Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014) User Reviews

The boldest finger to political correctness I have ever seen - and tons of twisted fun

[gogoschka-1 · 8/10 · 8 July 2014]

The first one was a gory blast. But the second one tops it in every conceivable way: This is a no-holds-barred splat-fest from the beginning to the end which would make (the early) Peter Jackson proud!

I can take a lot of splatter, but I must admit: some scenes were so disgusting that I was as much retching as I was laughing (a very confusing experience - believe me), this movie really takes no prisoners. And it really seems to want to make a statement against political correctness: the elderly, the disabled, kids, mothers with strollers, gays, heck: even babies(!!!) all get blown up or hacked to pieces in such creative ways that even an old gore-hound like me was a bit shocked (I must shamefully admit). Then again, when you're dealing with Nazi-Zombies, that was to be expected.

But the film is also very well done; the camera, the music, the sound-effects, and - most importantly - the make-up effects were absolutely fantastic. Nazi-Zombies have never looked better.

A word to the wise, though: This film is absolutely not for the easily offended (or people, who - unlike me - have a certain amount of taste, decency and general common sense left).

Watch at your own risk - 8 stars out of 10 from me.

Favorite Low-Budget and B-movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/

Favorite Films: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054200841/

Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

Allright

[Tweetienator · 6/10 · 24 October 2020]

Død snø was a great surprise and a great pleasure to me. The second movie got for sure the bigger production but besides that I prefer the first one - I felt more connected to the characters and the gore and humor was more on the point. Død snø 2 is still good but offering more of everything does not automatically make a movie the better one. A solid piece for the lover of zombie mayhem, but maybe a little bit disappointing too - especially because the 2nd movie is all in all more a horror comedy, whereas the first one got some humor too but felt more like a "real" horror movie.

Sometimes red is better.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 14 February 2015]

Invigorating sequel to the popular Norwegian horror movie of 2009 is good - sometimes great -fun. It brings back the much tormented Vegar Hoel as Martin, once again forced to battle zombie hordes. In a delicious twist, his severed arm has been replaced with the limb once worn by nefarious Nazi zombie leader Herzog (Orjan Gamst). This gives him increased strength and a special ability, which are going to come in handy. Fortunately, Martin will have allies this time, including a self-appointed American zombie squad, consisting of no more than two girls and a guy.

The gleefully politically incorrect humour is refreshing in a sequel that goes for the "bigger and better" approach. It's got lots of action, lots of gore, and is quite exciting at times. This time the zombified antagonists take on a great many victims. The acting is terrific from all concerned, with Hoel endearing as our hero. Gamst is fantastic as our unstoppable foe, for whom the retrieval of gold just wasn't enough. The integrated cast this time around also includes such American actors as Martin Starr, as Daniel, and Derek Mears, as Stavarin. The script, by Hoel, co-star Stig Frode Henriksen (who plays the nerdy Glenn Kenneth), and director Tommy Wirkola dabbles in self-referential remarks, but never goes overboard in this regard. There are some great gore gags, often involving internal organs. But the best asset of the movie is the healthy dose of humour, which makes all of this very easy to watch. The subplot with the incompetent cops is amusing but not as much fun as most of the movie.

If you liked the first "Dead Snow", you just might love this one.

Eight out of 10.

Zombie brawl

[KineticSeoul · 6/10 · 14 October 2014]

I personally thought the first one was better. This one tried and I appreciate the effort that is put into this. But it just felt way too drawn out and the over the top moments seemed more silly than it actually being cool. There is no suspense or anything all that cool really, even if it has over the top blood and gore scenes. While the zombies were actually kind of intimidating and creepy in the first one it, just isn't the case here. I thought some ideas that are dumb and clever at the same time sort of worked, even if it doesn't make much sense if you think about it. Yeah, they created a new genre of zombies, but that doesn't make it particularly good or anything. So the zombies knows how to talk, communicate, fist fight, use weapons and be able to run. And the head of the zombie pack can resurrect the dead, without much explanation. The first "Dead Snow" was a survival movie...Well sort of. This one is a zombie brawl, it's somewhat entertaining for a while but it loses it's flavor quickly. I give this flick a 6.3/10 because of the effort, even if some parts of it seemed quite pointless.

