Director: Tommy Wirkola
Notable Cast: Vegar Hoel, Orjan Gamst, Martin Starr,
Jocelyn DeBoer, Ingrid Baas, Stig Frode Henriksen, Hallvard Holmen, Kristoffer
Joner, Amrita Acharia, Derek Mears
The horror comedy genre owes big portions of its success to
the groundbreaking work from both Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson (pre-Lord of
the Rings). Their influence is a massive part of the material that Tommy
Wirkola has put out in his career thus far. The first Dead Snow very
obviously nodded to Raimi with its slap stick violence and atmospheric visuals,
for example. For the sequel however, Wirkola digs up enough gore, humor, and
over the top violence to kick it into the Peter Jackson homage territory. A
move that not only makes a film that is funnier and gorier than the first, but
one that just might be better.
Martin (Hoel) has barely survived the ordeal on the mountain
against the army of undead Nazis, but a car wreck on his way down has left him
hospitalized and under suspicion when no one believes that zombies killed his
friends. That’s the least of his worries though after he finds out the doctors
attached the zombie arm of the villainous leader Herzog (Gamst) onto his body
and that the evil Nazis are on there way down from the mountain. With the help
of some new friends from the Zombie Squad and a bit of supernatural strength
from his new arm, Martin is going to have to take on an entire army…dead or
alive.
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| "Look at all of those funny kills to come..." |
The films of Tommy Wirkola certainly take a specific ‘taste’
from the viewer to enjoy. If you don’t find humor in horrible deaths,
gratuitous gore, and non-stop violence then you might as well back off. If,
however, you do find some humor in the vein of Evil Dead 2 or Dead
Alive, sit back and prepare for the laughter in slaughter because Dead
Snow 2 is going to hit all the right buttons.
The film is set to a lightning pace. It starts off right
after the events of the first film as zombies attack Martin’s car on the way
off of the mountain and rarely does the film stop from there. While the first
film took time to set up characters and atmosphere, Dead Snow 2 assumes
you’ve seen the first one and keeps it moving at full speed from there. Sure,
there’s a bit of story here or there as they add a few new characters to the
mix, like the bumbling nerds of the Zombie Squad complete with Star Wars
quotes or the arrogant police chief out to capture Martin, but it mostly
happens at a full run…which adds to the frantic fun of the film.
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| He had to be 'axed' a question. |
At the pace that Dead Snow 2 moves, the resulting
blend of humor and gore has to keep up and Wirkola and company are more than
inspired for the task. Whether it’s the intentionally ridiculous slap stick
violence of Martin’s slave zombie who continually perishes and comes back to
life or the intense reign of terror that Herzog and his zombies inflict on the
villages they storm through with their tank, all of the proceedings blend humor
and horror with relative ease so that even when something relatively terrible
happens…it’s hilarious. The gore effects are top notch and the film takes an
almost action like turn in the final act that’s punctuated with phenomenal
stunts. There is a sequence where Herzog throws Martin through the ceiling of a
house and he comes back down to roll down a flight of stairs. It might be one
of the best stunts I’ve seen this year.
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| Heads up. |
While some might not like Dead Snow 2 as much for its
lacking ‘pure horror’ elements that the first film contained, there is so much
fun to be had with the humor and high paced antics of Martin, the massive
zombie riots, and general destruction of people that rarely did I have time to
really compare it until it was done. It does take a certain taste of humor and
horror to enjoy the film, but with its strong executions and relentless pacing
it’s hard not to recommend this to everyone.
Written By Matt Reifschneider
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