March 27, 2009

Dead Snow (2009)

This is my favorite horror flick of the year so far. IFC is planning to give it a limited theatrical release on June 12th... it must be seen on the big screen!


Dead Snow (a.k.a. Dod Sno)
Sub-Genre- Zombie

In Attendance
- Me

Cast Members of Note- Jenny Skavlan, Lasse Valdal, and a bunch of other Norway people.

What's it about?- A bunch of Nord college kids on Easter Break head into the mountains for some tubing, sex, drinking, and whatever else you do for fun in Norway. On their first night in the death cabin, a creepy old dude comes along and tell them that the mountains are crawling with the evil essence of dead Nazi soldiers, and they laugh at him. In return, he tells them their coffee sucks, and goes camping.

He does not have a good camping trip.

Soon enough, Nazi zombies show up and start wreaking havoc on the poor students, forcing them to fight back, run, or die... and in some cases, all three. They are forced to split up for various reasons, and have to resort to some pretty drastic measures to survive; bashing birds to death against trees, sewing their own neck wounds shut, using a snowmobile as a face-sander, and even using Gymkata to beat back the Nazi undead.

Oh look, the party killers are here.

I won't spoil any more for you here, because things get pretty crazy, but suffice it to say that the Nazi's want more than just human flesh, and we may just have a Final Guy on our hands instead of a Final Girl.

Does Jackie Earle Haley live? He just might!

The Good- I love this f'ing movie. I can't remember having this much fun watching a horror flick in a long time. Its tongue in cheek nature is reminiscent of Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, or Shaun of the Dead in a way, because it mixes humor and horror so well.

I liked the over the top action too. From the foot stomping at the edge of the cliff, to the zombie wake up call scene, it's almost melodramatic in its mechanics, but it works. A machine gun mounted on a snowmobile? Count me in!


It's not a perfect movie, but what it does well, it does really well. I liked the characters, the setting was gorgeous, the zombies were bad ass, the humor was well placed and effective, the gore was over the top and plentiful... aside from the use of CGI in places, i don't actually have much to bitch about.

The Bad
- Outhouse sex. I'm all for some crazy aardvarking, but right after you drop a deuce in the latrine? I mean the guy just wiped, and here comes the hot chick bursting in, straddling him, licking his fingers (WTF?!?), and going to town... did she not notice the smell?

"Can you smell my love?"

The Downright Horrendous- I'm not a big fan of CGI in horror movies; it always makes me cringe a bit when I see digital blood being sprayed everywhere. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but I'll take Karo Syrup and red food coloring any day of the week.

The Gory- This movie reminded me a lot of Dead Alive in the gore department; once it started, it was insanely over the top. Great stuff.

The Naked- No, but we do get Jenny Skavlan in a bra, and that was pretty damn nice.

We almost get to see these!

Best Line- "Ok." In context, that line made me laugh out loud.

What did we learn?- Norwegians speak English very clearly. Also, zombies are very materialistic.

Rating
- A (9/10) This movie frigging rocked and it's destined to become a cult classic, if it isn't already. It's not perfect, but it's fun, bloody, interesting, visually breathtaking, fun, and bloody. And fun. See this as soon as you can!

Final Thoughts- Norwegian chicks are hot.

10 comments:

Swands said...

I'm looking forward to seeing this, can't wait actually.

dragonmanes said...

been hearing excellent things, but based on the review how could anyone NOT want to see it??

The M'hael said...

It really was just fun as hell to watch... I can't wait to see it on a big screen in June.

The Warfreak said...

I want to see this movie so badly.

Mob Legend said...

This movie never found its tone.

The gags were excellent, the effects well done, but the film was so uneven. The script is dry, obvious, and boring too. The worst thing about it: it seems a pastiche of American horror pictures most of the time--when audiences are just too sophisticated for it, and when it can't maintain its seriousness it flops into Evil Dead 2 slapstick. It is at best a loveletter from young filmmakers to their favorite horror directors, and at worst a straight-to-video creature feature. Yeah, "nazi zombies" are an exciting idea, but once you get past how good they look, they lack any substance.

Sam said...

Seriously, after I watched this, I felt like I was really fooled. The high expectations I had after reading so many glorifying reviews just couldn't be met. Except for the uniforms and, maybe, the snow, what other things could make this movie really stand out? Well, sorry to say it, but for me, I found nothing new!

kljnjkp said...

im 14 years old and ive seen this movie yesterday but i wasnt scared
this isnt horror
they have to make an better movie to make me scared
this is pathetic
an horror movie who cant make an 14 years old child scared
this is comedy
behind an army of zombies rushing with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer is funny

The M'hael said...

KLJ, I think it was supposed to be funny more than scary. It was fun though, right?

I think it's awesome though that you're 14 and you don't scare easily. Keep watching movies, and I hope you find something that scares you soon :)

Anonymous said...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=aardvarking

The M'hael said...

Touche, Anon. that WAS NOT the type of Aardvarking I meant. Around here, that word is thrown around in different context.

There was no Aardvarking like that in the movie.

Nor would I do it in an outhouse. LOL