6.3/10

Might revive a troubled genre

[joris-van-zundert-285-869013 · 7/10 · 23 November 2014]

Of course the zombie movie genre actually is one that has least of worries surviving a troubled movie market. Yet artistically it has seen little ingenuity off lately. Luckily the Norwegians decided to step in to turn the tide of ever more formula driven boring slaughter and slashing gore. If all zombie flicks would be adding as many original ideas as this one the genre wouldn't be facing imminent death by boredom. Let's hope the next one is even better. And let's hope that the producers will be brave enough to not give in to US inspired hypocrite 'moral' in aspiring to broader audiences. A doubtful moral that would probably threat depicting the metaphors for the deplorable human condition that zombie movies are all about. And one that would most likely kill the brilliant final scene of this one.

A masterpiece of modern cinema...

[brettgoodyer · 10/10 · 12 May 2015]

Everything in zombie movies has been done to death (see what I did there?). And yet, here comes a movie that actually adds to the genre whilst simultaneously disgusting me and making me belly laugh. And not one of those infectious belly laughs. You know, when you are in a theatre and something mildly amusing on-screen sends a ripple through the crowd which grows; mostly because the girl down the front has a weird cackling laugh that morphs into a full-on snort fest, and that just sets everyone else off. Yeah, well, it's not like that.

I was on my own. And I laughed out loud multiple times. I genuinely LOLed. That's as rare as rocking horse faeces.

Dead Snow 1 was a revelation; a brilliant twist on the genre. Dead Snow 2 adds again. The comedy elements are ratcheted up as is the budget. A budget wisely spent on special effects and sheer scale.

If you are after genuine chills and insights into the human condition, Dead Snow 2 will leave you cold (see what I did there too?). But if your appetite runs to comedic gore in the vein of Peter Jackson's 'Brain Dead', you will love this one.

A step up

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 27 September 2021]

I had time to catch up with fan favourite DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS DEAD (2014), a Norwegian comedy horror sequel that marks a step up from its predecessor thanks to a bigger budget and more involved plot. This one sees the prior movie's soul survivor, Martin, hunted by local cops for a murder spree while at the same time joining forces with a trio of American zombie hunters to tackle the marauding Nazi zombies. How they do so gives the film its subtitle, and it's a clever, nicely perceived idea.

The rest is pretty much par for the course for this genre. There's oodles of gore including the director's obsession with the intestinal tract, and some lowbrow humour added to the mix. Lots of action to take your mind off the sometimes weak writing, and the lavish, battle-oriented climax works a treat. The jokes are scattershot at times and occasionally puerile, but generally this has enough blood and momentum to work and prove above average by genre standards.

Full of excessive and extremely grotesque zombie violence!

[Hellmant · 9/10 · 18 February 2015]

'DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS. DEAD': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Sequel to the 2009 Norwegian zombie horror-comedy flick; about a group of students attacked by Nazi zombies, in the Norwegian mountains. The sole survivor, of that film, is now trying to defend a Norwegian town; from annihilation, by the Nazi zombies. It was once again directed by Tommy Wirkola and written by Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen and Vegar Hoel. Hoel and Henriksen also once again star in the movie and this time they're joined by Martin Starr, Ingrid Haas, Jocelyn DeBoer, Hallvard Holmen, Kristoffer Joner, Amrita Acharia, Derek Mears and Orjan Garnst (reprising his role as Colonel Herzog). I loved the movie; it's so much fun! Picking up right where the first film left off; Martin (Hoel) is still on the run from the Nazi zombies, and he crashes his car in the mountains. He ends up in a hospital where a doctor replaces his amputated arm, that he sawed off in the first film (to stop a zombie infection), with the undead arm of Colonel Herzog (Garnst). He can't control the arm, at first, and it murders several people. He later learns that he has special zombie powers, thanks to his new zombie arm. He also learns that Herzog, and his army of undead Nazis, plan on destroying a town; as part of a 70-year-old assignment, given to them by Hitler. Martin finds help from a WWII museum employee, named Glenn (Henriksen), and three American siblings; calling themselves the 'Zombie Squad'. They're lead by a nerd named Daniel (Starr). The movie is full of excessive and extremely grotesque zombie violence; it's definitely not a film for everyone, but it's also full of really funny light-hearted humor. The action scenes are so much fun and the characters are all likable and mostly relatable (in an exaggerated way). The additions of Star and Holmen, to the cast, are brilliant and there's a classic zombie sidekick character (Joner) as well. Hoel is also, once again, outstanding in the lead and Wirkola's directing is perfect. It's sure to become a cult classic, like the original, and its also highly reminiscent of 'EVIL DEAD II'; which is a good thing (in my opinion).

