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Early Review of Nazi Zombies in DEAD SNOW blow in from the chilly Nordic side of the world!
Hey folks, Harry here... Apparently they just screened DEAD SNOW, the Norwegian Nazi Zombie flick that's set to premiere at Sundance - and we nabbed a review. It seems to be mostly positive and I think at a midnight screening at Sundance, it'll play a whole lot better than it did there... often genre exploitation plays very strong outside of its native country where the acting and line delivery isn't that remarkable, but to those of us without an ear for the native tongue... feels good to us, what the fuck do we know? Right? Anyway, here ya go...
Hey Harry! I just got back from a preview screening of Dead Snow here
in Norway, and I've noticed you guys seem to be looking forward to it,
so I thought I'd chime in with a review.
The Norwegian film industry has gone through a sort of horror-boom the
last few years. It started with Villmark (Dark Woods) five years back,
and then we got three more horror movies about groups of people
getting killed off in the Norwegian wilderness. (Yes, i refer to four
movies in as many years as a «boom», it's a small country, okay? Don't
mock.) They were all basically the same, Fritt Vilt (Cold Prey) and
its recent domestic smash hit sequel were about snowboarders getting
picked off by an abominable hook man (well he didn't actually use a
hook, but you get the point) and the lower budgeted Rovdyr (Backwoods
aka Manhunt) featured a group of hillbilly hunters picking off the
annoying people. And here we go again with a group of people going on
a vacation out into the remote snowy wilderness only to wind up dead.
The difference this time is: there are nazi zombies. Nazis! That are
zombies! That do a lot of punching and running around. And the whole
thing is a lot less serious than the previous slasher flicks.
Well, the first half kind of pretends to be a serious horror movie,
passing through all the familiar tropes: a group of twenty-somethings
drive out to a remote mountain cabin to drink beer and have sex. They
hear strange noises, they make out, they get a sudden unexpected visit
from a creepy local man looking for a cup of coffee and he starts the
obligatory eerie storytelling session about local history and how they
should be careful. It's all very familiar, very reference-y and
strangely serious in tone, although with jokes. They don't play it as
an all out parody, but they're obviously very aware of similar movies,
and they use that awareness to reference and poke fun, but it's played
serious and there's nothing new there. You've seen it all before. I
wish they had used that knowledge to do something new with those
tropes, but rather they try to build the tension through them just
like every other such movie, and it didn't work for me. This might
throw some casual viewers off, because when the zombie carnage really
gets underway they push it pretty far into the goofy territory. Soon
tension goes out the window and you find yourself wondering «Hey!
Where the fuck did he get that gatling gun?!», and I guess whether or
not you like the film depends on whether you ask that question
frowningly or with a big shit-eating grin on your face. It better be
the latter, 'cause you won't get an answer. I've always loved movies
where the answer to logical questions is «just 'cause it's awesome!».
I wouldn't say I downright love this film, though. I like it. It's
fun, but it takes a while before it gets to the really fun parts, and
the serious, tense parts of it didn't hit me the way I'd hoped. There
are some good menacing scenes, like one of the characters being buried
alive in a sort of avalanche and a point of view shot of someone
waking up to a couple of nazi zombies rifling through his/her
intestines, but it's the carnage that's most fun. The effects look
good, I liked the zombie make-up, and stretched intestines play a key
part in at least three scenes, so there's plenty of blood and guts for
the gorehounds to relish. I should also mention that the characters
are kind of bland. Some of the characters I can't remember a single
distinguishing fact about, and that's probably part of the reason why
the tension didn't work for me. I didn't care enough.
In general the flick has some issues with the balancing act. One of
the guys I saw it with was put off by the goofy gore of the latter
half, he thought it felt out of place and ruined the tension, whereas
I didn't think they pulled off the tense parts sufficiently so I
rejoiced when they stopped trying and just went all out with groovy
Evil Dead 2 referencing. They even managed to do some gory stuff I
don't think I've seen before, and I appreciate that. It's always fun
when a zombie movie pulls off something new, because let's face it, we
had zombies fighting sharks under water back in '79, this genre has
been so saturated with crazy ideas that it's quite a feat to come up
with something new. And while this one is all too caught up in
references to really go into unexplored territory there were some good
moments that were new to me, like someone sewing up their own
pulsating neck wound with a fish hook and duct tape, or hanging off a
cliff holding on to a nazi zombie's intestines or simply biting back.
