Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead Review: Another Bloody Gem

Horror sequels rarely live up to the high standard set by their predecessors—in most cases, they just apply the same formula with more smoke and mirrors in hopes of replicating success.

However, there are those rare occasions where the sequels top the original—rare occasions like “Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead.”

A sequel to the 2009 instant cult classic “Dead Snow,” “Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead” is on a whole other level. The horror, laughs and action are amplified to deafening levels creating a non-stop thrill-ride that echoes another great horror sequel, “The Evil Dead 2.” Director Tommy Wirola fresh off a trip from Hollywood with “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,” goes all in on every single scene, delivering a film genre fans will not soon forget.

Picking up at the end of the first film, after Martin (Vegar Hoel) barely escapes with his life and only one of his arms from Herzog (Ørjan Gamst) and the rest of the undead Nazis—he is involved in a terrible car crash. Martin wakes up in a hospital, happy to be alive. This being a horror movie, it doesn’t take long for this happy-to-be-alive feeling to wear off and turn to horror when Martin realizes the doctors have sewn an arm on him—that’s not his, it’s Herzog’s.

Martin’s newly attached evil zombie arm immediately starts wreaking havoc, punching a hole through anyone or anything in his way—but Martin must learn to use his newly acquired Nazi arm to his advantage if he’s going to have any chance at stopping the horde from killing everyone on their path of destruction from the mountain they crawled from.

To stop Herzog and his Nazi zombie battalion, Martin enlists the help of the Zombie Squad led by Daniel (Martin Starr) a group of film buffs impatiently waiting for some hint of the zombie apocalypse so they can finally sprawl into action.  Martin soons learns of a cool trick Herznog’s arm can do, which is bring back the dead. This skill proves useful considering Martin is up against an undead Nazi army—he learns of another undead army, one with a bone to pick with Herzog, Soviets killed in WWII by Herzog. Martin brings back this Soviet group and what ensues is a all out Soviet/Nazi battle royal.

“Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead” is flat out fun, plain and simple. It’s easily the best horror sequel since “Evil Dead 2.” Taking the laughs and scares to new heights ad adding a new variable to the formula rather than reapplying the same one hoping to strike gold again. Once this movie starts, it is a roller coaster ride that never seems to end.

This being Wirola’s baby (he directed the original “Dead Snow”), he knows exactly what’s best for the horror franchise. After the success of “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,” a confidence is displayed on the screen. Killing everyone from kids to people on the toilet, Wirola does not hold back in this film and its hard not to have fun watching him leave his mark on horror—his leading man is not too bad either.

Hoel’s performance as Martin is insane. It’s hard not to make comparisons to Ash Williams when Hoel’s Martin is fighting off his own evil arm and walking on the edge of his own sanity. When all of gore and hilarity kicks off, it’s Hoel’s performance that keeps you engaged—constantly bringing legitimacy to this crazy world with Martin’s descent into madness. This is also helped with a supporting cast that serves up both the laughs and the ass-whoopings.

“Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead” is the horror sequel the genre needs. It’ll have any horror fan reminiscing about the times where a horror sequel was something more than “hey, its cheap to make and it’ll make a ton of money” to filmmakers. Soviet zombies, Nazi zombies, American film buff zombie killers, what is there not to love?  If you need some fun and scares in your life, see the film, it’ll restore your faith in the horror sequel.