Some cleaver stuff is being added to the zombie movie genre with this flick.

[subxerogravity · 7/10 · 13 July 2015]

Starting right at the end of the first Dead Snow, Martin does not even have time to recover, as he must gather an army to stop the undead Nazis from completing the mission they were on before they died.

It's a movie that pokes fun at the zombie genre while adding to it at the same time. Parodying itself makes for a great safety net for adding your own spin to the genre, but they did not need it. The more extreme the movie seems to get the better. I loved how outrageous the movie gets.

My personal favorite was Martian Star as the leader of a group of geeks who claim to be Zombie hunters, only this is the first set of Zombies they ever go up against. It had a Lost boys type thing going on.

It's rare that I've seen a bad Zombie movie, but it's even rarer that you see one that takes the genre up a notch, and that's Red vs. Dead.

Bigger Does Not Equal Better

[TheRedDeath30 · 5/10 · 18 January 2015]

I'm a big fan of the first movie and have watched it several times now. I felt that it was better than most zombie films that have come out in recent years. While the nazi zombie sub-genre was by no means trailblazing, it's also not something that's been trampled to death before and the zombies were much better looking than some "classics" of the genre like SHOCK WAVES. The fact that Wirkola was directing to return, also, signified to me that this should be just as good as the original.

Wirkola goes straight for the tried-and-true horror sequel template of giving us the same recipe that we liked the first time, but giving us more of everything with it. More zombies, more effects, more humor, more action. I found that it didn't work as well, for me. The first movie followed a very typical format of the kids in a cabin in the woods and allowed for the terror to slowly increase. The movie eventually developed into a smogasbord of gore, but that action felt balanced out by the creation of fear developed at the beginning. Here, the movie erupts right away in mayhem. I get that it's a direct sequel and we don't need the backstory again, but it creates a much different feeling movie and I prefer the slow tension of the first.

In the family tree of zombie films, DEAD SNOW definitely descended from Raimi and EVIL DEAD, with the splat-stick violence and corny humor, but the sequel goes even further into that territory. There are zombie comedies I love, but the sense of humor here is more akin to DEAD ALIVE and sometimes felt like Monty Python and the Zany Zombies. Humor is very subjective and this just isn't my cup of tea. That extended to the trio of zombie hunting geeks who felt crammed in to help secure an American audience.

While I have watched the first film numerous times, I actually lost interest in this altogether about half way through and shut it off, forcing myself to finish it the next day.

Better than the first movie in every sense...

[paul_haakonsen · 9/10 · 14 July 2014]

Can't believe it has been 5 years already since the first "Død Snø" movie was out. Time really flies by fast, and this sequel has been long awaited. And it was with a great amount of expectation and high hopes that I sat down to watch "Død Snø 2".¨

Whereas the first movie was entertaining and loosely similar to "Evil Dead", then "Død Snø 2" has added more comedy, but also a great upgrade in budget, and it really shows.

Everything in "Død Snø 2" is just a step up from what it was in the first movie, from the camera-work, to the zombie make-up, to the production value, and the list goes on and on. And for the gorehounds, then "Død Snø 2" really offer a good amount of entertainment.

"Død Snø 2" is entertaining, just bear in mind that there is a fair amount of comedy throughout the movie as well, and if you enjoy movies such as "Evil Dead", "Shaun of the Dead", "Dead Alive" and the like, then you will most definitely like "Død Snø 2" as well.

I was more than genuinely entertained and surprised by this movie, and it is a very worthy addition to the movie collection of any zombie aficionado. And the movie has enough contents to sustain more than a single watching. "Død Snø 2" is well worth the time and effort to sit down and watch.

