Dead Snow

Dead Snow
Directed by	Tommy Wirkola
Produced by	Tomas Evjen Harald Zwart
Written by	Tommy Wirkola Stig Frode Henriksen
Starring	Charlotte Frogner Stig Frode Henriksen Bjørn Sundquist Ane Dahl Torp Jenny Skavlan
Music by	Christian Wibbe
Cinematography	Matthew Bradley Weston
Editing by	Martin Stoltz
Studio	Miho Film Yellow Bastard Production News on Request Euforia Film Zwart Arbeid Barentsfilm AS FilmCamp Storm Studios
Distributed by	Euforia Film
Release date(s)	9 January 2009 (2009-01-09)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Norway
Language	Norwegian
Box office	$1,984,662

Dead Snow (Norwegian: Død snø) is a 2009 Norwegian horror film directed by Tommy Wirkola, starring Charlotte Frogner, Stig Frode Henriksen, Bjørn Sundquist, Ane Dahl Torp and Jenny Skavlan.

Plot

A woman, Sara, (Ane Dahl Torp) is being chased through the snows of Norway. She is ultimately cornered and eaten by zombies in World War II Schutzstaffel (SS) uniforms.

Seven students on Easter vacation arrive at a small cabin near Øksfjord. The cabin is owned by Sara, Vegard's (Lasse Valdal) girlfriend. The group begins to drink and party until a mysterious hiker (Bjørn Sundquist) arrives. He tells them the dark history of the region; during World War II, a force of Einsatzgruppe, led by Standartenführer Herzog (Ørjan Gamst), occupied the area. For three years the Nazis abused and tortured the local people. Near the end of the war, with Germany's defeat looming, the soldiers looted all the town's valuables. However, the citizens stage an uprising and ambushed the Nazis, killing many. The survivors, including Herzog, were chased into the mountains, and it was assumed that they all froze to death. The hiker then continues on his way. That night Vegard wakes to a figure placing something beneath the floorboards of the cabin. He calls out believing it is Sara but she seems to ignore him leaving the cabin. Vegard quickly follows her but when her finds her outside he is horrified to find her face appearing bloody as she makes a gasping sound. Vegard suddenly jolts awake in his bed, revealing it was only a dream, but he is unsettled and feels that something terrible has happened to Sara. Meanwhile out in the snowy mountains the hiker has settled camp and is eating dinner when suddenly disturbed by a noise outside. Bringing a gun and flashlight he attempts to investigate seeing nothing in the dark he is cautious until he swing his flashlight to see a zombie nazi. The zombie attacks stabbing him and eating him inside the tent.

The next morning Vegard takes the group's snowmobile out to look for Sara. When stopping for a rest he stumbles on a tent in which he discovers the disemboweled body of the hiker from the previous night. He searches the area discovering footprints in the snow, possibly belonging to Sara. His search is cut short when he falls through the snow into a cave hidden beneath the ice is is knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, after it gets dark, the other students are partying in the cabin. When searching for more beer in the crawlspace beneath the floorboards Erland finds an old wooden box filled with valuables and golden trinkets. They celebrate by haphazardly throwing the treasure above their heads, wearing it and one of them pockets a gold coin. They eventually decide to stow it back where it came from under the advice of Martin who says that it isn't theirs and they should wait for Vegard and Sara anyway. Erlend (Jeppe Laursen) goes to the outhouse where Chris (Jenny Skavlan) meets him and the two have sex. Erland leaves and returns to the cabin first with Chris to follow. On his way from the outhouse, Erland inadvertently drops a gold coin, which awakens a Nazi zombie. Chris stays to use the outhouse and is frightened when hearing a noise outside. She sees a Nazi zombie peering through the cracks of wood and is frightened remaining inside. Suddenly she is yanked through the bottom of the outhouse, but after a brief struggle manages to climb back up. She exits the outhouse wounded and attempts to scream for help but due to the loud music of the party she isnt heard before the Zombie kills her. The others, puzzled by her absence go outside to look for her, Martin taking a shotgun for protection. While outside they find Sara's rucksack buried in the snow.

As they wonder where Chris is after returning inside empty handed the zombies arrive at the cabin. They attempt to bar the doors and windows but Erlend is killed before the remaining students manage to seal the windows completely and survive the night. Vegard comes around in the cave, discovering WWII German firearms and helmets, as well as Sara's severed head. Vegard hears a moan behind him blindly swinging his torch hitting a Zombie. He finds the surface and calls out to his attacker to reveal himself. The Nazi Zombie obliges by coming out and the two fight. Vegard uses his military training to wrestle a knife away from the zombie and stabs him in the eye. The victory is short lived as another Zombie knocked out before awakens and knocks Vegard off the cliffside. The 2 dangle using the intestine of the dead zombie as a rope.Vegard is badly bitten in the neck but shakes the zombie off of him so that it plummets to the bottom of the ravine. He climbs back to the snowmobile, stitches his wound and takes the Nazi machine gun mounting it on the front of the snowmobile before making his escape.

