Dead Snow (2009)

 The premise of this movie is that a group of Medical Students are out in the middle of nowhere camping in a cabin for a ski vacation Easter weekend, when along comes a horde of Nazi Zombies. This enough entices you to rent it, but fair warning it is entirely in subtitles, so if you're looking for an easy film to watch this takes some effort. Though you will be relieved to know that there is an option for English, so before you press play be sure to switch it. The primary language spoken in this film is Norwegian. I did, however, watch this film in both the original Norwegian and the dubbed English; I prefer the Norwegian. It is described as a Norwegian comedy and horror film. Let me just say that this film is no Shaun of the Dead....though it has its moments where the film maker uses some camera techniques that will remind you of Simon and Nick's favorite close ups from both of their films.

 The movie starts out cliché enough, you see a young hiker running through the woods trying to escape an unknown predator, to the ever familiar music of  Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King .The song does emphasize the helpless bunny running through the snow trying to escape from the hungry wolf. Of course, following the rule of cliché, the young hiker falls down a slope injuring her leg, only to sit helplessly by and watch as her attackers ...... well you kind of get the picture.

After the title appears ominously upon your screen, you are then introduced to the rest of the key players. I have to say that the writer sets up the outcomes for each of them well...the hippie med student who is claustrophobic, the timid med student who is sickened by the smallest amount of blood, the two horny single med students, the long-haired med student whose girlfriend is hiking her way to the cabin, the blonde med student who is easily frightened, the med student who likes to make jokes. Then enters the creepy old hiker, who, true to form, will be the one to tell the story of the evil group of Devil Nazis from WWII who tormented the locals back in the day-who mysteriously disappeared into the mountains, never to be seen again, 'Oh, by the way......be careful not to wake the evil.' Thanks for The Evil Dead reference, which has been mentioned already in this film. Oh on a side note, apparently the Nazis mentioned were more evil than your typical Nazi......to be honest, the Nazis in charge of the concentration camps seem more evil to me than the ones mentioned in his tale of the Devil Nazis.

 I have to say, as I continue to watch this film, it becomes quite obvious who will die next and in what order. Perhaps, its from my vast experience from these type of films, or the overly cliché set up. I have yet to find the comedy of this film, just overly used plots and throwbacks from horror films of the past haunting me as I continue to watch this film. I will point out that the Writer and Director are overly obsessed with the human intestine....it's a bit much. I am not surprised they tried to come up with that many ways to use the intestine, it seems someone should write a survival guide based on that theory......Use #56: Intestine as a rope to climb to safety.  At one point, you finally get a glimpse of the "Nazi Zombie" and see them in action, it becomes quite apparent that the writer missed something on his research on what a zombie is. The "zombies" in this film are more the undead than zombie, they are a bit too smart. Last time I checked, zombies didn't need a military combat knife to kill their victims. The "zombies" did bite on occasion, but that is pretty much it, though I do like the added touch of ripping different victims apart randomly.

 Again, as the movie progresses to the end, I am reminded of The Evil Dead series, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean; Apparently it is evident that the Nazis desire only one thing- and that isn't flesh. I give this film a fair rating, for its use of gore and sound track. As far as being a comedy, that is one thing I did not find in this movie other than the lack of actual zombies. I would recommend it for those who just enjoy B-Rated films, but as a zombie film it lacks too much. Even Hitler would be disappointed.