I am rating a "Død Snø 2" a solid and well-deserved 9 out of 10 stars.

Funnier sequel

[justbob1982 · 7/10 · 6 January 2016]

Version: Grimm Up North festival screening

Actors: 6/10

Plot/script: 7/10

Photography/visual style: 6/10

Music/score: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

Nazi zombies! 2009's Norwegian horror film 'Dead Snow' was the very definition of a 'high concept' movie, given that it could be fully described and sold with those two words (and punctuation). I found it no more than OK, but someone would appear to have appreciated it because Hollywood tapped director Tommy Wirkola up for 'Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters', starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.

Again, critical reviews were somewhat frosty (no pun intended), but H&G:WH made a comfortable profit, and Wirkola has used his industry cred to come back to 'Dead Snow' for a sequel.

The Hollywood influence is evident in several areas of 'Dead Snow 2'. It is considerably larger in scale, for a start, including pitch battles between the undead fascists and their new (or rather, old) Communist adversaries, as well as a tank, large numbers of extras, and a lot more daylight wide shots that indicate a higher budget.

Then there are the American characters, leading to a lot of the dialogue being in English, which is bound to raise the international saleability. It is also a lot funnier. The original played it more-or-less as a straight horror, buying into the ridiculous premise, but the sequel highlights this incongruity for comedic effect.

There are also a few jokes at the expense of the Americans, sly cinematic digs and a whole lot of gore that leans towards the slapstick side. It reminded me more than anything of the Finnish 'Nazis on the Moon' comedy 'Iron Sky', and that is a positive association in my book.

The music is very well-used, and I detected hints of world-building in the nature and rules of the resurrection, raising the prospect of an entire 'Dead Snow' series. There are some slightly uncomfortable hints of terrorist Anders Breivik in the demented Norwegian main character, taking extreme actions in response to a threat others cannot (initially) believe, but maybe I am just reading too much into it.

It's all exuberant fun, with a commendable sense of its own ridiculousness. Some of the gags are a bit low-brow for me, but others are genuinely funny, end even quite witty. Dead Snow 3? Why not, I'd watch!

No. No. No. Don't taint fond memories of Død snø with this dreck

[clavallie-510-479075 · 1/10 · 22 November 2020]

Død snø 2 is 100 minutes of your life you will never get back. It is awful. Worse, it is awful and premised on a really fun and good zombie movie,Død snø. Don't. Just don't.

Well it's a zombie film.

[rprince-832-6294 · 7/10 · 2 November 2014]

-Dead Snow 2 is obviously a sequel to the original Norwegian film where a group of young adults go skiing and accidentally awaken a small army of frozen Nazi zombies. Naturally, one guy survives and this follows him as he needs to raise an army of frozen Russian zombies to fight the frozen Nazi zombies before they wipe out a small town.

-I want to point out that the film does take itself seriously, making it actually one of the better zombie films I have seen. Like the first, both films focus on their zombie elements, which are done well.

-The story is ridiculous, but even more ridiculous is how they drag it out through two films and make it entertaining. The pace is pretty good. AND you actually don't have to see the first, but it helps.

-The acting doesn't matter because zombies.

-The effects were pretty good and the makeup was better than the first.

-It's mostly in Norwegian, so if you don't like reading, this isn't your thing. However, some Americans come in (to promote the film for US audiences no doubt) adding English for about 1/3 of the film.

-Content: So it's a zombie film. It's full of violence and gore and guts. Like ALL zombie films. All REA: zombie films. (Sorry World War Z) It also has some language, but it's not too bad.

-So it's fairly simple. If you like violent zombie films, don't mind reading some, and hate Nazis (jk) than I found the film for you! For the other 98% of my fan-base, I gave it a solid 7/1, but you can skip it.

Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead (2009)

[Spideyfan-963-246215 · 7/10 · 12 November 2016]

Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead(2014) Starring: Vegar Hoel, Ørjan Gamst, Martin Starr, Jocelyn DeBoer, Ingrid Haas, Stig Frode Henriksen, Hallvard Holmen, Kristoffer Joner, Amrita Acharia, Derek Mears, Christian Rubeck, Bjarte Tjøstheim, Charlotte Frogner, Jesper Sundnes, Tage Guddingsmo, and David Skaufjord Directed By: Tommy Wirkola Review HEADS UP. THEY'RE BACK. Hello Kiddies your Pal The Crypt-Critic with a another Nazi Zombi adventure. But I wonder why it's still called Dead Snow when there's no snow at all in the film. Oh who cares. The gruesome Nazi Zombies are back to finish their mission, but our hero is not willing to die. He is gathering his own army to give them a final fight. With me not enjoying these films as much (I guess it's because I'm more of a vampire person than a zombie when it comes to horror) I got to say this sequel was much more silly and just went for it. The last film started out like your typical slasher, teens go to a cabin only in the mountains and they get killed one by one. But this sequel takes it to the city and they have full blown war, much like the first one again. But this one is more intense and even has a great fun to watch fist fight between the main character and the major Nazi zombie leader. Some of the effects do look better than the last film but that isn't saying much because they were awful. The Direction is still just as good as the first film, this is from the same director who brought us Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters, a film I quite enjoy. He is great at making dumb-silly fun films that are a blast to sit through. Dead Snow 2:Red VS Dead is much the same silly fun as the first film but with much more fun sequences and luckily was replaced with English audio so I didn't have to read subtitles again. I'm giving Dead Snow 2: Red Vs Dead a three and a half out of five.

Can a sequel be better? Oh yes

[riggo-73503 · 10/10 · 24 October 2019]

The dark humour is delightful and ending superb... well placed masterpiece

Decent Norwegian Zombie terror sequel about some Nazis dead coming back to life on snowy lands

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 2 June 2022]

Zombie horror is packed with black humor and lots of guts from Norway . This budget enough terror motion picture deals with a group who run into a pack Nazis coming back to life and terrorizing an unnamed Norwegian area . In WWII, a force of Einsatzgruppen led by the dreaded Standartenführer Herzog occupied a Norway location . During three long years the Nazis abused and tortured the local people, and near the end of the war, with Germany's defeat looming, looted all their valuables before beginning to withdraw from the place . The villagers managed to stage an uprising and ambushed the Nazis, killing many. The surviving Nazis, including Herzog (Ørjan Gamst) , were pursued into the valleys , and it was assumed that they all froze to death .If the worst day of your life consisted of accidentally killing your girlfriend with an axe, chain-sawing your own arm off, and watching in horror as your closest friends were devoured by a zombified Nazi battalion, you'd have to assume that things couldn't get much worse. In Martin's case, that was only the beginning. Martin (Geir Vegar Hoel) is still on the run from a group of Nazi zombies, as he seeks the aid of an ever-dwindling group of American zombie enthusiasts, and discovers new techniques for fighting the zombies. . Later on , the villagers are afflicted by stalking, vicious flesh-eating stiffs relieved. Heads up. They're back. The sequel you did Nazi coming....

This clever horror movie results to be gory, gruesome , pretty repellent , and ghastly cannibal feast in which the stumbling flesh-eating stiffs are reanimated and can be only destroyed by bullets in the brain , slashing and throat-hacking . Unrelenting shock-feast laced with brief touches of black humor and tongue-in-cheek . In the first part titled Død snø or Dead Snow (2009) , a ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies . In this follow-up the army of Zombies to be reborn , roaming the countryside , booth and some people besieged inside a Norwegian village deliver the goods , enough to be interesting .Main great success from Norway cinema is compelling directed with startling visual content and nice production by Tommy Wirkola ; furthermore special mention to excellent make-up by the magnificent Norwegian craftsmen . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills, chills, body-count executed by the eerie Nazi Zombies and photographed in pallid color with lurid images and phenomenal results . This is a classic excruciatingly Zombie film where the intrigue,tension, suspense appears threatening and lurking on the snowy outdoors , shack , mountains and many other places . In Norway considered the plus ultra of thoroughly disturbing movie is less stomach-churning by nowadays's standards .

