Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Jason watches DØD SNØ

Or, in English, DEAD SNOW.

This Norwegian gorefest makes it very (even insultingly) clear in the opening scenes exactly what it's influences are. As a group of friends (all medical students, but other than justifying some first aid that doesn't really need justification, they could be any college-aged group out for a party) heads out to a remote cabin, they just happen to mention that A) there is no cell phone coverage up here, and B) discuss horror movies that start out just this way (although all their examples pre-date cell phones).

For the first half hour or so, it was in serious danger of boring me. It wasn't about to bring anything new to the genre, other than the one-line pitch for the movie--undead Nazis--and I knew that going in. But then through a relentless, go-anywhere-and-never-stop pace, it actually broke through and entertained me. By the end, it entertained the hell out of me. Maybe for no reason more than the joy of watching undead monsters in Nazi uniforms get chopped to bits, but that's reason enough for me.

I still think it could have used a better editing job--it tends to jump around pretty clumsily. And overall, it's formulaic, but it shows that the formula well executed can be a hell of a lot of fun.

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