Dead Snow (2009) Review

What I’m Watching

Dead Snow (2009. Directed by Tommy Wirkola)

What are two of the most awful, horrific, and terrible things that you never want to come across? A Nazi and a Zombie. Let’s hybrid these two bastards and create the ultra horror villains: NAZI ZOMBIES! "Dead Snow" is a fantastic little Norwegian horror/dark comedy film. I heard about it from a friend and became quite intrigued. As it was not yet on DVD release, I saved it to my Netflix queue. After that, I began hearing all about this movie from various friends/online reviewers/media outlets. This peaked my interest even more. You can imagine my immense delight when I clicked on Netflix the other day and saw that not only was it released, but Netflix has it available for Instant Streaming. CLICK! Side note: Being a Norwegian film, it obviously has English subtitles.

Essentially, a bunch of med school friends go out to this cabin in the middle of the snowy mountains, virtually in the middle of nowhere, near the super small community of Øksfjord. They hang out and get a nice buzz going, until some super creep stumbles across there cabin and provides our group of friends with the entire back-story of the area during the WWII, and the Nazis who terrorized the community. The community revolted and turned the table on the Nazis. Many were killed, but some Nazis, including their leader, Herzog, escaped into the mountains where they were assumed to have frozen to death. But, of course, there is still some “evil” in the area. From then on out, as expected, it’s Nazi-Zombie revolution and a fight for survival for our group of friends. It may not be the most original plot (how many zombie movies can society make?!) but it is a fresh take on a very popular and old subject.

What I love about this film is the perfect mixture of horror and comedy. I had read some reviews about how it’s a great dark comedy film on top of the horror aspect. I’ll admit when I first began to watch it, I did not immediately get the sense of comedy coming from the film. As it progressed, however, the obvious sarcastic and satirical aspects shined through! I think it gets funnier as more shit hits the fan! In my opinion, this film is first and foremost, a horror movie. It honestly scared me! What the film does wonderfully is strategically place the comedy underneath all the blood, gore, and scares. Right when the tension is high, the gore is maximum, and peril is looming, something hysterical happens, whether it be a snide quip, or some physical humor, that makes the viewing so much more enjoyable and also helped with pacing. I’ve heard a lot of “Shaun of the Dead” comparisons, as it is a comedy/horror featuring zombies, but there is a very obvious distinction that separates these two films and makes them each stand out in their own particular way. In “SOTD”, the characters and the situation were always performed in a humorous light. I would say “SOTD” is a dark comedy with a horror subject matter. “Dead Snow” is a horror where funny things occur. The actors played these characters in such a straight and serious manner (even the obvious humorous parts) that made everything completely believable, and which is ultimately why I believe the comedy works so well in this horror movie.

I would like to PRAISE the special makeup effects department of this production for creating the scariest zombies I have ever seen. These zombies were seriously decayed and terrifying. These were not your run-of-the-mill zombies either. These motherfuckers were FAST. I’m talking like, puma-fast! And they wouldn’t just grab a victim and start snacking on their flesh. These zombies could KICK the LIVING SHIT out of you. I can only assume that these zombies are all world class street fighting champs. They were smart bastards too. I love how one of the zombies had the good sense to get himself a pure white parka so he could blend in with the snow and do some serious creeping! The GORE in this movie was immaculate and nauseating! I love gory movies…the more, the better! I especially love when the gore is extremely realistic. I got to hand it to this film though. It had even me cringing and wanting to shut my eyes! The gore goes above and beyond the disgust factor!

The majority of the film takes place outside in the daytime. Everything is pretty much white snow. Many of the other colors (Zombies, trees, etc) were dull and muted colours. I loved this, because it made the blood pop on screen.

I don’t know if it was because of Netflix, the possibly low budget, the sound syncing, or on purpose, but the sound effects are all very loud and in your face. Whatever reason it is, it worked wonderfully for the tension and suspense. For instance, in the opening sequence we see a young woman running for her life through the snowy woods, and her panting and occasional whines of fear are very loudly synced over the background score. This took the tension to a much higher and more intense level. I hope and assume it was done that way on purpose, but it could have been because of the budget. I admit I’m not sure what the budget was for this film, but I can only assume it was pretty low. I also liked how during some high tension moments, we can hear the heartbeat of the character in the background beating faster and faster.

There were a few flaws that didn’t necessarily take away from the experience, but did stick out a bit. There were some obvious plot holes and inconsistencies that the audience just needs to accept and not dig too much in to. One of them, I’ll point out, actually turned out to be hysterical. Without giving too much of a SPOILER, towards the end of the film, one of the guys pulls out his cell phone to call the police, and actually gets through. That made me wonder, why the bloody hell didn’t you pull your phone out when the zombies first started terrorizing you? Then, the phone naturally dies, and the guy screams out something along the lines of “The battery’s dead; fucking Nokia!” Suddenly I forgave the fact that he could have used his phone the whole time, and just cracked up.

The biggest flaw that bothered me personally was the character development. We were presented with 7 characters. One guy and one girl were slated to be a bit more main than the rest. So I’m thinking that I’ve got to root for these guys, but as the film progresses, that completely changes. The film didn’t exactly present the audience with a bond or reason to root for anyone specifically. I think the scary plot, the great action/fight sequences, and the comedy were the focal point of the movie, and getting to know the characters was an afterthought. They were great actors, don’t get me wrong. It was certainly no fault of the actors that the characters bothered me. It was the way they were written. The audience is given little to no emotional bond to any of the characters. I believe if the movie itself wasn’t so visually strong, this would have annoyed me much more than it did. Once I decided not to invest any apathy for any character, I just sat back and enjoyed the serious BADASSNESS!

I love that this film scared the crap out of me, disgusted me beyond belief, and made me laugh out loud obnoxiously! I know none of my close friends will ever consider watching this, because it would probably make them throw up, but I still give this film a high recommendation (for those with a strong stomach at least!)