Død snø (original title) is a genuinely frightening story with correct utilization of images-shock and well photographed on location in Alta, Finnmark, Norway and Målselv, Troms. It contains a creepy and eerie musical score by Christian Wibe and appropriate cinematography by Matthew Weston . The director creates a special Zombie thriller that manages to be both scary and skilfully made by Tommy Wirkola (What happened to Monday , I onde dager , Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunter) , deserving its cult status . Rating: 6.5/10. Good, this is one more imaginative horror pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style and packing lots of blood and gore , but also some laughs , being as good as the original . It's just one long unrelenting cannibal feast and average budget horror movie that still packs a punch for those who like to be terrorized out their wits. Other films dealing with Zombies Nazis are the following ones : ¨Shock Waves (1977)¨ by Ken Wiederhorn with Peter Cushing and Brooke Adams , ¨Zombie Lake¨(1981) by Jean Rollin, Julian de Laserna, ¨Grave of the living dead (1983)¨ by Jesus Franco and ¨Horror of war (2006)¨ by John Whitney , ¨Mutantz, Nazis and Zombies¨ (2013) by Crippler Criss, Leslie Teah, Werner Timm .

Dead, Dead, Good.

[horizon2008 · 10/10 · 15 July 2014]

Having been a horror fan for longer than I can almost remember, I've seen countless zombie films, and while the genre has had life pumped into it on several occasions (the speedy zombies of 28 days/weeks, and the comedy zombies of Shaun of the Dead) in recent years it's kinda fell by the wayside once again. I enjoyed Dead Snow (the first film) but I'm not sure I gave it the praise many others did, preferring to just think of it as another (slightly gorier) Shaun film. So I came to DS2 with low expectations, I knew I'd probably like it, but gawd, I really didn't expect to fall on my knees and worship the thing. . Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead is without doubt the most fantastic comedy horror I've seen in years - period. I saw Wolf Creek 2 just a few weeks back and while the improvement in that film over it's first part is sky high, Dead Snows is interstellar. It's extremely gory, almost to the point you'll wonder if you should be laughing at things like child kills, wheelchair kills, even baby kills, but man it's fun with a capital F. And, it looks absolutely beautiful too, with the Norwegian countryside just sparkling (no snow this time). I don't want to spoil anything for anyone here, but this movie manages (once more) to revive the undead sub-genre. It's action packed, and dare I say it, maybe even a little moving at the end? I loved every, single, blood splattered second of it and can't wait to buy it on bluray. And make sure you watch to the end of the titles by the way. Stunning stuff. Long live, the living dead.

A Fun Gory Adventure

[MikeMvrd · 7/10 · 6 January 2021]

Taking place after the events of Dead Snow with it's remaining last survivor he by accident gets the same power to raise the dead after hearing what the leader of the Nazi platoon has planned which is to finish an uncompleted mission.

This film brings back the dark comedy and well done makeup work. I felt despite this the story had some faults such as the leader being beheaded by a tank that would end his reign and stop the soldiers from attacking yet the doctor who is a zombie still lives which doesn't quite makes sense even for this type of film. It was also off the fact a town would evacuate it's residency to prevent a Nazi zombie take over I find it hard to believe everyone bought that and got out of Dodge.

Another odd thing is if the leader is to raise a bigger army of zombies why did he just chose a few humans he recently killed instead of making all the recently killed people also zombies?

Aside from these it's a fun film and fun watching zombies kill each other and the Zombie Squad take part.

Invalids and kids getting butchered... So hilarious.

[fedor8 · 7 August 2020]

An improvement perhaps over solid but nothing-special original, yet the film still suffers from the headless-chicken syndrome of its predecessor: the director wanting to have his cake and eat it too. In other words, he wanted real chills AND laughs.

Well, you effing can't have both, knucklehead. You either do a comedy with a horror plot or you do a proper horror film with the occasional gag here and there (where appropriate).

As a result, the movie delivers neither laughs nor scares, but manages to remain somewhat interesting due to the slick production and the colourful plot.

Besides, what's so funny about invalids having their heads smashed and little children being run over by a tank? Wirkola needs to see a shrink; the same one that treats other filmic psychopaths such as Rob Zombie.

