Five years ago, a little Scandinavian zombie movie made waves among horror fans: “Dead Snow,” in which defrosted, undead German soldiers from World War II terrorize a group on a ski vacation in contemporary Norway. It essentially ripped pages from “Night of the Living Dead” and “The Evil Dead,” and reshuffled them into something original and darkly funny. Nazi zombies? Really?
But “Dead Snow” director Tommy Wirkola couldn’t leave well enough alone and has made a sequel. “Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead” is something of a letdown for fans of the original. It’s not just that he’s working with a bigger budget or, in a concession to world box-office, has shot it mostly in English and added three Americans to the cast. The mix of horror and humor isn’t as fresh.
Still, “Dead Snow 2” has its share of fun, goofy, gory moments — especially in the finale, when a group of Russian WWII soldiers is roused from an icy slumber by our heroic ski-trip survivor, Martin (Vegar Hoel), to take on the Nazis, hence the movie’s full title. Half the budget must have gone for fake intestines.
