October Fright Fest: Dead Snow (2009)
Posted By Michelle Ealey on October 4, 2013
Halloween may be one day, but I celebrate the entire month of October by watching as many horror movies as possible. Forsaking other genres for spooky, scary thrills. Filling the month with films I haven’t seen or haven’t seen in a while. So, let’s grab some popcorn, turn off the lights, and get our fright on with Dead Snow!
Dead Snow, directed by Tommy Wirkola, is full of horror clichés: a group of friends in a cabin in a secluded area, having sex means you’re one of the first to go, and zombies. It should have a “seen this before” feel, but the Norwegian film embraces these clichés and skyrockets to outrageous territory.
The film opens with a woman running in the snow-covered mountains away from something. The darkness obscures her pursuer. She trips and falls, allowing the attacker to feast. Although we don’t see the attacker, we know when we see the friends on their way to the cabin in the mountains they are in for trouble. During the trip to the cabin and moments of playing Twister and drinking beer, we get to know the group: Martin (Vegar Hoel), Roy (Stig Frode Henriksen), Hanna (Charlotte Frogner), Vegard (Lasse Valdal), Liv (Evy Kasseth Rosten), Erlend (Jeppe Beck Laursen), and Chris (Jenny Skavlan). Their fun is interrupted first by a visit from an older man, Turgaer (Bjorn Sundquist), who tells them the tale of the Nazi occupation of the town of Oksfjord during World War II. Led by Colonel Herzog, the Einstaz, the name of the occupiers, were ruthless, routinely torturing and beating the local population. Once the Nazis knew Germany had lost the war, they looted the town, stealing gold, silver, and other valuables. Resistance was quelled by a bullet to the head. Frustrated, the locals used whatever they could as weapons and attacked the Einstaz at night. Some of the Nazis escaped, fleeing into the mountains, into the same area the cabin is in, never to be seen alive again. Turgaer tries to warn them about the evil, but they don’t take him seriously.
What surprised me about Dead Snow were the zombies. Most zombies are either lumbering or part of a mindless horde. The zombie Nazis are fast, powerful (one punches Vegard, sending him flying), agile (they can climb trees), and resourceful (they can use weapons). These zombies are hunters, stalking their prey, overpowering them and eating them alive. In one of the more disturbing scenes, zombies have opened Liv up, dining on their favorite part of the human body—the intestines. Because it takes longer to die from a wound to the gut, Liv regains consciousness, sees and hears the zombies eat her intestines, and still has the smarts to die by taking the zombies with her.
Dead Snow has plenty of other disgusting moments as well. I’m not going to give all of them away, but I knew the film was going to be ghastly outlandish when a zombie grabbed Erlend’s head, put its thumbs through his eyes, and ripped the skull in half. By the end, everyone is drenched in blood, especially Roy and Martin. The duo gear up and engage in the best homage to Evil Dead I’ve ever seen. Dead Snow knows its heritage and its audience well by giving us what we expect, then twisting it, amping up the absurdity to the point where you will be asking yourself repeatedly, “Did the film just go there?” And you’ll answer, “Yes, yes it did.”
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