Zombies. Nazis. Zombie Nazis… Those two words make this review pretty much redundant really. Anybody confused about whether they want to see this film need look no further than those first two words. It’s not an entirely original concept of course having been seen several times before in 1977’s Shock Waves and more recently in the flawed Outpost. It is nevertheless an undeniably compelling hook and one which serves this low budget Norwegian production very, very well.

The story is basic horror movie set-up fare with a group of young adults (medical students in this case) taking a break in a remote cabin only to encounter evil from beyond their imaginings… or something. The difference here is that the cabin is in the Norwegian mountains, a location which is capitalised upon with some stunning photography and also whose snowy vistas and remote beauty lends the film an admirably distinctive tone and atmosphere. It also helps that the script makes plenty of in-jokes and references to other horror movies and is completely aware of its own place in the horror canon. One of the characters even wears a Peter Jackson’s Braindead (Dead Alive to American readers) T-Shirt, a very overt indicator of what to expect from this movie.

Unusually for movies of this ‘type’ the characters are actually pretty likeable and have some nice dialogue between them which benefits from a little natural Norwegian quirkiness as well as a genuine wit and playfulness from the writers (Stig Frode Henriksen and Tommy Wirkola). The story itself is nothing particularly new or interesting, revolving around a band of Nazi soldiers who were routed by the town’s people and fled to the mountains where apparently their evil allowed them to live on after death protecting their stolen gold. This is all told to us by the obligatory weird old stranger. It’s all rather obvious and hammy but is played quite tongue in cheek so doesn’t matter too much.

Once the zombies have made their initial attack the script begins to falter a little with no real protagonist and no characteristic antagonist. There is however plenty of action with some hilarious and disgusting visual flourishes and gags. The make up effects and overall production design on the zombies themselves is absolutely top notch. They really do look fantastic, especially against the backdrop of the white snow. This is even further enhanced with some wonderful moments when the zombies move in formation. This unfortunately is also the source of one of the weaknesses of the movie, it never seems to be able to decide how cogent these Third Reich rotters are. Most of the time they are fairly intelligent and are able to run and move like normal which does detract from their ‘zombie-ness’ to quite a damaging degree. Other than for the (wonderful) make up design they could almost be any stock villain or bad guy.

As the film moves onwards it seems to get stuck on repeat as all the characters become interchangeable and get down to the task of either being killed by or killing zombies. This goes on for quite some time and while it is done with considerable style and good humour it does not really compensate for lack of story or character. That said, there are some incredibly over the top set-pieces and it is never unwelcome to see the old chainsaw versus undead flesh conflict in full swing. Also, red blood on white snow, it has to be said, just looks great.

Dead Snow may not be a truly great movie but it is certainly the greatest Nazi zombie movie to date. It has plenty of flaws and it is interesting to ponder upon what this could have been given a more serious treatment by the clearly talented director. What it is however is an outrageously entertaining zombie mash up which should absolutely not be missed by anybody who pricks up their ears when they hear zombies and Nazis spoken in the same sentence.

7/10

Review by Matt Compton