Halloween Special: Dead Snow (2009) ~ Unrequited Screen

Director: Tommy Wirkola; Screenplay: Tommy Wirkola & Stig Frode Henriksen; Cinematography: Matthew Weston

Cast: Vegar Hoel, Charlotte Frogner, Lasse Valdal

Ever heard of the crazy conspiracy theories that the Earth is hollow inside and Hitler along with the other Nazis have a secret world inside. Who would have guessed that they are actually in Norway ... under the snow? If you think there is nothing worse than Nazis, think again. In Dead Snow it's pretty clear that Nazi zombies are the meanest of them all.

Dead Snow is about a bunch of young people who decide to go on a ski vacation, but stumble on a WWII battlefield of some sort. They accidentally wake the dead German soldiers that had died there. So they emerge under the ground and go on a killing spree. Even though the vacationers were warned by a creepy old guy, things get out of hand and quite fast. Heads start flying off and scattered limbs are everywhere.

Watching the movie made us laugh and in many ways it was ridiculously hilarious. The characters were just so ignorant and annoying and we just couldn't wait to see them eaten by the zombies. Among the seven young people there I personally liked Vegard, the blond hippy looking dude with the headband. Everyone else just irritated. Though it was fun to see the looks on their faces when they finally figured out what exactly was after them. The small cabin and the too quiet environment screamed from obvious hints that something was wrong with the place. We actually found ourselves rooting for the zombies just because unlike other movie-zombies the ones in Dead snow were organized and they actually had a plan how to get rid of the living. So instead of a lumbering mass, they were like a kick-ass Nazi task force with a leader. That would be Colonel Hertzog, a real evil bastard with a soft spot for everything shiny. Never seen a smart zombie, but the Colonel seemed fairly intelligent and in no hurry to finish them all off quickly. The zombies were gruesome and they gave me the heebie-jeebies. Definitely not someone you would want to run into in a dark alley. But I would like to point out that the undead most likely don't roar like lions. And it wouldn't hurt to flip through a few anatomy books with colorful pictures inside, because some of the stuff that fell out from the corpses definitely were not supposed to be there.

Dead Snow is filled with awful clichés and it was like a study-movie on "How not to act when being chased by blood hungry zombies". At some point I couldn't help laughing at the idiotic and brainless behavior...and I'm not talking about the zombies here. If you are hiding from someone who wants to rip you into pieces, don't draw attention on yourself...You probably end up dead. The movie offered many more lessons. Lessons such as always paying attention when a weird old-timer tells you about the creepy place and that it's best not to disturb the dead. But what did they do...Went on a snowmobile race. Secondly, if you find a box full of stuff that doesn't belong to you, it's a good idea to leave it where you found it. Furthermore, it's not the brightest idea to torch the house while you are in it. Even the zombies had a laugh on their expense. To tell you the truth, we kind of waited for the Colonel to get down to business and raise his army from the dead. Even though the zombies get beat up most of the time, they still managed to throw in a few mean punches.

There are many things we learned from Dead Snow. For example, nothing kills zombies better than a chainsaw and when calling to get help don't start by saying that you're under attack by dead Nazis.

Overall we had a blast watching the movie and even if it was somewhat stupid and predictable we still managed to see a little bit of fun in it.

It's best to forget about the spaceships and the secret bases the Nazis have in the Arctic, because nothing beats zombies. Makes you a little scared of winter and snow now, doesn't it? I for one am going to turn my snow shovel into a deadly zombie killing weapon.