If that sounds like fun to you, you'll probably like Dead Snow, but
beware of bland characters and potentially maddening tonal shifts.
-Isopor
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+ Expand All
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with Nazi zombies, gore, and the potentially bad acting is masked by a language I can't comprehend? The preview looked fun, count me in.
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that would be awesome.
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Kiss my ass all you first fuckers.
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zombies uber ulles
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..to have Hitler running around as a zombie or some Nazis we know from history (Hess,Mengele,etc.)
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it could happen.
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..Hmm..lets see..hmmm..you're right Grooth..not only could it happen..it should happen
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...Which is the new short film from Jason Eisener who directed 'Hobo with a Shotgun'...
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You had me at Zombie Nazis. If there are some Viking juggs on display, they done iced that cake.
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WATCH IT HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfmgDbrCtc
Thanks. -
Zombie vs. Shark: greatest EVER.
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Please release The Keep on DVD. Thank you.
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for those who don't want to visit the spam, let me save you some time and sum up the film:Typical film school short film where nothing happens, car breaks down, some walking, really long establishing shots to fill time, a bright cemetery, a squirt gun (seriously, we can see the plastic squirt trigger!), a mirror shot, blood disappears, was it all in his mind? more walking, bad makeup, more walking, someone disappears, was it all in his mind? 1 minute of credits for a 9 minute film...in other words, the same as EVERY crappy student short "horror" film you've ever seen. seriously, EVERY one is exactly the same.
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'was it all in his mind, is it a dream'
#1 student horror film cliche! -
Jan 06, 2009 3:13:46 AM CST
File this and "Monster Slayer" under "more Evil Dead rip-offs" p
by mike_d
I'm sure that cabinet is pretty full.
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I'm seriously pissed off. I can handle remakes. But...ANOTHER fucking zombie film?! "Oh its different this time, cause they are in a cabin in the snowy mountains this time and the undead used to be nazis!"
Stop with the japanese cliche' long-black-haired-goul-girl scares.
Stop with the "lets grab a chainsaw and hack at the monsters while trying to be funny" formula.
Just...stop. Please. -
Jan 06, 2009 3:22:18 AM CST
Horror Film- to strive to elicit responses of fear, horror, and
by mike_d
in the audiences. Just a reminder.
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Seriously! 1 out of every 20 entries is decent, but there's never been a great one!
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Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, Zombie, Dead Alive, Shaun Of The Dead, Cemetery Man, Dawn Of The Dead remake, The Beyond, Serpent And The Rainbow, Re-Animator. Just off the top of my head.
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var egentlig bare det...
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Low-budget independant filmmaking at its FINEST. No zombie, bullshit remakes or goddamn cliches around here. People who are complaining about the state of horror...check 'em out-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= jfMI7EsynWg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 7fRQ-YJuJQA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= OwCrZ4kIoEo& -
THere's been plenty of classic Zombie films. Tool. This should be gold. Zombie snow Nazis is unfuckupable
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and the zombies, or monster, or whatever else may be out there will leave you alone. When will people learn. They're just like bees. Don't bother them, and they won't bother you.
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do nazis that have been dead for 60 years have intestines? Pass.
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He shot himself in the head. That precludes him becoming a zombie. And if you're going to make a Nazi zombie movie, it had better be historically accurate.
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Alle i Norge vil være som toffe
Hollywood !
All people in Norway want's to be
like badass hollywood and I'm sick
of it because then the budget for
movies get shitted on rather than making a good movie with heart -
..you're right..i dont know how overlooked that..alright then..Eva Braun,perhaps?
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All it needs is some big-breasted Viking women with battle-axes and tigers and that movie is up for an Oscar nomination.
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I've decided my hatred of Nazis outweighs my love of zombies - I'm going to have to root for the Norwegians in this one. Speaking of Nazis, I'm also a sucker for people sticking it to Nazi mad scientists that create robotic super-apes and fire V1 rockets stuffed with vampire plagues so how about a Hellboy spinoff Lobster Johnson movie produced by Guillermo Del Toro!
