A group of Norwegian medical students go for a vacation in Oksfjord, staying in a cabin owned by the girlfriend of one of the students (though she has yet to show up to the cabin herself). After spending some time mostly bullshitting and trying to hook up with one another, a mysterious hiker arrives to tell them a story of the region they reside in, and that at the end of WWII, Nazis overran the region, ransacking gold, silver, and other valuables, but were ultimately killed and/or chased off into the mountains, presumably to never be seen again. Or so we think...*dun dun*
Dead Snow is a 2009 film from Norway that is one of a handful of movies that I've seen, or even heard of, that deals with the undead and the SS (the others being Shock Wave and mayyyyybe the nightmare sequence in An American Werewolf in London). It's also pretty god damn stupid for the first act, and not in an enjoyable way. The first half felt like a parody of all "kids in a cabin" films that we've already seen and are way too familiar with. If however they were TRYING to go for a bland parody for that first act, then they succeeded. But once our villains come into play by coming through the snow to attack the kids (hence, the title), the film thankfully takes a turn for the better. This was some of the most fun blood and gore scenes I've seen in a while, complete with some top notch makeup work. A couple of the male characters here, despite being pretty vanilla, seem to be pretty well versed in how to deal with situations as these, as far-fetched as they could seem. Actually, truth be told, I really don't think I could tell you anything distinctive about ANY of the characters here, minus one particular Nazi zombie and one of the female leads.
Other than that first half, only one thing about this really disappointed me: where the hell did the resident "fat dork" character get such an awesome Braindead shirt?! I suspect that perhaps it was custom made, or perhaps even exclusive to some European shops, but I digress. Pretty enjoyable film, despite a pretty bad first half, with some surprisingly good bits of humor mixed in as well (if the scene with the molotov cocktail doesn't make you laugh at least a little, I'm convinced you have no soul). Worth a rent or a quick watch on your Netflix.
Tomorrow, I find out what the deal with this Jack Ketchum fella is and check out THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.
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