By far.
By way way way far – the silliest movie so far this year. Not only that, but by leaps and bounds the bloodiest/goriest movie so far this year. In fact, if you take the 16 movies from this year, and probably the 30 movies from last year, and combine them all together – I don’t think you would come close to the amount of blood and gore that is in today’s movie, the 2009 Horror/Gorefest, Dead Snow.
Caution. Blood. Gore. Nazi Zombies. And reading ahead.
Yes that’s right I said reading – because this is in fact a Norwegian horror movie with English subtitles.
Oh, right – and I did say Nazi Zombies too. Yes, before the first episode of the Walking Dead aired – before there was actually a movie called Zombeaves – there was a movie. About Nazi zombies.
Like I said this was the silliest movie so far.
Here’s the basic premise. Seven friends, all medical students, head out to a remote cabin in the snowy mountains of Norway.
You heard me – a remove cabin. And for the guys all the stereotypes are there! There’s the one that is funny and crude. The heavy one that is a horror movie nerd, the nerdy one who is squeamish of blood (oh the irony) and the cool one. It’s his girlfriend’s cabin, and she’ll meet them out there.
Spoiler alert: She won’t meet them out there.
These young friends hang out, drink….and drink. Then of course a strange old man shows up at there door to tell them to be careful where they tread – because 60 years ago the Nazis fled up to this area with a bunch of gold and treasures they’ve stolen. And they probably just all froze to death.
Anyway, thanks for the coffee – have a good night.
The next night, the cool guy goes out looking for his lost girlfriend, the rest stay and drink and play twister, and drink. And what’s this they find? A box of weird old gold items from the 1940s.
It would appear that these young people touching the gold – awakened something.
You guessed it – Nazi Zombies.
It’s at this point that shit starts to go down. Crazy, crazy blood and violence, to the point where it gets ridiculous and cartoony. As an example – and feel free to skip ahead if you’re squeamish – one of our heroes ends up over a cliff, entagled with a zombie, while hanging on to – not rope – but the intestines of another zombie.
In fact, intestines were a theme throughout the movie.
This movie was not scary. There were a few moments when I jumped, but I was never freaked out during it. Grossed out, but not freaked out. There was actually quite a bit of comedy in this, from bumbling zombies, to fight scenes set to music, to just some of the reactions to what is going on. It had a real Evil Dead II feel to it (which was even referenced in the film).
A few things of note:
- Apparently the idea behind the zombies and the gold is based on a Draugr, which is an old Scandinavian folklore.
- Norwegian writer/director, Tommy Wirkola, went on to direct the bigger budgeted Hansel & Gretel: With Hunters, starring Avenger Jeremy Renner. And he will be writing/directing the sequel.
- Oh and he already wrote and directed a sequel to this movie, which came out in 2014 – and actually stars somebody I know! More on that sometime in the next 13 days.
I just found an email from May 2009 where I am telling my brother about the trailer for this movie – so I have known about it since it came out. Flash forward 5 years and my brother is recommend I watch this for LAST YEAR’s movie month, because he loved it. For some reason I still didn’t.
Finally after more than six years of originally discovering the (dare I say) critically acclaimed Dead Snow, I can finally say that I have seen it.
And it was a good watch. And read.
17 down. 13 to go.
