Dead Snow

Everybody hates Nazis.  Everybody hates zombies.  A movie about Nazi zombies - what’s not to love?

Dead Snow has at least a platoon’s worth of Nazi zombies.  They menace a group of medical students at a retreat in a cabin in the Norwegian woods, one of whom is sufficiently self aware to observe, “Can you even guess how many horror movies begin with a group of students spending a weekend at a cabin in the woods?”  The zombies love to decapitate, eviscerate, and (hey, it rhymes) gesticulate, and they do it in pretty much that order.  Of course, the students fight back.  Some of them even survive, for a while.  One guy cuts his forearm off, a la Evil Dead 2, but forgets to attach a chain saw to the stump.  Another, well, let’s just say that if you’ve ever dreamed of seeing a man dangle from a cliff on the large intestine of a member of the fascist undead underground, then this is the film for you.

No, nothing about this film is visionary or original.  It appears to be the work of a guy who set out to make a slick horror film using all the touchstones of the genre.  He gives it a fun twist with the Nazi zombie thing, but you can almost see him checking off the blocks: “Cabin in the woods – check. Horny, half-drunk college kids – check.  Creepy exposition dude – check.”  And so on.  But if you like that kind of thing, if you like over-the-top gore and silly gags and all those horror tropes, you’re going to have a good time with Dead Snow.  Just look at the cover art.  You’ll know exactly what you’re getting.