Project Horror, Day 6: Dead Snow

10/06/2010

Today ends the Classic Horror Block, and begins Zombie Week!  Several friends recommended this one, including my cousin Drew.  What up, Drew?  Holwerdas represent!

There are very few movies that you can  adequately summarize with just two words, but this movie is one of them.  Zombie Nazis.  Zombie Nazis!  Here's how I imagine the writers meeting...
WRITER 1: "Right, so we need a villain.  What's the most evil thing you can think of?"
WRITER 2: "Nazis, dude."
WRITER 1: "I was thinking zombies, but you've just given me an idea."


A group of friends, med students on Easter break, go to a remote cabin to relax and party.  A stranger comes by during the night and tells them about the region's dark history, and about a detachment of Nazi soldiers who looted the nearby town of all its valuables before being driven into the mountains to freeze to death.  After that, well, you've seen a zombie movie before, right?  The cabin is besieged, a few members of the party attempt an escape, there are casualties on both sides...


Although this movie covers all the usual bases, there's enough fun in the details and execution that I really enjoyed it.  One of the members of the group is a movie buff, and wears t-shirts with posters of other zombie movies.  When two of the characters are arming themselves, there's a very quick, very great little homage to Evil Dead when one of them grabs a chainsaw.  Best of all?  After five days of horror classics with creaky paces and Hays Code restrictions, I finally got to watch a movie that not only had a body count, but also a kill before the opening title card.


When 28 Days Later came out a few years ago, it introduced a new element to zombie movies, the fast and aggressive zombie.  I'm still kind of torn about this.  To my mind, a zombie should still be a shambling mindless body whose real strength comes from overwhelming numbers and unstoppability.  Dead Snow is very much in the fast zombie camp - in fact, not just fast, but also strong and intelligent.  These zombies still use weapons!  Even though I'm still a fan of the slow zombie, I still thought this setup really worked.  The commanding officer in particular cuts a very menacing and impressive figure.  The scene where SPOILER he chases down one of the students and clocks him with a hammer was great.


A very fun movie, definitely worth catching if you're a fan of zombie flicks.  I give it five German stick grenades out of five.

2 comments:

Kyle said...

Well that seals it. Now I'm gonna have to watch it!

Unknown said...

Yes!! Glad this recommendation made it to your list and glad you enjoyed it! I loved how the final showdown occurs in daylight.. proving that scary movies don't need to all occur at night under a full moon. Good luck on the rest of your movie marathon!

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