Tommy Wirkola directs Dead Snow 2 – Red vs Dead, a film about a man on the run from killer Nazi Zombies.
Following directly on from events in the first movie, Martins continues to find himself on the run from the killer Nazi Zombies, who are now out for revenge. From regaining his arm, joining up with the ‘Zombie Squad’ the gruesome end battle this film delivers the gore and the gags.
Vegar Hoel is excellent as Martin, the ordinary guy having an extraordinarily bad day. He is instantly engaging, carries the film brilliantly and at times is downright funny. Stig Frode Henriksen, as gay WWII worker Glenn, delivers some good lines, as does Hallvard Holmen and Amrita Acharia as the dippy local police force, whose dumb ignorance is priceless. The America trio of Martin Starr, Jocelyn DeBoer and Ingrid Haas as the ‘Zombie Squad’, are pretty good with their goofy desperation, but Kristoffer Joner steals the show as the sidekick zombie, who is basically nothing more an undead doormat.
The plot is pretty simple, but when the premise is Killer Nazi zombies, and when it’s is pulled off this well, simple is good. There are some new additions to the plot with Martin swapping arms with the Nazi General Herzog, giving amazing zombie powers. The script is pretty sharp too, there are some nice genre references and decent some in jokes, some are funnier than others, but at least they are funny and never slip into being smug or self-satisfied.
The special effects are all live effects, rather than CGI, and the film is all the better for it. As this is effectively a B Movie film it’s great to see the film makers having the budget, that even though isn’t on Hollywood’s scale is more than enough to pull off what they were trying to achieve, it’s definitely more charming than cheap.
For a film as gory as this it is always in good taste. There isn’t a nasty edge to this film in anyway, so when legs are being ripped off or eyes gouged out or intestines pulled out and used to strangle people, it always raises a smile rather than grimace.
As silly as it is shocking, and considering it’s a sequel is far better than it should be, this is definitely one for all zombie fans.
‘Dead Snow 2 – Red vs. Dead’ opens in cinemas around the UK from August 24th.
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