Dead Snow

There’s little doubt that for the majority of its running time, Dead Snow comes off as a disappointingly tedious endeavor that’s hardly able to live up to its seemingly foolproof premise (ie several medical students are attacked by Nazi zombies during a ski vacation). Director and co-writer Tommy Wirkola initially emphasizes the fun-loving exploits of the protagonists to an almost absurd degree, with the inherently dull nature of their ongoing shenanigans exacerbated by a pervasive lack of character development (ie there’s never a point at which these people don’t come off as typical horror-movie victims). It’s consequently not surprising to note that the viewer’s patience is seriously tested for much of Dead Snow‘s opening hour, as Wirkola’s failure to break up the film’s more overtly uneventful stretches with even brief instances of gore proves disastrous. The low-rent atmosphere remains problematic until the aforementioned zombie Nazis finally make their move against our hapless heroes, with their initial attack, which is as impressively violent as one might’ve hoped, paving the way for a relentlessly brutal third act that essentially compensates for the ineffectiveness of everything preceding it. Wirkola’s obvious affinity for the splatter flicks of yore is reflected in the gleefully over-the-top manner in which humans and zombies alike are dispatched, and, judging by the otherwise unimpressive production values, it’s certainly clear that the majority of the film’s budget has been funneled into the bloody special effects. The end result is an effort that probably would’ve been better off as a 15 minute short, although gorehounds will undoubtedly be willing to overlook the movie’s various flaws once the admittedly stellar third act rolls around.

**1/2 out of ****