Dead Snow (2009)

I have heard about Tommy Wirkola’s Dead Snow for some time now. I wanted to see this movie so bad. It was nowhere near my local indie theater during the summer. After watching the movie, I was giddy with glee over the blood, guts and zombie killin’.

The story takes place during an Easter vacation in Øksfjord where seven friends are traveling to the cabin of Vegard’s (Lasse Valdal) girlfriend, Sara (Ane Dahl Torp). The problem is that a zombie killed her in the beginning of the film, but they don’t know that.

Vegard goes ahead of the rest of the group to warm up the cabin when the others get there. There is the med student that is squeamish of blood, Martin (Vegar Hoel) and his girlfriend, Hanna (Charlotte Frogner), the horn dog, Roy (Stif Frode Henriksen), the shy girl, Liv (Evy Kasseth Røsten), the film geek, Erlend (Jeppe Beck Laursen) and the girl that drawn to him, Chris (Jenny Skavlan).

The gang hangs out in the cabin waiting for Sara to come when a stranger shows up at their door. His name is Turgåer (Bjørn Sundquist). He wants a place to get warm. As time passes, he tells the group about the legend of the area that the kids don’t know about.

Nazi soldiers called themselves “Einsatz” where stationed there to stop communiqué between the British and the Russians. Colonel Herzog (Ørjan Gamst) and his troops tortured and killed the German people that were living in the neighborhood. Near the end of the war when the Russians were on their way, the Nazis looted the villages of gold, silver, anything shiny. The villagers fought back against and had them retreat into the mountains where they likely froze to death or maybe not.

When the man leaves, the group thinks that he is just a crazy nut trying to scare them. The next morning, Vegard searches the mountainside for Sara. He comes across the tent of the guy that was at the cabin the other night. He sees that he is disemboweled. He realizes that they are not alone.

I was not excepting this to be a groundbreaking movie. I wanted to see some zombies get butchered. That’s what I got. The movie was bloody disgusting and I loved every minute of it.

There were a couple of things that bothered the hell out of me. When Turgåer was recalling the story about the evil Nazis, it felt a little unnecessary. There was also a point when Erlend finds a jewelry box that was integral to the plot. The payoff with that was a bit lame.

Judgment: I have three words for you. Zombie Nazi killin’. Come on!

Rating: ****