Meanwhile, the remaining four students in the cabin decide to split up. The two men, Martin (Vegar Hoel) and Roy (Stig Frode Henriksen), attempt to distract the zombies, while the two women, Hanna (Charlotte Frogner) and Liv (Evy Kasseth Røsten), run for the cars and go for help. En route to the cars, the girls are ambushed. Liv is knocked out by the zombies and awakens to them eating her intestines. Weakened she manages to grab a hand grenade off one of the zombies belt blowing up both herself and her diners. Meanwhile Hanna is chased up a tree to hide from a zombie patrol but when given away by an angry bird she leads one zombie to the edge of a cliff. She turns and faces the zombie and stomps on the ground, causing the ice to crack, and both of them fall. Both survive, and are submerged in snow; Hanna digs her way out despite having admitted before that she is claustrophobic and kills the zombie.

Martin and Roy, holed up in the cabin, accidentally set fire to it with Molotov cocktails. As they escape, they discover that the shed next to the cabin contains numerous power tools, with which they equip themselves. More zombies attack, but Martin and Roy manage to fend them off with the aid of Vegard, who returns with the snowmobile. However, Vegard is killed during the fight, being ripped apart by 5 zombies. Martin, enraged by Vegard's death, goes into a rage making quick work of attacking zombies however he accidentally kills Hanna, who has returned to the cabin by sinking a hatchet into her neck. Deeply upset he does not at first notice that Herzog arrives with another group of zombies, including SS men. Roy calls for Martins aid as the zombies rush down towards them and in the last moments Martin breaks from his depression and he and Roy kill them all. Before the battle is done however Martin is bitten on the arm. Remembering Erlands one piece of advice of "don't get bit" he chooses to cut off the infected arm with a chainsaw to avoid turning into a zombie. After a painful amputation using the chainsaw and a cauterizing fire he seems elated to avoid an undead fate but a zombie bites him on the genitals. After killing the remaining undead leaving only Martin and Roy against Herzog they begin to move towards the undead officer intent on killing him. Herzog sthen raises many other zombiesuddenly shouts "ARISE" and as his words reverberate against the mountains suddenly hundreds of undead soldiers climb out of the snow staring down the two survivors. At this point the students drop their weapons and run while being pursued closely by the army. While on the run Roy is hit in the head by Herzog who picked up a dropped hammer. After being bludgeoned he is disorientedhit and runs into a tree which catches his intestine snaring him and is disemboweled. As he falls to his knees before the approaching Herzog the Zombie searches his pockets retrieving a pocket watch taken from the wooden box hidden in the cabin floorboards.

Martin watching the exchange and subsequent death of Roy comes to realize that the zombies are after the box in the cabin. He runs to the burnt-out remains of the cabin, searching the charred ruins until finding the box. At this time Herzog and the other Nazi Zombies arrive. Seeing hat he has they halt and Martin gives them the box before quickly running. He manages to get away and finally reaches the car at the base of the mountain. Getting inside and strapping in quickly he fumbles for the keys to go into the ignition As he does so a coin from the box falls out of Martin's pocket. Swearing, he looks around to see Herzog smashing the car window.

Cast

• Charlotte Frogner as Hanna
• Ørjan Gamst as Standartenführer Herzog
• Vegar Hoel as Martin
• Jeppe Laursen as Erlend
• Evy Kasseth Røsten as Liv
• Jenny Skavlan as Chris
• Bjørn Sundquist as The Wanderer
• Ane Dahl Torp as Sara
• Lasse Valdal as Vegard
• Jerid Myers as Ronald

Production

In creating the film's Nazi zombies, writer and director Tommy Wirkola concluded that the best way to enhance the horror and disgust of standard zombies was to give them the Nazi element; he also used the historical backdrop of the Nazi occupation of Norway in developing the film's plot. In an interview, Wirkola said, "When we were about to sit down and write the actual script, we started thinking ‘What is more evil than a zombie’? A Nazi-zombie! We have a really strong war-history up in the north of Norway from World War Two, so it was fun to combine actual events with our own story. And you know Nazis have always been the ultimate villains in movies. Combine that with zombies and you really get something that no one would sympathise with."^[1] Wirkola, who also appeared in a cameo as one of the zombie soldiers, said of his monsters, "I like to think of them as Nazi zombies. Nazis first, then zombies."^[2]

