Schlock and AWESOME!

Dead Snow, a little Norwegian film, is a ridiculous bloody good time. The plot is pretty stupid; group people go to mountain cabin for skinning and shenanigans, Nazi gold is found, evil undead Nazis rise from dead to retrieve said gold, insane amounts of crazy blood and death occur, and  scene.

 

Now those pesky undead Nazis are back in Dead Snow 2 : Red vs. Dead.

 

First a disclaimer/warning/tip. These are not the shamblers we know and love. They don’t wander around for brains. They are undead. Now not all undead have to be zombies and vampires. The guys here are angry, killy and bloody undead. Everyone just lean back, let the typical zombie bit go, remember it is a film from another country and they have differing ideas on undead, and just enjoy!

 

It seems that those pesky undead Nazis are still not finished. When they get their gold back they continue with their original orders. They are off to destroy a small Norwegian town in response for anti-Nazi sabotage, that of course happened 70 years ago. Oh those poor unsuspecting townsfolk.

Undead Nazis and they have a tank!

Meanwhile, the lone survivor from the previous film, Martin, has awoke in a hospital after escaping from those crazy undead. However, he has lost and arm. Well he had last an arm as a new one has been sown onto him. It is the right arm of Standartenfuhrer Herzog, the leader of the undead regiment. Now not only is he wanted for the murder of his friends, he also has a crazy evil arm. This arm has insane undead strength, a mind of its own at times and can raise the dead. Yeah it is pretty insane…but wait! 

 

TAKE THAT NAZI! FACE PUNCH!

A trio of Americans calling themselves the Zombie Squad is aware of the undead incursion and arrives to aid Martin and the citizens of Norway. These three along with a WWII museum staffer, an inept police force and Martin are facing longs odds, so they need more help. What kind of help? Well a platoon of undead Soviet soldiers that Herzog and his men gunned down in the mountains during the war. That’s who!

Now we have an approaching final battle between two undead forces, a trio of zombie hunting nerds and a guy with an evil arm all set within a small family community.

 

VS.

 

The sheer insanity of Dead Snow 2 makes the previous film look tame.

 

The blood and death that was prevalent in the first film is upped to ludicrous levels here. No civilian or extra is safe from the undead menace. People are torn asunder, disemboweled, hacked to bits, bludgeoned, exploded and squished by the undead horde. Hell even the good guys get in on the gore  as they battle those Nazi revenants. There is an amazing amount of gory bits. Sure it is really bloody, but it is fun bloody. Items like: evil undead Nazi doctor’s battlefield triage, using a zombie as traction to get a car unstuck , how to siphon fuel with human intestines, how newspaper will not stop blunt force trauma to the head, why wheelchairs on a dirt road are a poor escape option, improper C.P.R. techniques with an evil undead arm, the pros and  cons of intestine garrote wire, cures for congestive heart failure and rapid head squishing. The deaths here are just fantastically silly and bloody. Plus nobody is safe. Usually in these films the youth is spared. Herzog and his cronies don’t care. Babies in strollers and kids in sandboxes are available targets. If these undead Nazis were not painted as villains before, the writers/director make sure to let you know that they are real jerks by having them kill kids.

 

The plot is more insane than the first film. The characters are much better in the sequel as well. Dead Snow had a group that was pretty interchangeable with each other. Here you have Martin and his crazy undead arm graft. This gives him some comedy hit and fun bloody events. The Zombie Squad which is composed of a trio of siblings from America ( brother and 2 sisters). They form a trio of interweb, zombie and Star Wars nerdery that go from zeros to heroes during the film. The inept cops are…well I’m not sure why they are around, but they act as comedy relief that isn’t really necessary.  Then there is Glenn the WWII museum guy that is as useful to the story as the police. He is there as the “everyman” who has been pulled into this psychotic situation? Well that is what I’m going with anyway. Even Standartenfuhrer Herzog is great as the big bad and he really doesn’t say anything. He is a menacing evil presence and a great one at that!

 

Dead Snow was stupid gory fun. Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead is the same but the absurdity dial is turn up several notches! Good times!