A group of university students, roughing it in the harsh, remote wilderness, closes in on a cache of gold once possessed by a brutal regiment of Nazi soldiers buried nearby. Unfortunately for our hapless, horny heroes, the Nazi soldiers weren’t buried very deep, and are now closing in on them.

“Wait a sec, is this a review of Dead Snow or Oasis of the Zombies?”

If that thought occurred to you, you have my sympathies; you sound like a total zombie geek. (If you're not, why in the world were you watching Oasis of the Zombies? You have my sympathies there, too.) Anyway, despite the plot points shared with Oasis (and even a nearly identical prologue), Dead Snow rises above its brethren as certainly the best Nazi zombie movie to come out in decades.

Actually, it has less of a plot than nearly all of the Nazi zombie movies I’ve seen — except for 1977’s atmospheric Shock Waves, which is telling. I guess less is more; too many of these Nazi zombie flicks bog themselves down with backstory or tepid plot twists. Dead Snow does it right for what it is, offering just enough explanation to set things up and add to the suspense before moving on to the undead mayhem we’ve all been waiting for.

And it is indeed mayhemic. The snowy mountains of Norway turn red from all the quartering, gouging, bloodspattering, headsplitting, crotchbiting (the bad kind), intestinal tug-o-war, and a host of other ouchies. Good thing our heroes are all medical students, right? As the group thins, those remaining prove to be more than just another load of victims with maybe one plucky Final Girl or Boy. Channeling the spirits of Ash Williams and Lionel Cosgrove (not to mention the Norwegian resistance during the Nazi occupation), these kids get creative and transform into some of the most resourceful, bloodsoaked zombie-asskickers this side of Plaga Zombie.

Through it all, the film’s keen sense of style and humor, along with the fine photography and beautiful setting, let me get absorbed in the atmosphere and gorefest without caring too much that some plot devices and character expositions are formulaic. Careful pacing and style greatly heighten the terror in several scenes. Without losing its sense of fun, Dead Snow is full of suspense (some artful, some predictable) that builds up until it explodes in over-the-top, wet n’ chunky action. The acting is solid along the way, and we’re treated to a bit of character development as the kids face their worst fears and uncover hidden strengths. (Cliché? A little. So what? They’re crushing undead skulls with hammers at the same time.)

Wittily gruesome, this is a movie for horror fans. Its loving attention to genre includes nods to Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, Braindead (that’s Dead Alive for us Americans who don’t get out much), Shaun of the Dead, and numerous other classic modern horror flicks. And references aside, its sheer energy and ickiness had the audience I saw it with cheering and wincing in their seats. Assuming that flying blood and body parts is your thing (and what kind of freak are you if it’s not?), don’t miss Dead Snow; it’s bound for greatness in the annals of cult horror.

The Zombies

To my satisfaction, these ghouls ignore many of the ‘rules’ that became codified in the wake of Night of the Living Dead, not the least of which is the fact that they’re fast as hell. You’d think that being frozen under snow and ice might’ve stiffened them up a bit; but I guess if death hasn’t stopped them, a bit of cold weather isn’t going to, either. And if we accept the fact that the long-dead can get up and trudge around in the mountains, we’ve got to allow such details as bleeding and breathing, too. Anyway, the zombies look great, without being too exaggerated; strong visual effects combine with good imagination to make undead dramatis personae who can fluctuate as needed between creepy, badass, comical, and chainsaw fodder. They often have individual appearances and personalities without being too exaggerated or outlandish, while remaining quite soldier-like the whole time. The gore effects are also highly effective, in part due to clever editing and camerawork.

Other Thoughts

At least in accordance with common conceptions, the similarity between zombies and the Nazi army is eerily strong: brainwashed killers whose advance seems inexorable. (Related, of course, is the zombie / soldier link, but Nazis have the added trait of already being really evil…) The connection was first noticed back when the Nazi Party itself was in power; King of the Zombies and Revenge of the Zombies both came out during World War II. And it can’t be argued that it's just been Hollywood’s cheap commercialization of a scary subject, especially since the Nazi zombie movies subsequent to Shock Waves have generally come out of countries that were invaded by Germany. Theoretically, it’s interesting to consider how these historical traumas and anxieties are being worked out through representations of our favorite undead automatons. (In practice, you have to dig through the crap a little bit first, and the payoff is sometimes scant.)

Dead Snow, however, forgoes much of the potential historical considerations in favor of clever action-horror. Strangely, one character even explains that these zombies had been, during life, especially cruel, while most German occupiers during the war years — he claims — had gotten along well with the Norwegian locals. Although the filmmakers’ actual stance on this is unclear, it feels as though they’re holding back from making any strong statements, by dismissing Nazis in general and focusing on the worst apples. (Are they trying not to alienate contemporary German audiences?) But Nazis come with their own baggage, and some of these historical concerns are hard to avoid. Consider, for example, the question of who has rights to the wealth that Nazis once stole from their victims. Or the image of the sole part-Jewish protagonist standing in a pit of ash and cinder, facing the surrounding troop of Nazis. These concepts — with their real-world persistence — are heavily loaded from the onset; and while Dead Snow doesn’t quite double as political or historical criticism, its decision not to push those issues doesn’t mean that the issues aren’t there.

As with Oasis of the Zombies, we’re also dealing with zombies who are fixated in some way on a cached treasure, recalling classics such as Zombies of Mora Tau and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Is this part of the same materialistic drive that might zombify us all, as Romero illustrated in Dawn of the Dead? While various zombie flicks have dealt with the question of wealth and materialism in one way or another, Dead Snow joins those that depict zombies specifically as foreigners who plunder and hoard ‘native’ riches. Intended or not, this motif reaches beyond the Third Reich to stab at Western imperialism in general.

Review Rating:
8 out of 10 killer snowmobiles