Speaking of which, the whole Zombie Squad shtick is painfully embarrassing. And why the hell do the Russian zombies lose to the Nazi zombies? Did this director even have History at school?

I guess I don't get it..

[theflixerdotcom · 4/10 · 8 September 2014]

There sure are some confusing reviews on this one. I'm not sure if they were paid or what, but I read a review on a site I frequent and it was very positive. That prompted me to watch this movie although it hadn't really been on a list I had planned to review. Before I start, or receive the typical responses of I don't know a good movie when I see one, I did watch the first one and I thought it was pretty well done. I enjoyed the over the top violence and the cheesy story. In Dead Snow, it works (P.S. I also liked Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters).

That said, what a pile of garbage this was. I'm sorry, but this movie was clearly attempting to become a cult classic. I really hate when movies try to position themselves in this way. You will notice that all cult classics that are cult classics didn't become cult classics because they were trying to become cult classics. Example; Evil Dead. This movie is a favourite because although it wasn't a huge success, and it was made on a shoestring budget, it gained momentum over time for how revolutionary it was. There was nothing like that here…this was pure rubbish.

I found the gore was purposely over the top as in it was meant to generate a shock for specific unnecessary aspects of each scene that were clearly thrown in solely for their shock value, and not as a part of the story.

I found many of the fight scenes to be way to drawn out and choreographed…especially the fights between zombies. There were some unnecessary MMA type moves and holds that had no place here..lot's of repetition as well in the fight moves.

This movie was both in English and Norwegian which I thought hurt the film as the Norwegian actors (who are probably great actors in Norway and Norwegian) did not carry their English parts well and the chemistry between the English cast was at least partially ruined by the language barrier. Make the movie in either English or Norwegian. As a side, I felt this was another attempt to achieve cult status. It felt to me like the English characters could have been Norwegian which would have improved the story but instead they were in English to bring in the larger English speaking audience who may have missed the first movie, but watched and enjoyed Witch Hunters.

The only thing I kind of liked about the movie was Martin Starr. I have to say though, it felt like they went after him as he is already kind of a cult hero because of Freaks and Geeks and Silicon Valley. His character (and I'm talking across most of his work) was specifically the audience they were trying to target and so they brought him in to try to target them. He is by far the best part of this movie, but that isn't saying much.

If you love zombie movies….watch something else because this one is trying way too hard to be the cool kid.

Rating: 4/10

Surpasses the first! Remember the first right?!?

[Patient444 · 8/10 · 16 August 2014]

One of the rarest moments in cinema, when the sequel is better than the first, but wait, the first being a great movie too! So there you have it folks, another miracle just happened, you witnessed it and you can tell your grand children, that you were there, when Dead Snow 2 made its appearance!!

This one is a tad bit darker, much more complex, kinda the same amount of laughs, but the plot, huge improvement! You get hooked by it, just laying there, minutes passing and while craving for more, you do smile from time to time. Quite amazing the fact that they didn't rush a sequel with a weaker story, but actually showed some brains: literally and metaphorically of course!

It's a big mistake to read more, find out about the plot, get some insides, just watch it! Leave IMDb, and go watch Dead Snow 2! It is a BLAST!

Cheers!

thrilling, comical and brutal zombie flick

[shuddhadev · 7/10 · 22 February 2015]

OK let me start by saying that this movie is 100 mins of pure non sense and has no relevance to anything. But having said that this movie has its own charm and is a definite watch for all Z movie addicts.

If your expecting a pure WWZ apocalypse, then this one does complete justice to the title, since eventually an all out war breaks off between the NAZI zombies and the SOVIET zombies and there is chaos in a comical way haha. Even in the middle of all the brutality , there is a sense of comedy which will surely make the viewers burst out into unstoppable laughter.

Coming back to the gore element...this is a pure slasher with limbs and heads flying off everywhere, intestines being devoured by the undead and faces being chewed off like chewing gum. There is a good amount of nostalgia as well associated in this movie (you will understand if your a WWII movie fan) , as it redirects to the horror of the Nazis during the WWII in a very comical way...(and I mean really comical). Imagine a German tank, together with hordes of blood thirsty zombies brutally slaughtering and crushing all the women and children and the police or the army does not care at all.

