Dead Snow

Massive disappointment, but I only have myself to blame for that. Deep within my soul I hoped for a solid atmosphere, typical for Scandinavian horror, that would combine comedy in a similar way as Dead End. Unfortunately, Dead Snow is a lot more a comedy. I wouldn’t mind that if the comedy was funny more than once every five minutes and didn’t smother so stubbornly the classic horror storyline. The only special feature are the original type of Zombies, but I think that wasting such great villains in an at best average comedy is almost a crime against humanity. PS: It doesn’t come even close to Evil Dead II and Braindead, rather imagine My Name is Bruce, but set in the snow. (03/24/2009)

Boo! for the opening seventy minutes and a strong four stars for the final twenty minutes, when it finally starts to be what the viewer expects it to be. (07/20/2009)

Yes, I realize that within its genre or within cinema as a whole, Dead Snow doesn't represent any imaginary bottom. On the other hand, my comments were never objective and simply expressed a subjective feeling about what I saw. Subjectively, I can say that I wasted 3/4 of an hour of my life - anyone who finds it strange that so much time can be wasted watching a movie with double the running time, I'll reveal that I fast-forwarded through some parts out of sheer desperation. Even within what Tommy Wirkola is striving for, the film doesn't work and rather evokes boredom and a feeling of wasted opportunity. And I'm not even talking about how I completely missed out on his idea of humor and entertainment. The camerawork is like a few slaps in the face and the screenwriter deserves a long stay in a penal colony, where he would have time between work in the quarry and sleep to hone the most basic elements of his craft. Overall impression: 10%. Dead Snow assured me that I would continue to strictly avoid Tommy Wirkola's work. He may refine his craft, but our cinematic visions are completely different. (07/20/2014)

While the second one was an easygoing parody ride without any attempt at significant horror, more or less just a dull mindless script repeating the same jokes and situations over and over again, the first one is somewhere in between. And by that I mean, unfortunately, exactly the place where a well-paced black-humour story about a group of people who are suddenly terrorised by a bunch of Nazi zombies in their cabin in the middle of a snowy forest suddenly succumbs to the convulsive seizures of the scriptwriters and ends up in a toilet bowl after a harrowing journey. In other words, both films can be described by the popular term crap, but while the second one is digestible thanks its simple and more thoughtfully dosed ingredients, the first one, due to its own indecision between entertaining and scaring and, finally, its inability to portray in any interesting way at least what it was leaning towards at the time, is doomed to a quick flush into the depths of oblivion. Two stars exclusively for the suspenseful first half and for one very original gore scene, the rest is just heavily edited mush (or rather laxative) :-) 45% (07/18/2014)

In the second half, a mega-witty homage to slashers, full of disgustingly black humor and brilliantly masked zombie Nazis. I really enjoyed it. Comparisons to the Czech attempt, Choking Hazard, are depressing. (10/30/2009)

Tommy Wirkola didn't hide where he drew inspiration for this film, and good thing he didn't. It's much better to make a movie as a tribute to something you love rather than just copy and pretend to be a proud creator. Similar to Wirkola's other crazy creations, this one isn't suited for the artistically inclined audience looking for deep reflections on today's burning questions. It's simply an old-fashioned massacre filled with frostbitten and rotting Nazis, where you can switch off all brain functions except the basic ones (if you don't want to risk suffocation). I wouldn't recommend it to the sensitive types, but for me, amidst all the blood and freely flying pieces of human anatomy, it was quite a ride. / Lesson learned: Watch out for snow. Especially if it's yellow. (05/16/2022)