Isvand i blodet! – Ice to your blood! “Peer Gynt”
Swift shot: Demented and hilarious, surreal and somehow believable – Dead Snow shocks and demands a viewing. You won’t be amazed, but you will not soon forget Dead Snow. Simple concept from start to finish but the cinematography is unbelievably choice. The pure white snow provides the perfect contrast to the carnage and carnal evil of the thick red darkness haunting Øksfjord. I am going to follow all of director Tommy Wirkola’s stuff from now on, I am impressed!
Like many typical zombie Nazi flicks, this one starts off with a group of horny friends going to a secluded cabin in the middle of nowhere – but, unlike America, this is REALLY the middle of nowhere – I googled it, because I couldn’t remember if I hit Øksfjord on my NATO tour of Norway. Turns out, I did, but that is all classified and shit.
Yes, you can hack this script at places as so cliched you will be looking for the Nazi zombies, or zombie Nazis (take your pick) to don hockey masks. Still, where it isn’t cliche, it really serves up some hefty portions of meaty goodness. In fact, the director pokes fun of this right off the bat, with this line, “How many movies start with a group of friends on a trip to a cabin with no cell phone signal?” I loved that, because I don’t consider myself a real critic, just a lucky SOB who gets to share his thoughts with my overwhelming network of friends. Also, I love when characters reference pop culture, because, hey that is the way real people talk all the time.
What is it about?
Eight friends have arranged to meet in the middle of nowhere at a family cabin way up near the border of Russia. (That isn’t classified, because such as the Iraq, and such as, people who have maps such as can find it) If these crazy pop-ins of pop-culture are making you want to pop your eyes out with a cheese knife, I apologize – but the screenwriters used pop-culture throughout the film to help flesh out the characters a bit. I mean, you want to see authentic Norwegian dialog, here it be. And, goofy sweaters aside, they could be your friends down the road.
These particular friends are all medical students, and they have decided to take a breather from their studies and basically hang out, drink beer, reminisce and maybe get laid a few times – I love Norway. But, each character has their own little quirks that make them stand out, and because this film is subtitled sometimes it is hard to really immerse yourself in a foreign film.
You have the two movie geeks, one is hot, Chris (Jenny Skavlan), and one is not, Erlend (Jeppe Laursen). They quickly get reprimanded for movie quoting early on, which I loved – because I have had several friends say, Jesus, can’t you have a thought WITHOUT referencing a damned movie? Martin (Vegar Hoel) is a squeamish leader of the pack, a medical student who nearly faints at the sight of a drop of blood. Hanna (Charlotte Frogner) is his girlfriend, and she has issues with tight spaces. Liv (Evy Kasseth Røsten) is not Maria Bello, but damn she looks like her to me, and I couldn’t focus on her character much more beyond that – because the resemblance was weirding me out, watching Maria Bello speak Norwegian.
Co-screenwriter Stig Frode Henriksen rounds out the main group of characters with Roy. Roy is your basic dude, doesn’t stand out much, except that you can tell he is a writer and not an actor. Sorry man, but you know it too, ikke sant? Vegard (Lasse Valdal) and Sara (Ana Dahl Torp) are the couple that put the whole trip into motion, the cabin belongs to Sara’s family and she insists in going through the woods cross-country skiing, literally. Vegard is more practical, he has a badass snowmobile, which only becomes more badass throughout – and you will love his character.
When they get to the cabin, they soon encounter a creepy old guy who tells them about the Nazis at Øksfjord who unlike other places “didn’t get along well with the local population” – you know, because Nazis are always confused with playing well with others – so he had to clarify that point. Turns out the Nazis stole a bunch of gold and silver from the locals before razing the entire area in a scorched earth campaign, but the locals didn’t go down without a fight – Viking blood and all that. That is all you really need to know about what is it about, as you can guess the rest from there.
Colonel Herzog (Ørjan Gamst), leads the Nazi zombies, or zombie Nazi horde with a chilling demeanor. I found out Ørjan Gamst shared a beer in Alta with a friend of mine from Stavanger. I wish it had been me, because I would have asked Ørjan, wait, were you the leader of the zombie Nazis or Nazi zombies? And, then I would have laughed as he caught the reference to the South Park episode, Pirate Ghosts or Ghost Pirates – right before he fed me my entrails and played with my eyeballs – just so I could watch him eat the rest of me – yea, on second thought – not so sure I would want to have a beer with that guy.
Why do I care?
The transformation of the key characters is fun to watch, as each faces their own little personal demons whilst battling and fleeing from the Nazi zombies. Come on, don’t we ALL have Nazi zombie issues? Isn’t there something eating at you?
The gore is wonderful to behold, it is very much like the Norwegian version of Shaun of the Dead . . . yet twice as fun. The creative way people are killed was masterful in uniqueness.
The soundtrack was pure Norwegian, even the opening sequence booms Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, you Americans will recognize it immediately – and now you have some culture thanks to Rick Swift. It isn’t just for Needful Things anymore.
I liked that the violence wasn’t quick and simple, people and zombies take a long time to die, no cheesy sequences of people hearing a blast, clutching their chest and dropping like all of Lieutenant Dan’s dead relatives. All the brutality in this film reminded me just how much violence the human body can take before it finally gives up and accepts death. Not one of these characters died well. One cliff hanging scene in particular left me holding my gut and exclaiming, Holy Shit!
I want to watch this one with all my friends, drinking pils and talking about the Simpsons and simpler times. It is a fun, fuck-it-all film for the audience to cringe with and laugh with and there is even a little twist thrown in to make things more fun for horror movie buffs. So, if you have Netflix, watch it on instant view now, if you don’t, rent it – tonight!
