“Several friends take to the mountains and shack-up in the wilderness of back-of-beyond to enjoy a little R & R together, their peace is soon interrupted by a mysterious old man, warning them of a local curse that during the German occupation of the local area that these Nazi invaders were brutal and harsh in their methods of control. Telling of the legend of the villager’s revolt that drove them up into the cold, dark mountains where they perished, that is until rumour of their return in the form of zombies, evil Nazi zombies.”
First of just to say as you can tell I am a huge zombie movie fan from the type of movies I post about, if you are too and haven’t seen this film… go and buy it! A recommended MUST watch movie! The plot in this movie is surprisingly well thought out and written extremely well considering it’s such a stereo typical plot; teenagers going to a cabin on a mountain far far away from any civilisation, no phone signal, no way of communicating with anyone outside the cabin… and to top it off there are zombies waiting for them. Although now you’re probably thinking it’s going to be shit because the same things are going to happen just like all the other utter bollocks that comes out in the cinema or out on DVD to do with zombies, well you wrong. The plot actually has some depth, it’s not just a bunch of murderous zombies out and about to get a free meal, this time their killing and devouring anybody in their way to reclaim their lost ‘treasure’. During World War II, a force of Einsatzgruppe, led by Standartenführer Herzog, occupied the area. For three years the Nazis abused and tortured the local people. Near the end of the war, with Germany’s defeat looming, the soldiers looted all the town’s valuables. However, the citizens prompted an ambush killing many. The survivors, including Herzog, were chased into the mountains, and it was assumed that they all froze to death… but they’re back to reclaim what they want.
Now when it comes to zombie movies lots of blood is a must, humour is a must (we have to laugh about these things… right?) I can tell you this movie has a lot of both. As you can imagine the group are picked of pretty much one by one till there is only one left (there goes the stereotypical zombie aspect again) but even the characters start to take the piss of their own movie, making reference to their decision to go so far away from anything that something is bound to go wrong. They refer to movies that start with a group of teenagers going on vacation and that are brutally murdered before they can even start to relax, this movie references movies such as “Evil Dead”, “Friday the 13th”, “April Fool’s Day”, “Brain-Dead” and almost plays homage to them in every way. As for blood well its defiantly not short of blood, there’s zombie tearing people apart, various weapons notably a chainsaw with a character self inflicting damage upon himself that spills a lot of blood, and something I like to call Intestinal Warfare there was a lot of guts on show and hanging everywhere, caught on trees and even used for rappelling off of cliffs, great stuff!
The Zombie themselves they were exceptional, it took a while for you to get a glimpse of what they look like and how they will move but when you do its extremely exciting and it’s something you don’t want to miss. Not just biting and devouring their prey but bludgeoning them to death with various objects. Now when you notice that they are Nazi zombies I couldn’t help but laugh, even though they were supposed to be the antagonists they provided me with lots of laughs. There is an excellent shot near the climax of the film where the army of the dead rises and it’s like Word War 3… Zombie style. Fantastic!
One zombie that stands out is Standartenführer Herzog the main antagonist of the film and the leader of the Nazi zombies. He’s chilling, cruel and commanding as one of the leads in the film, its not very often you see a zombie with leadership abilities. This is very similar to Land of the Dead because of one zombie taking charge of others. Throughout the movie, Herzog is seen dispatching his soldiers, through gestures, he often observes the action from a distance. After the carnage and bloodshed devouring most of the teens, Herzog is left alone with two surviving students. When the two survivors discuss finishing him off, Herzog produces a “single, phenomenal command in German, “Aufstehen!” which means “Get Up”, a army of zombie soldiers, buried beneath the snow rise. Herzog then breaks his role as commander and joins the action, striking one student on the head with a hammer and disembowling him. Antagonists at their best! Intestinal Warfare!
In conclusion Dead Snow is a must watch movie, it seems to me that foreign zombie movies are really in the running for being potentially the best made zombie movies out there. Full of blood, guts, humour and of course Nazi zombies it defiantly deserves some recognition as one of the best zombie films in the last couple of years.
Ein! Zwei! Die!
Overall Rating 4.5/5
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