There was a trailer thread for this a few weeks back but I figured a review thread would be in order since its doing the rounds on line at the moment. Most of you know the plot but just to recap I’ll see what good old Wikipedia has to say:
“The plot of the film is set around a group of Norwegian medical students who go away for an easter vacation in a cabin up in the mountains. Unfortunately, the area they are staying in was used by the Nazis in the German occupation of Norway during World War II. The Germans raped and pillaged the locals and stole all their gold, until the locals chased the Germans up the mountains, where they supposedly froze to death. The medical students find a box of gold in the cabin they are staying in, which had belonged to the Germans. As a result, zombie Germans come back to reclaim their gold, with deadly results.”
Sounds fun right? Yes, it is. The cast are a likable crowd and the setting is magnificent. Why don’t we have more zombies in snow? Not since Lone Wolf: White Heaven in Hell has snow been the backdrop to so much crimson bloodshed and it works amazingly well. The plot moves along at a decent pace too, starting out like most other films of the genre before ending up at a frantic pace which will leave you grinning at some of the action sequences. I wouldn’t say laugh out loud grinning, more of a smug “oh that’s got to hurt” sort of way.
The zombies are great because, well, how can undead, gold hunting Nazi’s possibility fail? It seems that zombie soldiers are fashionable at the moment (Outpost, World at War) and this bunch are able to run, use weapons, stalk victims, tackle and set traps but it doesn’t seem to make them any less enjoyable. The gore reminded me of Brain Dead/Dead Alive (look out for a cameo) with some gruesome deaths and masses of intestines being spread around like hot butter on pancakes.
One gripe I did have was the occasional use of Norwegian heavy metal music. For some odd reason a lot of directors seem to think that loud heavy metal goes well with a zombie film, the Europeans especially, but I find it takes away a lot from the atmosphere from the scenes and comes across as feeling childish, almost as if an angst-ridden teenager was hired in to score the film and have just picked whatever is on their iPod at the time. For that to be the sole bad decision though is a remarkable thing and its more me being a nitpicker than anything else.
A fun film that comes highly recommended.
