Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead

Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment as well as Saga Film, thefyzz, XYZ Films, and Tappeluft Pictures

You would think that seeing the first "Dead Snow" film was mandatory for seeing its sequel "Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead." I am happy to report that you need not know anything prior to viewing this film, because not only will it tell you the events of the first film, but the first film has nothing to do with this sequel. Though both films contain Nazi zombies, a single living survivor, and the setting of Norwegian winter, these films have little to do with one another.

For one thing the mythology makes no sense between films. There seems to be reasoning behind the leader's going after the kids in the original film, which leads to the impetus of them killing the kids off one by one: Nazi gold. The Nazi gold of the original film lent to their actual history, as the Nazis were highly hinged on the supernatural and various magic instruments. While this motivation didn't make much sense in zombie lore it worked on a visceral level. The first film was actually a pretty great horror film, while also dabbling in the exploitation genre. The second film is dealing with much grander motives, including taking over the world.

Instead of blending together the absurdist nature of the original film's concept and horror, this film goes off into strange territory. First of all, the film is entirely in English, while the first was in Norwegian. Instead of being scary, this second film is entirely ridiculous, intent on showing over the top gore and blood on the screen instead of providing actual scares. I mean, for God's sake, the last third is entirely made up of an action sequence between two sub-sets of zombies and some humans! There's more violence attributed to cannon fire and bayonets than zombies. This film falls into its own obscure genre, somewhere between black comedy and exploitation film.

 This is not to say that this film is not packed with laughs, great gore, and some really interesting visuals, unseen in any other medium. The ending is ribald in its ridiculousness, and really, what does it hurt to have a zombie puppy follow them around senselessly throughout? This is just a great, ridiculous kind of film, best for those who have seen the first, but not necessarily for the initiated.