6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
When a group of medical students take a sex-and-booze-fueled ski vacation to a remote cabin, they uncover a dark secret from WWII that resurrects a battalion of uncontrollable, unstoppable and extremely undead Nazis. What follows is a blitzkrieg of bloodshed, body parts, and action-packed zombie carnage.
Starring: Geir Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henriksen, Charlotte Frogner, Lasse Valdal, Evy Kasseth RøstenHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 2% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Norwegian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Norwegian: LPCM 2.0
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDinfo
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
What’s with the spate of Nazi zombies all of the sudden? Recent videogame Call of Duty: World at War includes a multiplayer mode dedicated to mowing down waves of Third Reich revenants. In 2008, low-budget British chiller Outpost found a band of mercenaries infiltrating a bunker teeming with the SS undead. And now, we have Dead Snow, a Norwegian splatterfest about a battalion of resurrected, swastika-emblazoned soldiers terrorizing a group of vacationing med-school students. Don’t get me wrong; the amalgamation makes total sense. While not quite as commercially lucrative as combining vampires and bare-chested teen heartthrobs—the current craze—the pairing of Nazis and zombies is, or should be, pure horror gold. Both are soulless, lacking humanity, and intuitively scary. Combined, they create the ultimate in villainy: revived, tirelessly cannibalistic corpses with a racist ideology that’s tinged with occultic connotations and rightfully reviled as evil incarnate. If any creature deserves a chainsaw to the face, it’s a Nazi zombie, which is why Dead Snow, for all its flaws, is still a visceral overload of geeky fun.
"Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory."
Shot natively on high-definition video, Dead Snow makes the transition to this 1.85:1- framed, 1080p/AVC encode quite easily, with an image that's crisp and low on digital noise. At times the image is strikingly sharp, especially when it comes to rendering facial texture—see the rivulets of blood that fill pores and wrinkles—and clothing detail, like the fine weft of a tightly woven ski cap. Color-wise, as you'll notice from most of the screenshots, the film has a distinctly desaturated appearance that's occasionally broken by bold splashes of bright red in the form of ski coats, the chainsaw, the snowmobile, and of course, the gallons of gooey crimson viscera. The only time this changes is indoors, where the image has a more balanced, natural look. Because of the color timing, the image does look quite artificial at times, but this seems to be the intent, and suitably deep black levels give the picture a tight sense of contrast. Of course, since Dead Snow was shot on video, it sometimes demonstrates the medium's shortcomings. White highlights are occasionally blown-out—almost an inevitability considering all the snow—and fine detail can look a bit overly edgy. Still, noise is limited to only the darkest of scenes, and nestled nicely onto a 50 GB disc, there are no overt compression anomalies to be found. Considering the film's limited budget, Dead Snow is alive and well on Blu-ray.
Dead Snow drifts onto Blu-ray with a Norwegian-language DTS-HD Master Audio 5. 1 track that isn't the best sonic spookfest I've heard in a horror film, but certainly doesn't disappoint. The surround channels are effectively used throughout for moaning zombies circling the cabin, the snowmobile tearing across the soundstage, and plenty of splatterific effects. Most impressively, though, is how the film captures that creepy ambient hush of a snowfall, a kind of padded silence, like nature's white noise. The mix is at its best when it throws in some impressionistic flourishes, like an ultra-low LFE drone to signify the approach of evil in the woods. Dynamically, the track is solid and mostly well balanced, although the effects sometimes seem a little loud and the high-end can get somewhat brash at times, especially when the hardcore music kicks in. Speaking of, the film's soundtrack is completely schizophrenic, blasting out everything from "In the Hall of the Mountain King" to death metal to what I can only describe as Norwegian country western. The dialogue comes through cleanly, though I'd recommend staying away from the Dolby Digital 2.0 English dub that's also included on the disc. Do note that the subtitles—available in English, English SDH, and Spanish—appear in yellow lettering and are easily readable against the snowy white backgrounds.
Behind Dead Snow (SD, 18:39)
"Dead Snow is a feel good Nazi zombie horror thing," says director Tommy Wirkola—who
looks a bit like a Norwegian Spike Jonze—at the start of this casual and entertaining behind-the-
scenes documentary. Basically, what we have here is a ton of on-location footage of the cast and
crew filming scenes and generally goofing off. There are quite a few funny moments, so the
eighteen minutes fly by quickly. A nice inclusion.
Special Make-Up Effects of Dead Snow (SD, 6:30)
This featurette takes us inside the film's special effects studio, where life casts were made of the
actors and hundreds of silicon zombie masks were prepared.
Madness in the North! (SD, 48:56)
Madness indeed. This documentary focuses on the often-troubled outdoor shoot, which was
plagued by poor weather that caused labor disputes with the crew when the filming went into
overtime. At nearly 50 minutes, it runs unnecessarily long, but it's an interesting portrait of the
pressures of low-budget filmmaking.
Madness in the West! (SD, 17:50)
Here we follow director Tommy Wirkola and the cast from Norway to Amsterdam to Los Angeles
to Salt Lake City to Park City as they make their way—with frequent delays and obstacles—to the
Sundance Film Festival.
VFX (SD, 3:19)
This short segment shows some of the compositing work that was done to achieve the film's
visual effects.
Burning the Cabin (SD, 1:01)
Footage from the cabin-burning scene that had to be cut because it was too dark.
The Sounds of Dead Snow (SD, 5:42)
Sound designer Kjetil Troan takes through the process of creating hundreds of unique zombie
noises, many of which involved yelling through a cardboard tube.
Outtakes (SD, 2:03)
Original Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2:36)
Teaser Trailer (SD, 00:54)
So now that the Nazi zombie phenomenon has—for the time being—run its course, what's next? Maoist werewolves? Feudalist ghosts? Sexy Stalinist witches? Bring it on, indie horror filmmakers. I'm up for anything. Dead Snow may cash in every cliché imaginable, but it's a lot of fun, especially if you're jonesing for a heaping serving of gore. Coolly recommended.
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