The setting is beautiful as the movie has been filmed in Norway, and it does good amount of justice to the movie as a whole. The cast does a good job, even though it doesn't consist of much familiar faces, but the ZOMBIE SQUAD totally rules!!! Hence I would conclude by saying..that if your looking for a well sought out Z flick, then look no further, DEAD SNOW 2 is what definitely you should be watching.

As for me, this movie totally sorted out my weekend.

Tommy Wirkola is in a Hollywood state of mind

[Coventry · 3/10 · 12 January 2015]

Don't even believe for one second that "Dead Snow 2" is better than the original! Whoever claims that probably also thinks that all horror remakes are superior to their originals and that they should make another fifteen sequels to the "Saw" franchise. Fact of the matter remains that the Norwegian "Dead Snow" from 2009 was an entertaining and refreshing zombie-hit, and the entire world noticed so as well. Writer/director Tommy Wirkola promptly got offered a ticket to Hollywood and the change to direct a modern version of a classic Grimm fairy-tale. I haven't seen "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" – and I don't immediately intend to – but considering the success it had, I'm honestly surprised that our director still returned to his fatherland to make a sequel to his international breakthrough hit. After having seen part 2, I'm actually a lot less surprised, as Wirkola completely "Hollywoodized" his success formula and turned "Dead Snow 2" into a lame and derivative splatter comedy. All of a sudden half of the cast is American, the body count increases tremendously and all the snow has melted. Martin, the sole survivor of the snow mountain massacre discovers that Commander Herzog and his squad of Nazi zombies weren't interested in recovering the lost golden coins after all, but they stood up from their graves because they have a mission to complete! A mission that they received from Hitler himself, that ordered to kill and entire village. Martin, wanted for the mass-murder of his friends and accidentally wearing the Nazi Commander's right arm, has to stop them and gets help from American zombie geeks, a gay museum curator and a platoon of Russian zombie warriors. "Dead Snow 2" shouldn't even be called like this, since the largest part of the film – everything after the intro, in fact – takes place in a green and summery environment! Without its snowy and tangible ice-cold filming locations, the formula immediately loses half of its charm and powerful impact. And Tommy Wirkola's creativity appears to be melting just as fast as the snow… All the characters turned into awful stereotypes (zombie geeks quoting "Star Wars"? Oh, come on…), the gore & bloodshed is now dull and uninspired (intestines-pulling is only ingenious the first couple of times) and the humor became overly crude and tasteless. Call me a sourpuss if you must, but I simply don't think that blasting away young mothers and their newborn babies with a rocket launcher is funny. Luckily there are still a handful of imaginative ideas and twists, like for example the endlessly resurrecting sidekick zombie and the deliberately cheesy soundtrack (including Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"), but overall this was the biggest disappointment of the year. The 2009 original remains the only great Nazi-zombie flick ever made, along with the awesome 1977 "Shock Waves".

Surprisingly fresh for featuring rotten corpses

[IamROCKAS · 7/10 · 12 August 2020]

This film had fantastic practical effects and the special effects team does their best (worst?) to offer up escalating gore. These guys do things with intestines that you can't unsee. Merciless scalpings and head stompings are just the icing on the cake as there's no mercy whatsoever, even for babies, or the disabled. If you wanted a feast of blood and guts, you got it. The kill count here is increased and the kills didn't seem like they were done before as it had some moments that had me genuinely surprised and I'm glad this genre is still able to do that. You can just sit down with your friends, relax and enjoy some brutally awesome kills.

It was so much fun, you don't really need to think much about this film as the humor was there, some of it fell flat but mostly it was just a really fun film. Nobody took themselves seriously here and they were able to experiment with the comedy horror. I said before that comedy and horror don't really mix but this film makes it work because it's wacky but not too wacky and it was a unique concept to take on the genre.

There were only three things that I didn't like. First was the cops as they didn't provide anything for the plot, except an extra plotline to extend the runtime of the film. The second one is the Russian zombies as they had the same problem as the nazi zombies had in the first movie - they just weren't menacing. And the third one is the ending as it promotes a kink for zombies. The latter did provide some shock factor and very least.