Dead Snow

"Eins, Zwei, Die!"

Director: Tommy Wirkola Year: 2009 Runtime: 88 min IMDb: ⭐ 6.0
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Synopsis

Eight medical students on a ski trip to Norway discover that Hitler's horrors live on when they come face to face with a battalion of zombie Nazi soldiers intent on devouring anyone unfortunate enough to wander into the remote mountains where they were once sent to die.

A woman, Sara, is being chased through the snows of Norway. She is ultimately cornered and eaten by zombies wearing World War II Nazi SS uniforms. Seven students on Easter vacation arrive at a small cabin near Øksfjord, owned by Sara. The group begins to drink and party until a mysterious hiker arrives. He tells them the dark history of the region; during World War II, a force of Einsatzgruppe, led by Standartenführer Herzog, occupied the area. For three years, the Nazis abused and tortured the local people. Near the end of the war, with Germany's defeat looming, the soldiers looted all the town's valuables. However, the citizens staged an uprising and ambushed them, killing many. The survivors, including Herzog, were chased into the mountains, and it was assumed that they all froze to death. The hiker then continues on his way. That night, Vegard wakes to a figure placing something beneath the floorboards of the cabin. He calls out, believing it to be Sara, but she ignores him and leaves. Vegard follows, and finds her outside covered in blood. Vegard suddenly jolts awake in his bed, revealing it was a dream. Meanwhile, the hiker has set up camp in the mountains and is eating dinner when he is disturbed by a noise outside. He investigates, and is attacked and killed by a zombie. The next morning, Vegard, out looking for Sara, discovers the hiker's body. He searches the area, falls through the snow into a cave, and is knocked unconscious. After sunset, Erlend finds an old wooden box filled with valuables and golden trinkets. They celebrate, and one of them pockets a gold coin. They eventually return the rest of the treasure to the box. Erlend goes to the outhouse where he and Chris have sex. Afterwards, Erlend returns to the cabin, and drops a gold coin. Chris is attacked by a zombie, and killed. The others leave the cabin to look for her, and find Sara's rucksack buried in the snow. Upon returning to the cabin, they are attacked. Erlend is killed in an attempt to defend the cabin, and the others secure the cabin. Vegard comes around in the cave, discovering German firearms and helmets, as well as Sara's severed head. He is attacked, but escapes to the surface, where he is confronted by a zombie. Vegard stabs the zombie in the eye, but is knocked from the cliff side by a second assailant. Vegard is bitten in the neck by the zombie, whilst the two hang from the cliff using an intestine as rope. He climbs back to the snowmobile, stitches his wounds, and mounts a MG 34 machine gun to his snowmobile. Meanwhile, the remaining four students decide to split up. The two men, Martin and Roy, attempt to distract the zombies, while the two women, Hanna and Liv, run for the cars and go for help. En route to the cars, the girls are ambushed. Liv is knocked out by a zombie and awakens to him and another zombie pulling out her intestines. Using a stick grenade, she commits suicide and kills her assailants. Hanna leads a zombie to a cliff edge, breaks the ice, and they fall. The pair survive, and Hanna kills the zombie. Martin and Roy accidentally set fire to the cabin with Molotov cocktails. They escape, and arm themselves with power tools. More zombies attack, but they are aided by Vegard. During the attack Vegard is killed and Martin accidentally kills Hanna, who has returned to the cabin. Herzog arrives, leading a group of zombies. They attack, and Martin is bitten on the arm. To avoid becoming infected, he cuts off his arm with a chainsaw. After killing the remaining undead, Martin and Roy are about to attack Herzog, who calls upon hundreds of zombies, that rise from under the snow. Whilst running from their attackers, Roy is hit in the head by a hammer, disemboweled by a tree branch, and killed by Herzog, who retrieves a watch from his pocket. Martin realises the zombies' intent, and retrieves the box from the ruined cabin. He returns the box to Herzog, and escapes to the car. There, he finds a gold coin in his pocket, just as Herzog smashes the window of the car.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

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Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

a dog dies
spoiler But a crow gets killed by one of the campers!
animals are abused
spoiler A woman bashes a crow onto a tree to prevent it from giving away her location.
an animal dies
Yes
there's a dead animal
Yes
there's domestic violence
Yes
someone is stalked
Yes
someone is restrained
Yes
there's eye mutilation
Yes
there's excessive gore
Yes
there's body horror
Yes
heads get squashed
spoiler A man’s head is violently ripped in half.
someone is burned alive
spoiler A character uses a fire to cauterize his arm after amputating it, but it’s pretty quick and doesn’t read as being on fire in the usual sense
there are hangings
Yes
someone is buried alive
Yes
there's amputation
spoiler After a man is bitten by a zombie, he amputates his own arm with a chainsaw to prevent infection. He then cauterises the wound.
someone struggles to breathe
spoiler A man sits on his girlfriend so she can’t move and then puts a pillow over her face. He holds it there despite her pleas and eventually takes it off and apologises.
Someone becomes unconscious
Yes
a non-human character dies
spoiler Zombies
a major character dies
Yes
someone sacrifices themselves
Yes
someone dies
Yes
there are jump scares
Yes
someone vomits
spoiler No one vomits, but there is blood falling out of mouths near constantly. A man is teased earlier on in the film for being squeamish at the sight of blood, told he'll "puke" at the sight of it. This never comes to fruition in the film.
There's audio gore
Yes
someone is eaten
Yes
someone self harms
spoiler Not explicitly an example of self harm, but somebody does amputate his own arm for non-emotion reasons.
there's a claustrophobic scene
Yes
there's screaming
Yes
there is obscene language/gestures
Yes
there's antisemitism
Yes
there is sexual content
Yes
there are nude scenes
Yes
the ending is sad
Yes
there's blood/gore
Yes
there's gun violence
Yes

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