Ein! Zwei! Die! – tag line

Story: Nazi zombies! In the mountains! No cell phones, no way in or out without a long hike! Our group of 8 friends who came up for the weekend are probably gonna meet ’em before the end. Uh-oh.

Scares: Plenty. This Norwegian film knows how to slowly twist the unease into flat out fear, and then to dripping, gory horror. There’s a nice bit of joking and goofy goings-on to break up the tension, and the switches from humor to horror are believable. Aaaaaaand the group doesn’t act like idiots; once the sheisse goes down, they don’t dumb down. And that’s refreshing y’all.

Splat factor: A hand is chopped off, a head is ripped in two, and that’s just the halfway point! Yowza!

Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul):  Original. Though a sequel is in pre-production.

Closing scene “shocker”?: I said clichés are all over the place here. So guess for yourself.

Trick or Treat?: A definite treat from our Norwegian friends. There’s a ton of scares here, but for me the scariest scene was when two of the gang have sex in the outhouse. A freezing cold, old, icky outhouse. Eek. (But one of the best attack scenes ever happens in that same outhouse, so it balances out.)

Dead Snow takes the usual slasher film tropes and gives them a tweak. And there’s a ton of ’em here. Old Man Who KNOWS, the ever popular First Death As Prologue, All Knowing Movie Nerd, Creepy Cabin…. Still, this film works. The zombies are also well done, from the minimal but effective makeup to the way they move and interact. But where did that one zombie get his white hunting jumpsuit? Inquiring minds wanna know m

One thing though; director Tommy Wirkola also helmed Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters. Which means the sequel to this film – tentatively called Red Snow 2: Red vs. Dead – better be amazing, because he’s got lot to answer for.

Score: 

out of 5 pumpkins