Dead Snow

Pros:  Lots of gore, some creepy moments
Cons: Some tedious moments, plot holes for the sake of entertainment
A group of medical students decide to take a vacation in a secluded cabin located in the snowy mountains of Norway. The boozing, games, and sex begins, and the group are having a great time. One of their number, a girl named Sara (Ane Dahl Torp) decided to trek the snowy terrain solo to meet them but she never shows up. Her boyfriend Vegard (Lasse Valdel) becomes worried and decides to go look for her the following morning. His friends back in the cabin are soon viciously attacked by a very blood thirsty group, and they soon arm themselves to fend off their aggressive attackers. -summary

Dead Snow is one of those types of man vs. the undead zombie romps I had to be in a specific mood to watch. The zombie comedies are far away from my cup of tea, and when I first saw this movie years ago some of the things going on managed to put me off kind of badly. In all honesty I never truly disliked the movie, but after yesterday’s re-watch in a different frame of mind I enjoyed it a lot more.
Directed by Tommy WirKola, Dead Snow proudly proclaims to be one of the 25 best zombie films of all time. This really isn’t something to brag about though, simply due to their being so much garbage out there. However, Dead Snow really is among the better of its type.
The film begins well enough with a dark chase leading to a very predictable outcome, and it soon fast forwards to the group of would be victims. Wirkola knows how to bring the audience into his world and set them up for something special. The film gradually builds up in suspense with a few kills left up to the imagination, but when I first saw this I knew something huge was coming when taking into account the various Evil Dead and Braindead references. Eventually Dead Snow reveals its more sadistic edge making a case that it may be able to stand up to Braindead in regards to sheer violence and gore.

Dead Snow is no slouch at all in the gore department; the viewer will get some really insane kills, and this movie was still able to shock me with some things, and this is taking under consideration the carnage found in Braindead aka Dead Alive. However, Dead Snow does not exactly come close to the aforementioned film when speaking of violence and gore; yet I enjoy it quite a bit more due to its lack of reliance on heavy  slapstick.
Dead Snow does have a dark comedic edge but its not as over the top as it could have been, which is a good thing for me when considering my disdain for horror comedy. There’s an even balance here that held my attention and it never felt forced like Dead Alive. However the film gets on my nerves in ways; the comedy present does create a certain tonal shift that pretty much betrays the serious minded viewer in light of how serious the film began. There are some moments that straight out drag to the point of annoyance, and the characters just hanging around in a hostile environment as if everything was over grated on my nerves. It also makes the mistake of creating an obvious plot hole; for example, the zombies are portrayed as being super strong to the point where they send the protagonists flying several feet and even ripping them apart, and they even portray super speed; however they come off average in one on one fights and can’t even take down two guys or two women. Why over power them so much in the beginning only to take a power dive mid-way through the film?
Dead Snow has a very nice snow laden setting in the mountains which works very well into the atmosphere, as the viewer will know quickly this is all about survival for the campers, and the chance of rescue is non existent. The make up work for the zombies is done well enough despite a lack of variety, but this is all forgotten when looking at the gore. Some of these deaths shouldn’t be spoiled with details, just watch the movie if you want some blood.

Plot holes and tonal inconsistency aside, Dead Snow isn’t exactly a bad zombie movie unless you absolutely need your horror to be serious to the core. Now for those whom don’t fall into that category and they simply want some thoughtless slaughter, then Dead Snow delivers the goods in that category; mutilations, decapitations, intestines hanging out, yes, this is what you get  when coming into Dead Snow. Enjoy.