Død Snø - Dead Snow Indeed

I don't profess for a second that this is incredibly deep, highbrow cinema, but my God it's brilliant fun. This is the Norwegian mash-up of their own native folklore with some zom-com and solid homage to classics of the genre like early Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson films. It's as gory as anything I've seen so far, it's pretty inventive in parts, and it knows how to deliver what the crowd wants, both on the scares and laughs fronts.

When five randy Norsk med students hole up in an isolated snowed-in cabin for a good time over the weekend, it looks to be an excessively enjoyable time marked by the consumption of alcoholic beverages, perverted sexual practises and some light skidoo-ing. However, the classic spooky harbinger visits them with the story of the Nazi soldiers who terrorised the local community, nicking all their valuables and stashing it. These nasty Nazis were eventually driven into the mountains by the pissed off locals and never seen again. Surprise surprise, our youthful friends happen upon quite the discovery - the treasure trove of stolen trinkets left under the cabin by those light-fingered fascists! And yeah, naturally the soldiers are awoken, and they want their gold back. And being zombies, there isn't much they won't do to get it back. We watch them go to town on the harbinger to establish their status of serious killing machines. Cue a fight for survival between our future medical practitioners and the stiff SS, and of course, some serious bloodshed.

Directed by Tommy Wirkola, this is exciting stuff. Having previously made Kill Buljo - the Scandinavian love letter to Tarantino's Kill Bill - he's a director who's adept at  handling homage without getting overly sentimental or derivative. There are serious moments too, though you'll have to wade through some liberal amounts of camp and gore to get there. The little emotional touches that bind our characters together are pretty solid and nice to watch - but is nice really enough? The familiarity  here doesn't quite honour the adage and breed contempt, but it does end up birthing what's almost a sense of apathy with their being dispatched. The action scenes are well handled and feel quite inventive in certain patches, which is good to see. The gore is excessive, sure, but it's what this genre almost necessitates to go beyond the plausible and establish itself as merely entertainment. the film's opening also boasts the most inventive use of In The Hall Of The Mountain King I've seen since The Social Network, and it concluded with a terrific jump scare. But it's the comedy side of this film that is most resounding - there are guilty pleasures aplenty to be had, both with some classic visual gags (rock climbing with intestinal guide ropes!?) and one-liners that lose none of their punch in conversion to subtitles - watch for the lad who worries that he may have insulted the undead troop a little too much... absolutely priceless.

The FX team of Per Steinar Hoftun, Shino Kotani and Steinar Kaarstein definitely earned their keep. Fake blood was applied by the gallon, and some fairly strong prosthetic work was required to assemble the horde and also to maintain a sense of reality for the multiple dismemberments and mutilations. The supporting work of Janne Røhmen (the key make-up artist) can also not be brushed off in the creation of the zombie mass who present as a sort of mottled off grey colour. The score is nothing special - energetic, maintains a bit of tension when necessary, no stand out tracks (aside from the aforementioned Mountain King rendition). Dead Snow is edited quite tightly, and there is no problem's to be found there.

Just a few problems that I do feel I need to voice however... Firstly, it's actually absurd just how stupid some of these victims are. If this is a fair portrayal of the future of Norway's medical professionals, I think it's fair to say that their unbelievably high standard of living is about to plummet astronomically. I don't mind the distribution of a few knuckleheads in a cast just to stir the pot a little, but to populate the whole cast with characters who repeatedly do dumb things is a tad excessive. It feels somewhat weak that the film-makers had to rely on poor decisions to get their characters in sticky situations. Just a thought. And secondly, the cinematography was a mixed bag. Some spectacular vistas are framed and enjoyed in the light, but when the sun sets, some serious shadowing issues began to arise. The dark is not Matthew Bradley Weston's best friend (the director of photography), and the low budget must have caused some shooting constraints that are somewhat evident in the finished product. It's not impossible to work out what's happening, but having to strain doesn't make for a pleasant viewing experience.

So yeah, lots of fun, but under the knife it falls of the bone a little too easily for my liking. With that said, it's still an excellent low budget effort and it had a respectable run at the global box office and various festivals. If anything, it's a good sign for Wirkola's current film in development, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (my excitement is further augmented by Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton's involvement). I bestow Dead Snow a handsome 2 out of 3 isolated cabins - worth a look, but lower your expectations a tad.

Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap4TiNIKQJ8