Director: Tommy Wirkola.
Cast: Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henriksen, Martin Starr, Orjan Gamst, Ingrid Haas, Jocelyn DeBoer, Kristoffer Joner, Amrita Acharia.
Certificate: 18.
Running Time: 105 minutes.
Synopsis: Picking up directly where the last film left off, soul survivor Martin (Hoel) awakens to find a zombie arm stitched to his body. Suspected of murder, Martin must stop the Nazi zombies from completing their mission. With the help of the American Zombie Squad, Martin sets about defeating the Nazi zombies once and for all.
Nazis and zombies. Like ninjas and turtles, and werewolves and cops, they are two things that were always meant to be together. Sure we can go into the idea of Nazis following orders brainlessly as a zombie would, but at the end of the day we just want to see two of the most evil things ever be merged into a vat of madness. The original DEAD SNOW did this fairly well, but kept a lot of the action contained and under control, and one thing zombies and Nazis should never be, is under control.
Wirkola has finally lost all control, and this is a film where excess is best. Taking on a similar approach as other great sequels such as ALIENS and THE GODFATHER PART II, DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS. DEAD, decides to go with a more is more approach. There’s a thousand times more humour, a thosuand times grosser kills, and nine hundred and ninety nine times more action packed than its predecessor. I was expecting funny, but not this funny. Not the kind of funny where every kill is absurd and comical, and where sight gags litter every sequence.
The plot reflects the budget that Wirkola obviously has to play with, as this time it’s a battle to the death as the Nazi zombies lead by Hirzog decide to complete their mission set by Hitler to wipe out an entire town. Martin, with a new superpowered zombie arm, is on the run from the law and teams up with a group of three American nerds who call themselves the Zombie Squad and quote STAR WARS. Martin is encouraged to awaken a zombie army of dead Russian soldiers to take on the Nazis, and the rest is cinematic comedy gold bursting with grotesque violence.
Nobody is safe in this film, which is a shame as you become attached to every single character. The Americans could have well been bumbling caricatures, but instead they turn out to be far more helpful than you might predict. Henrikson returns, this time cast as a completely different character, and there’s even a wonderful friendly zombie fittingly known as Sidekick Zombie (Joner), whose resistance to death just gets funnier and funnier. As for the ever quotable cops, they offer relaxing cutaways for a bit of humour without the violence.
Although the extension of humour and horror could have been predicted, the film is also a class exercise in action. Wirkola brings amazing practical set-ups and choreography to present us with a grand zombie battle, one on one kitchen fights that make use of all available methods of punishment, and tank sequences that rival INDIANA JONES. It’s genuinely one of the most thrilling experiences in recent years. Hoel also becomes a perfect action star, whipping out bad ass lines and taking on zombies with single punches.
DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS. DEAD is the best zombie comedy ever made. It’s made with passion and charisma and every single facet has been expanded upon without becoming sickening. Inventive gore, side splitting comedy, and just an overall bigger and better experience, this is not to be missed. Hell, it even made Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse Of The Heart a bonafide tearjerker once again. The zombie genre may be at saturation point, but Wirkola justifies the genre’s legitimacy.
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