Even though a curse is alluded to in the beginning of the film, through the Nazi occupation and susequent burial grounds the Norwegian mountains became, it is not definitive how the Nazis became zombies. However, Wirkola used the curse angle in the creation of the film's zombies. "We went for the old-fashioned ones where they're cursed. For me there are two types of zombie films: the curse and the plague or virus. So we wanted ours to be like a ghost story mixed with Indiana Jones."^[3]

The special effects make-up team responsible were Per Steinar Hoftun and Shino Kotani, both of Freax FX, and Steinar Kaarstein, of Effektmakeren.^[4] The development crew also included Janne Røhmen (key make-up artist), Elisabeth Haugan, Gudmund Saksvik, Lene Bruksås and Ragnhild Prestholt.^[4]

Release

The film was distributed by Euforia Film^[5] and released on January 9, 2009 in Norway.^[6] The US premiere was held at the Sundance Film Festival,^[7] after which IFC Films purchased the US distribution rights.^[8] The film received a limited release in the US starting June 19, 2009,^[9] before its DVD release on February 23, 2010.^[10]

Reception

Dead Snow received mixed reviews from Norwegian critics, and was rated 3/6 by both Verdens Gang^[11] and Dagbladet.^[12] According to Manohla Dargis of The New York Times, director Tommy Wirkola, "who wrote the irrelevant screenplay with Stig Frode Henriksen, doesn’t just hit every horror beat; he pounds it to an indistinguishable pulp."^[13] She highlighted the special effects team for acclaim for their "admirably disgusting" work.^[13] Stephen Witty of The Star-Ledger also commented positively on the film's visuals, and lauded Wirkola for his "steady hand with the action scenes",^[14] but identified the plot as the film's weakness. He accused the characters of lacking motivation, and for being "pretty much indistinguishable from one another" He also had a problem with the ending.^[14] At "Rotten Tomatoes" the film has received a 67% positive review. Here, the consensus is given as: "Though it doesn't cover new ground, Dead Snow is an entertaining mix of camp, scares, and blood and guts."

Accolades

The movie was nominated for four 2009 Scream Awards: Fight-to-the-Death Scene, Most Memorable Mutilation, Best Foreign Movie and Best Horror Movie.

References

1. ^ Cockwell, S. (July 21, 2009). "Interview with Dead Snow writer and director Tommy Wirkola". Movie Reviews (Eatmybrains). http://www.eatmybrains.com/showfeature.php?id=95.  Retrieved Nov. 20, 2010
2. ^ Olsen, Mark (June 28, 2009). "Dead Snow: What's more evil than Nazi zombies?". Movie Reviews (Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California). http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/28/entertainment/ca-indiefocus28/2.  Retrieved Nov. 20, 2010
3. ^ Accomando, Beth (June 22, 2009). "Dead Snow: Interview with Tommy Wirkola". Movie reviews (KPBS, San Diego, California). http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/jun/22/dead-snow/.  Retrieved Nov. 20, 2010
4. ^ ^{a b} Effektmakeren, Dead Snow Retrieved 03 January 2011
5. ^ Sandvik, Ragnhild Laukholm (12 January 2010). "Tomme tønner fyller kassen" (in Norwegian). Dagens Næringsliv: p. 46. 
6. ^ "Død Snø" (in Norwegian). Filmweb. Filmweb AS. http://www.filmweb.no/kino/article158850.ece. Retrieved 16 January 2009. 
7. ^ "Sundance '09: Zombie Nazi in New Dead Snow Pics and Trailer". BD Horror News (Bloody-Disgusting). 5 December 2008. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/14558. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
8. ^ Thompson, Anne (21 January 2009). "IFC Films acquires Dead Snow". Variety (Reed Business Information). http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2470&articleid=VR1117998892&cs=1. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
9. ^ "Dead Snow Release Information". Internet Movie Database. 13 June 2009. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278340/releaseinfo. Retrieved 2009-06-13. 
10. ^ "DVD and Blu-ray Art and Details: Dead Snow". http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/35181/dvd-and-blu-ray-art-and-details-dead-snow. 
11. ^ Selås, Jon (2009-01-07). "Tarmsleng i villmarken" (in Norwegian). Verdens Gang. http://www1.vg.no/film/film.php?id=9575. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
12. ^ Alver, Eirik (2009-01-08). "Blodpudding på vidda" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2009/01/08/561080.html. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
13. ^ ^{a b} Dargis, Manohla (2009-06-19). "Movie Review Dead Snow". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/movies/19dead.html?ref=movies. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
14. ^ ^{a b} Witty, Stephen (2009-06-18). "'Dead Snow' movie review - Fascist zombies on the loose in 'Dead Snow'". The Star-Ledger. http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ticket/index.ssf/2009/06/fascist_zombies_on_the_loose_i.html. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 

External links

• Official website
• Dead Snow at the Internet Movie Database
• Dead Snow at Metacritic