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How come nobody has mentioned Shock Waves? That movie had Nazi Zombies and it IS WAS AND ALWAYS SHALL BE A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Seriously, it's a cheesey movie from the 70's but it's great in a way I can't explain. Rent it, watch it, don't thank me - just pay it forward.
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sounds awesome. Netflix doesn't have it, but my local video store has nearly anything ever put out on a crappy vhs tape. This weekend I'm renting it. No one stand in my way.
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Jan 06, 2009 10:55:39 AM CST
What do you do when you can't have Nazi's in Indiana Jones?
by finky089
bring them back as C-movie zombies! Actually, I liek that idea.
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Does that feature one of the last roles for the great Peter Cushing??
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Hard to beat Dead Alive (ED2 goes without saying).
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"Shock Waves" is indeed the best Nazi zombie ever made, but don't expect much gore because it's rated PG. The scenes of the zombies rising up from the water are worth the price of a rental. And, yes skimn, Peter Cushing is in it. Anyway, "Dead Snow" is likely going to be one of the last zombie movies to get any attention in this current cycle. Monster trends run in cycles, and zombies have had quite a resurgence in popularity over the last five years. Vampires had their run in the 80s and appear to be ready to make a comeback.
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Jean Rollin's "Zombie Lake" and Jess Franco's "Oasis of the Zombies." Or don't. Both films are pretty terrible snoozers.
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fills that "monster" need. I understand Fox is working on a werewolf series, which is funny considering one of their first series on air was werewolf based.
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Jan 06, 2009 12:02:23 PM CST
George Romero's "Of the Dead" trailer!!!!!!!
by the reluctant austinite
Holy smokes. We're sitting here chatting about a Norwegian zombie film when a trailer from the grandmaster of all things zombie, George Romero, has a new indy zombie film coming out--and there's a trailer we can watch RIGHT NOW! It's called "of the Dead" and you can find it at Voltage Pictures at http://voltagepictures.com/TrailerPage.php?title=George A Romero's Of The Dead&file=ofthedead1.mov&w=640&h=368 It looks beautiful!
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Come on now Harry, at least proof read your posts fella.
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Which is sad since I just started a webcomic about them.
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I mean, I don't mind fishing from other sites, but I'm a longtime AICN reader and I want Harry's site to be the place to go for everything a geek wants to know. I don't care if somebody else ran the story first. I mean, in the last couple of days Rob Zombie released early pics of Wayne Toth's work on the new Michael Myers mask from "H2," "Jonah Hex" has a new director in Jimmy Hayward, George Romero's "Of the Dead" has a trailer online and I found out from a Talkbacker that there is a completed Robert E. Howard adaptation of my favorite character "Solomon Kane" staring James Purefoy out there that nobody has written a word about! These are fairly exciting geek stories waiting to be exploited in a general slow movie news time of year. Now it's well known that I like Mr. Knowles quite a bit. He's an original, a true film fan and a good guy. This is just constructive criticism. I miss Mori, and I miss this being the place to go to hear about all that kind of stuff. I don't care if the Talkbackers poo-poo the story or not. If it's in the "cool" genre, then we should read about it here, damnit!
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Jan 06, 2009 12:52:53 PM CST
"Thor" and "The Descent 2" are also in the news.
by the reluctant austinite
It's been confirmed that the character of Donald Blake will indeed be introduced at the end of "Thor." And CHUD.com posted some cool pics from "The Descent 2," a sequel to one of my favorite horror films of the last 10 years and a BNAT alumni. A slow news season? I guess not!
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poor mickey and minnie!
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Jan 06, 2009 3:35:41 PM CST
and you find yourself wondering «Hey! Where the fuck did he get
by hamo455
I often find myself wondering that.
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Dammit.
Zombies get a lot of filmmakers started because they're cheap to make. The only thing cheaper to make is a slasher. -
When? When?? WHEN???
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I like a movie with guts.
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is the awesome, cheesy 70s music. Amazinga and Epic
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Jan 07, 2009 5:30:46 AM CST
It's funny how milla jovovich didn't mention Resident Evil..
by stalkeye
among the best Zombie flicks. Methinks "she's" very humble (more like humbled.)XD. However, a castle Wolfenstien Movie would be great as long as Boll isn't behind this.Oh, and while I'm at it, have the German Rock band Rammenstien handle the score."This is Mein Teil..":P
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What's a trope anyway?
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