Since DEAD SNOW both hails from Europe and opened at Sundance in '09, this zombie film fetishist hoped for something special. In it, eight Norwegian twenty-somethings at a mountain getaway encounter - as the poster clearly displays – Nazi zombies.
The film’s level o’ gore tops that of the already gory classics SHAUN OF THE DEAD and the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake (both from 2004). In what is by far the most gruesome scene, the monsters squeeze a man’s eyes out (a la BLADERUNNER), then rip his head is in half, his brain thudding on the floor. The creatures otherwise stick to disemboweling people as they’re thrashing about. Curiously, they never eat their victims, just scoop the intestines out as if familiarizing themselves with the human anatomy.
Unlike 2004’s zombie films, we don't get to know the characters of DEAD SNOW beyond simple archetypes: “handsome outdoorsman,” “film buff,” “horny guy,” etc.; the women are even less defined. Because of that, I found myself not caring as they were picked off one by one. And it becomes obvious (spoiler!) by the halfway point that none are going to survive: when the most likable (semi-) character gets bitten, you figure that if he’s not going to make it, none of them will.
These Nazis are smarter than your garden variety living dead - their commander actually coordinates their attacks, and they all seem to pay some attention to maintaining their uniforms. Given such human qualities, it might have been cool if the director chose to imbue their top dog with some hints of a personality. But all he does is bare his (somehow perfectly intact) teeth as he gesticulates orders to his hellish minions.
As in the remade DAWN OF THE DEAD, these buggers don’t shuffle along - they run. (In the original DAWN they shuffle.) Even though I enjoyed Zack Snyder’s 2004 film, I had the same issue then that I have with DEAD SNOW: if their bodies are deteriorating, how can they run? I can almost accept the shuffling (this of course is after accepting that they can animate in the first place), but to be able to sprint? In other words, why would their faces and hands erode but not their leg muscles? Yes, I realize this is splitting hairs. But I'm a zombie purist I guess?
In my final dressing down of this film’s boogey men, they're after gold they originally stole during the war, which our cheery snow bunnies discover in their cabin. This plot point however summons up a bevy of unanswered questions: Who took the gold from the Nazis in the first place and hid it in the cabin? Why didn’t the zombies attack those who’d stayed there before? (The cabin and its furnishings are perfectly intact when the doomed vacationers arrive.) If the zombies are only interested in the gold as DEAD SNOW ultimately suggests, why did they chase people running away from the cabin where the gold was located? The zombies know where the gold is at all times - we learn that when they sense one of the characters has just one gold coin on him. And at another point they leave a character alone when he gives them the box containing most of the gold. Yet they chase after people left and right who have no gold on them whatsoever. Zombie inconsistencies!
The film is not bad, mind you. It’s just not clever, as I’d hoped. The Norwegian winter wonderland where the action takes places is gorgeous, and the idea of a zombified Nazi regiment romping through this snowy landscape is exciting and unique and partly what drew me in in the first place. (Although how the Nazis actually became zombies isn’t explained either.) The film also employs some welcome humor, such as when one of the characters dangles off a cliff by the intestines of one of the bad guys. But despite these points in its favor, DEAD SNOW boils down simply to sexy people chased, tortured and killed, and not a whole lot more.
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