The October Zombie-Thon 2009 - Day 27: Dead Snow

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.27.2009

Nazi Zombies from Norway. It's a formula that just can't fail, right? Right?

DEAD SNOW (2009)
(DØD SNØ)




Directed by: Tommy Wirkola
Written by: Stig Frode Henricksen & Tommy Wirkola
Country: Norway

Ah, at long last, it's the Zombie-Thon return of the "Nazi zombie" film, a sub-genre that way back in year one of this column saw its bar set both pretty high (the genuinely creepy Shock Waves) and ridiculously low (the laughably bad Zombie Lake). Oddly enough, this is only the third film I've covered that features Nazi zombies as the main focus (although a zombie version of Adolf Hitler made an appearance in Hard Rock Zombies). Nazi zombies are one of those things that most people can agree sounds cool on paper, but surprisingly few filmmakers have actually tried to capitalize on the concept. One who is willing to give it a go is Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola, who with Dead Snow is apparently looking to become the new king (or Fuhrer, if you will) of this particular sub-genre.

The film concerns a group of college friends who are spending their Easter vacation at a small cottage up in the snow covered mountains. Of course, as is the case with all doomed horror victims of their kind, they receive no cell-phone reception up there. One of them even points out how they are essentially living a horror cliché. This has become one of the new go-to moments in modern horror – characters openly admitting their clichéd behavior, apparently so that the audience won't be bothered by the cliché. Frankly, though, I'm not sure which is more annoying – just delivering the same clichés we've seen before with a straight-face, or having your characters make self-referential comments about it. But I digress…

The trip starts off well enough, with all sorts of good-old-fashioned drunken frivolity. But soon they are visited by an old man with a tale to tell about the area they are in. It seems the area was under the control of a particularly brutal squadron of Nazi's back during the war, until the locals finally had enough and fought back (shades of Zombie Lake). The old man warns the friends that the area is still dangerous, but of course his warnings go unheeded, and soon enough the group is under siege by the very same Nazi's, now undead monsters with a taste for human flesh (shades of almost every other zombie movie).

Dead Snow is a movie I really wanted to like. And, to be fair, there were parts that I definitely did. Once the Nazi zombies finally show up, the film becomes a collection of clever and increasingly ridiculous gore gags, each one trying to (and usually succeeding) to top the last. Heads are ripped in half, limbs are severed, intestines are used to rappel mountainsides – it's great fun, to be sure. Wirkola proudly wears his love of the films of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackon on his sleeve, and dives into the movie's nasty bits with the same kind of unapologetic abandon. The FX work is top-notch, and setting the carnage against the stark-white backdrop of the Norwegian snow (a type of locale not commonly associated with zombie films) gives all the bloody mayhem an extra kick.

Unfortunately, the key phrase of the above paragraph is "once the Nazi zombies finally show up." The movie takes its sweet time getting to this point – the movie comes in at just under 90 minutes, and it takes almost a full hour for the zombies to make their proper debut. That's a little bit of a negatively-lopsided ratio for this kind of movie, don't you think? We're all here to see Nazi zombies get their murdering on, not to watch what almost amounts to vacation footage. I mean, I'm all for an extended opening that builds tension before the scares really start (of which the best example I can think is Tobe Hooper's original Texas Chainsaw Massacre), but this is a tad excessive. For one thing, not much tension is being built (unless you find snowball fights and snowmobile riding to be particularly chilling). Nor is there any substantial character work being accomplished. Even despite spending so much time with these characters, I didn't care in the least about any of them. The three main girls are completely interchangeable, and the four guys are discernable only by one obvious character trait each – one is a film nerd, one is always horny, one is a medical student who can't stand the sight of blood, and one is…uhhh…handsome? If that's all I can impart from near 45 minutes of screen-time, then it clearly tells me these are one-note caricatures that just didn't deserve this much focus in the first place.

I suppose I get what Wirkola was going for, trying to cleverly mash the over-the-top absurdity of the final act with a more straightforward thriller, which is what the film's first half seemingly aspires to be. But given that his heart is clearly more in the gross-out portion of the movie, the fact that it takes so long to get there ends up being to the film's detriment. As I said, Wirkola is obviously influenced by the gore masterpieces of Raimi and Jackson, but I wish he had also taken note of their stellar never-let-up style of pacing. Dead Snow's blood-drenched finale tries to make up for lost time, but it feels like perhaps a case of just too much time lost.

This is an even bigger shame because the elements are here for what could have been an instant horror-comedy classic. The setting is unique, the cinematography is excellent, and the zombies themselves are great villains. They look scary, are fast as hell, and appear to have a much higher level of intelligence than your average undead fiend. Heck, its no stretch to say they are easily the film's most interesting characters, especially given the boring "heroes" they are matched up against. I know less is sometimes more in the horror genre, but I think this was a case where an exception could have been made. The zombies really should have been a stronger presence throughout the film's running time.

I don't mind that Dead Snow doesn't really offer much we haven't seen before, even though I probably should. The ultra-violent finale is admittedly derivative, offering far more homage than originality, but it's still wildly enjoyable. I'm just not sure I can totally recommended sitting though a feature-length movie for a sitcom's worth of awesomeness. I mean, Dead Snow is clearly a better-made movie than a piece of crap like Zombie Lake, but at the end of the day, I'd probably rather re-watch Zombie Lake. At least that movie is entertainingly incompetent from beginning to end. If Wirkola ends up tackling a Dead Snow sequel (and this certainly seems like the kind of flick that might get one), I hope he does so with a greater awareness of just what kind of movie he's trying to make, and remembers to keep the mood-setting to a minimum. Remember, Tommy, the real stars of a Nazi zombie movie are not the boring, unlikable victims…they're the Nazi zombies!!

FINAL SCORE: 2 out of 4 Bubs (Eh, see it once…but don't be surprised to find yourself fast-forwarding to the final 20 minutes.)