has been replaced with the limb once worn by nefarious Nazi zombie leader Herzog (Orjan Gamst). This gives him increased strength and a special ability, which are going to come in handy. Fortunately, Martin will have allies this time, including a self-appointed American zombie squad, consisting of no more than two girls and a guy.

The gleefully politically incorrect humour is refreshing in a sequel that goes for the "bigger and better" approach. It's got lots of action, lots of gore, and is quite exciting at times. This time the zombified antagonists take on a great many victims. The acting is terrific from all concerned, with Hoel endearing as our hero. Gamst is fantastic as our unstoppable foe, for whom the retrieval of gold just wasn't enough. The integrated cast this time around also includes such American actors as Martin Starr, as Daniel, and Derek Mears, as Stavarin. The script, by Hoel, co-star Stig Frode Henriksen (who plays the nerdy Glenn Kenneth), and director Tommy Wirkola dabbles in self-referential remarks, but never goes overboard in this regard. There are some great gore gags, often involving internal organs. But the best asset of the movie is the healthy dose of humour, which makes all of this very easy to watch. The subplot with the incompetent cops is amusing but not as much fun as most of the movie.

If you liked the first "Dead Snow", you just might love this one.

Eight out of 10.

Of course the zombie movie genre actually is one that has least of worries surviving a troubled movie market. Yet artistically it has seen little ingenuity off lately. Luckily the Norwegians decided to step in to turn the tide of ever more formula driven boring slaughter and slashing gore. If all zombie flicks would be adding as many original ideas as this one the genre wouldn't be facing imminent death by boredom. Let's hope the next one is even better. And let's hope that the producers will be brave enough to not give in to US inspired hypocrite 'moral' in aspiring to broader audiences. A doubtful moral that would probably threat depicting the metaphors for the deplorable human condition that zombie movies are all about. And one that would most likely kill the brilliant final scene of this one.

Everything in zombie movies has been done to death (see what I did there?). And yet, here comes a movie that actually adds to the genre whilst simultaneously disgusting me and making me belly laugh. And not one of those infectious belly laughs. You know, when you are in a theatre and something mildly amusing on-screen sends a ripple through the crowd which grows; mostly because the girl down the front has a weird cackling laugh that morphs into a full-on snort fest, and that just sets everyone else off. Yeah, well, it's not like that.

I was on my own. And I laughed out loud multiple times. I genuinely LOLed. That's as rare as rocking horse faeces.

Dead Snow 1 was a revelation; a brilliant twist on the genre. Dead Snow 2 adds again. The comedy elements are ratcheted up as is the budget. A budget wisely spent on special effects and sheer scale.

If you are after genuine chills and insights into the human condition, Dead Snow 2 will leave you cold (see what I did there too?). But if your appetite runs to comedic gore in the vein of Peter Jackson's 'Brain Dead', you will love this one.

I personally thought the first one was better. This one tried and I appreciate the effort that is put into this. But it just felt way too drawn out and the over the top moments seemed more silly than it actually being cool. There is no suspense or anything all that cool really, even if it has over the top blood and gore scenes. While the zombies were actually kind of intimidating and creepy in the first one it, just isn't the case here. I thought some ideas that are dumb and clever at the same time sort of worked, even if it doesn't make much sense if you think about it. Yeah, they created a new genre of zombies, but that doesn't make it particularly good or anything. So the zombies knows how to talk, communicate, fist fight, use weapons and be able to run. And the head of the zombie pack can resurrect the dead, without much explanation. The first "Dead Snow" was a survival movie...Well sort of. This one is a zombie brawl, it's somewhat entertaining for a while but it loses it's flavor quickly. I give this flick a 6.3/10 because of the effort, even if some parts of it seemed quite pointless.

6.3/10

The first one was a gory blast. But the second one tops it in every conceivable way: This is a no-holds-barred splat-fest from the beginning to the end which would make (the early) Peter Jackson proud!

I can take a lot of splatter, but I must admit: some scenes were so disgusting that I was as much retching as I was laughing (a very confusing experience - believe me), this movie really takes no prisoners. And it really seems to want to make a statement against political correctness: the elderly, the disabled, kids, mothers with strollers, gays, heck: even babies(!!!) all get blown up or hacked to pieces in such creative ways that even an old gore-hound like me was a bit shocked (I must shamefully admit). Then again, when you're dealing with Nazi-Zombies, that was to be expected.

But the film is also very well done; the camera, the music, the sound-effects, and - most importantly - the make-up effects were absolutely fantastic. Nazi-Zombies have never looked better.

A word to the wise, though: This film is absolutely not for the easily offended (or people, who - unlike me - have a certain amount of taste, decency and general common sense left).

Watch at your own risk - 8 stars out of 10 from me.

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