"I've got a bad feeling about this...."
Released in its native Norway at the beginning of 2009, Dead Snow works much better than other recent uber-high-concept movies such as Snakes On A Plane and Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus. It sticks rigidly to the early 80s slasher template (in particular Friday the 13th and The Evil Dead, which the characters themselves reference in the movie), right down to the opening sequence and the 'crazy' character who turns up to warn the six medical students in the isolated cabin about their impending doom. The first half is mostly slow and frequently uninvolving owing to its predictability, but then the Nazi zombies really get going, the relentless action kicks in and the gore count goes off the scale. The splatter is delivered effectively for the most part, in spite of the modern-day curse of (obvious) digital blood, in this case apparently necessitated by the extreme cold shooting conditions which froze the fake blood! Generally sincere performances, notably by Charlotte Frogner and Lasse Valdal, keep the innate silliness of the film in check, and the snowscape gives this genre entry a fresh feel. The DVD transfer is beautiful, and the extras - including a 48-minutes 'Making Of' - are worth a look. Dead Snow offers nothing new but provides a fun ride for horror fans.
Released in its native Norway at the beginning of 2009, Dead Snow works much better than other recent uber-high-concept movies such as Snakes On A Plane and Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus. It sticks rigidly to the early 80s slasher template (in particular Friday the 13th and The Evil Dead, which the characters themselves reference in the movie), right down to the opening sequence and the 'crazy' character who turns up to warn the six medical students in the isolated cabin about their impending doom. The first half is mostly slow and frequently uninvolving owing to its predictability, but then the Nazi zombies really get going, the relentless action kicks in and the gore count goes off the scale. The splatter is delivered effectively for the most part, in spite of the modern-day curse of (obvious) digital blood, in this case apparently necessitated by the extreme cold shooting conditions which froze the fake blood! Generally sincere performances, notably by Charlotte Frogner and Lasse Valdal, keep the innate silliness of the film in check, and the snowscape gives this genre entry a fresh feel. The DVD transfer is beautiful, and the extras - including a 48-minutes 'Making Of' - are worth a look. Dead Snow offers nothing new but provides a fun ride for horror fans.
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