18 - 91mins - Comedy/Horror - 9th January 2009
Død Snø is set in mountains of Norway with the movie acted out in Norweigan. It opens with a woman being chased through the snowy countryside by zombies (to a well chosen jingle if I do say so myself) before being caught and well I'll let you guess the rest. Fast forward a short period in time to where we meet six medical students who have gone on a holiday picking a remote cabin as their choice of location which sets the scene for our stereotypical horror movie.
After larking about in the snow and having fun with skidoos during the days and drinking away their evenings, they are visited by a strange man. He gives them a history lesson of the region and why they should therefore tread carefully so as not to disturb the evil that lies in the mountains which the students take with a pinch of salt. Low and behold after a long build up zombies do indeed arrive on the scene and yep you guessed it, they are Nazis to boot.
With a movie tag of Ein! Zwei! Die! attached to a plot about Nazi zombies this movie does not fail to deliver on what it promises with lots of zombie action and basic horror movie 101 lessons not being learnt- they split up, get just that bit too near the window at the worst possible time etc and many other comparisons that can be drawn from its zombie movie predecessors. Where so many of the older and newer zombie movies have failed though Tommy Wirkola strikes up a very good balance between the humour and horror. Yes at some points it seemed like the producers only had enough money for one prop (intestines) and spent most of their time thinking up evermore elaborate ways to use it but there is always a laugh to be had alongside this.
Although being classed as a horror, you will have to have quite a jumpy personality for this movie to get you cowering behind a cushion. The first half of the movie is more about character banter with most of the laughs written into the script and some suspense but during the second half this turns into gore and more of a slapstick comedy feel develops (think Shawn Of The Dead). For this kind of movie overall the second half tends to work better than the first but only just.
The actors and actresses all do their jobs but there are no outstanding performances amongst them to be worthy of a mention. Where this movie succeeds is in the writing of the script and as mentioned just the right amount of comedy. The zombies don't look half bad either dressed up in their Nazi memorabilia and although they lose some of their scare factor with most of the second half shot in the daylight, I wouldn't want them running at me any time soon!
To sum up then, Død Snø is nothing original in its premises borrowing heavily from similar movies (Evil Dead II, Dead Alive etc) around but it does so in a refreshing way that has some genuinely funny moments. As mentioned, think Shawn Of The Dead but with more gore and ominous surroundings. It's one of the best zombie movies about and it covers a couple of genres to boot. If this is your cup of tea then I strongly recommend you add Dog Soldiers to your watch list too.
Rating: B+
Up next I bring you one of my tips for the top movie in April- Source Code [my review]. As always, here is a sneak peak of the action.
Farm
Are you fanatical about film? Then follow this site on Twitter @ FAbFilms
