Dead Snow (2009)

The Nazis were bad, bad people. On this, at least, I think we can all agree. The legacy of Hitler’s movement left an iconic evil in western culture; it would be difficult to find a real world image more naturally associated with malignant evil than an SS officer in full uniform. It is fitting then, especially since they are all dead, defeated, and gone, that those monsters of reality are themselves exploited to become some of the most entertaining boogeymen to venture into film.

A fun loving group of medical students decides to take a break from their rigorous studies by embarking upon a snowy romp in a remote mountain cabin. Things are awesome; things are great; there are inner tubes to ride down snowy hills; there are snow mobiles to rip up the powder; there is booze, unhealthy food, and playing twister; and there is, of course, casual sex to be enjoyed in the backyard outhouse. Who could ask for anything more?

Problems rather quickly arise for the students once the nightfall arrives; though, arguably, the problem began in Poland in 1938 (don’t mention the war!*). Unbeknownst to the medical students, they are camping at a site long ago occupied by thieving Nazis, pockets bloated with stolen gold of the dead, who were ganged up on and hacked to death by an uprising of angry villagers. Death can’t quite quell the greed of these dedicated scoundrels, and the Nazis have come again, now in new and exciting zombie flavors, to recover their lost gold and feast upon the flesh of the living.

For an additional twist of fun, these medical students are horror fans themselves. Most modern zombie films are filled with victims completely unfamiliar with the ‘z’ word and who know nothing of zombie-lore, having to learn the hard way to “shoot them in the head!” Not so with this lot, as is apparent from the very beginning with the quips and comments about Evil Dead and other horror classics.

The double-twist, to the misfortune of our students, is that these particular zombies are certainly not the Romero-breed, and go about a completely different set of rules. They are sentient and aware, undead only in cosmetic physical status, and completely retain all combat capabilities they had in their previous lives. They are fast, sneaky, and quite able to use knives as well as their teeth. The flip-side is they seem to feel something like pain, and can be cut down in all sorts of methods, and not just with bullets to the brain pan. The result is that they appear more of a demonic form of undead (ala Evil Dead) than the traditional zombie; their numbers easily and often replenished straight from hell in nearly limitless numbers, summoned to rise out of the snowy ground by the undead Nazi commander, Herzog. An odd homage to Werner? You decide.

As might be already surmised, Dead Snow loves the black humor. It skillfully rides the wall between comedy and horror to create the sort of wonderful gory slapstick that made Peter Jackson’s older movies into fan favorites. As in the best of these sorts of films, the characters themselves don’t know that they’re involved in something funny; to them, the situation is desperate, tragic, and calls for heroic measures of absurdity. Think of Ash when he first strapped that chainsaw to his stump; the man didn’t realize he was being funny. He was just being practical! Similarly, the characters of Dead Snow find themselves in desperate situations, doing absurdly desperate things, all for the comic enjoyment of those of us sitting thousands of miles away, safe from the horde of undead Nazis who want to devour our livers.

The film is surprisingly unpredictable in who lives and who dies. It does a great job of creating knowable characters in a short period of time, and also in misleading any viewer who wants to guess who’s going to die next and who just might survive completely. Characters cast early on as top heroes or key protagonists just might be done away with sooner than you’d think, and others less noticeable sometimes keep on ticking and kicking through the zombie trauma. It’s a fun side game with films such as these to try to guess who’s going to get it next. This is one film that is bound to make most of us into some very poor guessers.

Nazis were certainly foul in reality; this is what makes them simply magnificent as cinematic bad guys. The best villains Indiana Jones ever fought were all Nazis. Their entertaining knack for evil is easily multiplied by an integer greater than one when they are coupled with some other cinematic monster. One of the most memorable moments of the classic An American Werewolf in London was that of the Nazi werewolves. In Dead Snow, they are simply wonderful as zombies. I would hazard to guess that they would excel in any sort of monster-dom, whether they be Nazi mummies, Nazi vampires, or even Nazi fishmen from some murky swastika’d lagoon. I offer the following mathematical theorem for peer review and then to be chiseled into stone:

Nazis * [Random_Monster] = WIN.

If you’re going to double check my logic, be sure to carry the 'y'.

*Spontaneous and gratuitous Faulty Towers reference