As much as we loved the first
Dead Snow (our review
HERE), we enjoyed
Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead even more.
I don't know what it is about
Tommy Wirkola, and the way that he approaches filmmaking, but the guy just knows how to make an entertaining movie. *And yes, we thought his
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters was a hell of a lot of fun too.
Whatever his magic formula may be, it's in high gear with
Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead; this movie is crazy, bloody, gory, silly, offensive, and it may just be our favorite
Horror flick of the year, thus far.
Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead picks up right where
Dead Snow left off: with
Martin sitting in his car, believing that he has escaped the terror of the
Undead Nazis, until he realizes that he still has one of those cursed gold coins.... which
Colonel Herzog promptly shows up to take right back, because he's materialistic like that.
 |
| Dude, it's one coin. Just let him go. |
While attempting to escape (yet again) from the
Nazi Zombies,
Martin wrecks his car, and wakes up in the
Hospital, handcuffed to his bed. You see the
Police think that he's killed all of his friends, and when he tries to tell them that
Nazi Zombies were responsible, they also believe him to be insane. The good news in all of this though is that his arm has been reattached; of course it's
Herzog's enchanted arm and not his, but hey, at least he now has super strength and stuff.
 |
| That hand can do things! |
Knowing that
Herzog and his cronies will be coming for the coin (and also to kill people),
Martin escapes from the
Hospital, calls in the
Zombie Squad (for real), and sets off to stop
Herzog and his
Undead Nazi menace. Of course, before said menace can be stopped, they happen upon a town, where they kill everybody that they can find. To make things worse,
Herzog reanimates everyone that they kill, thus adding to his creepy army of
Nazi death. Now if only
Martin had the power to do the same thing...
 |
| But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Zing! |
Can
Martin and his trio of
American nerds stop the
Nazis from taking over
Norway, and then the
World? Will
Glenn Kenneth just admit that he's gay so that he can begin living the happy life that he's always dreamed of? Will that poor little
Sidekick Zombie ever catch a break? Far be it from us to spoil what happens here, but suffice it to say that there will most likely be a
Dead Snow 3, and we're completely fine with that.
 |
| Don't just stare at it, throw it! |
What isn't good about this movie? I can't recall the last time that we enjoyed ourselves this much while watching a
Horror flick...
Trick r' Treat?
Black Sheep, maybe?
Yes, the story is ridiculous, and most of the things that happen on-screen are just plain bat-shit crazy, but that's the genius of it all; it's meant to be over the top, as
Tommy Wirkola is more interested in his audience having a kick-ass time watching his movies, than he is in accomplishing anything else with them. I mean the dude had his
Zombies killing kids, handicapped people, elderly folk... nothing was too sacred or taboo in this movie. It was really nice to watch a movie that threw political correctness out the window and just went for whatever if felt like going for.
It was really surprising (and pretty fantastic), to find that a gang of
American actors found their way into this
Norwegian/
Icelandic production, and that at least half of the movie played out in
English. We had no clue that
Martin Starr was supposed to be in this one, and when he appeared on screen, we were thrilled; dude is crazy, crazy funny, and he was great in this movie. We also didn't realize that
Derek Mears was in this one, or that
Kristoffer Joner played
Martin's Zombie Sidekick... for once, we're really glad that we avoided
IMDB until after seeing a movie, because surprises like that are always welcomed.
 |
| Now we need to go watch Freaks and Geeks and Party Down again. Dammit. |
***SPOILERS*** Why did
Glenn Kenneth have to die, and right when he was about to "come out" to the world, too? Couldn't
Martin touch his face and make him into a little gay pet
Zombie or something?
 |
| All he ever wanted was to be gay and happy! |
This movie walked the line between being clever and ridiculous. For the most part, it was absolutely clever, but there were one or two times when things almost crossed over into "...and it was gong so well up until now" territory. For instance, the triage scene; a fucking plunger for a leg? Come on. Thankfully, that scene was short, and it didn't kill the mojo that the movie had going for it.
 |
| Mojo. |
This movie is an out and out
Gorefest of near-epic proportions.
 |
| Why yes, that is vomit. |
Nope.
 |
| Tease. |
Russian Zombies hate
Nazi Zombies. Also,
Zombies are really just dreamers at heart.
 |
| Also, Norway sure is beautiful at night. |
Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead is a barrel full of crazy fun, and along with
The Raid 2 and
Guardians of the Galaxy, it's one of the most enjoyable movies that we've seen this year. If you haven't seen the first
Dead Snow, you should get ahold of a copy now and watch it, that way, when
Dead Snow 2 finally gets released all over the world in
October, you can jump right in and enjoy.
This movie is destined to be on many
Best of 2014 lists, come
December. It will most certainly be on ours.
A
Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead will available be on
Blu-ray and
DVD on
October 10th (Tentatively.) If you don't want to wait that long to see it, then you could always import the
Norwegian Blu-ray and give it a go. Be warned though: the
Norwegian disc doesn't have any
English subtitles for the
Non-English speaking parts of the movie.
The ladies of
Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead:
Amrita Acharia,
Jocelyn DeBoer, and
Ingrid Haas.
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