Movie Review

Mania Grade: C

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Movie: Dead Snow
Rating: R
Starring: Charlotte Frogner, Stig Frod Henriksen, Vegar Hoel, Jeppe Laursen, Evy Kasseth Røsten, Jenny Skavlan and Ørjan Gamst
Written By: Stig Frode Henriksen, Tommy Wirkola
Directed By: Tommy Wirkola
Distributor: Euforia Film
Series:

DEAD SNOW Review

Nazis! Zombies! Finally Together in One Movie!

By Rob Vaux June 29, 2009

Nazi Zombies hold the spotlight in Mania's review of DEAD SNOW(2009).
© Euforia Film/Robert Trate

Stop me if you've heard this one: a bunch of clueless young people--none of them particularly likeable--head up to a remote cabin for a weekend of revelry, only to be set upon by supernatural forces bent on wiping them out. Dead Snow--a Norwegian variation on that most shopworn of horror premises--shows little inclination to depart from routine. It nakedly flashes its Sam Raimi envy in every quirky edit, while making endless pop-culture references intended to cover up for the fact that it has nothing new to offer. Its modest pleasures stem largely from director Tommy Wirkola's devotion to imaginative kills, and from an ingenious central gimmick which never attains the greatness it should.

Said gimmick entails the nature of this particular threat: zombified Nazis, buried for decades under the Nordic snow and brought back to terrorize any horny young college students within Sig Heil range. The very phrase "Nazi zombies" should make any genre fan prick up his ears. Sadly, having latched on to the concept, Dead Snow can't exploit it properly. Instead, it becomes an extended running gag--a feature-length version of the zombie Hare Krishna in Dawn of the Dead--and while it lends the hordes of gibbering flesh-eaters an intriguing backstory, it holds little else that horror lovers haven't seen far too much of before.

Wirkola compounds such wastefulness by taking his sweet time with the set-up: the first half centers solely on his gaggle of arrogant young victims for reasons that never quite become clear. They're thinly sketched caricatures, complete with a sex fiend, a bungling would-be leader, and an obnoxious nerd who quotes Hollywood movies in any situation. Dead Snow treats them with obvious contempt, and yet by building towards their comeuppance so gradually, it transforms what should be iconoclastic mischief into mere cruelty. The scenario's exposition leaves something to be desired as well: delivered in an ungainly mess by a mysterious stranger and hinging around a box full of stolen loot whose discovery triggers the zombies' reawakening (despite the fact that they claim at least one victim before it's unearthed).

The assets brought in to counter such shortcomings are slight, but notable. Wirkola clearly adores gross-out gags, and finds a number of interesting new ways to maim and dismember his cast. It's hard to fault the energy which goes into such set pieces (including one admirably subtle riff on zombies' infamous appetite for brains), and the gorgeous Norwegian settings constitute an additional asset: stark, snow-bound mountains with a distinctive visual identity. We haven't seen such imagery in zombie films before (though Sweden's extraordinary Let the Right One In uses similar motifs for vampires), which covers up for the fact that we're really just dealing with another isolated cabin in the woods. As undemanding piffle goes, such elements help Dead Snow stand out from the crowd, and provide a sense of uniqueness that saves it from being dismissed out of hand.

Considering its core concept, however--and considering the standard set by Raimi and Peter Jackson, to whom Wirkola definitely aspires--Dead Snow feels like a major letdown. Having established a great hook with its undead stormtroopers and painted a terrific canvas for them to run amuck, it seems to feel as if its job is done. The film then slowly peters out amid a grab-bag of spurting limbs and chainsaws, waiting for the next gruesome bit of whimsy to disguise the fact that its ideas need significant development. The components are in place to produce a work of genius, on par with Shaun of the Dead or Evil Dead 2. Dead Snow ultimately settles for run-of-the-mill scares instead: adequate for zombie fans, but nothing like the marvelous things it might have shown us. We can get plenty of mediocre horror right here in the States. If you're importing one from overseas, make sure the effort is worth it.

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