Review #250: Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014)

This review was originally written in October 2023.

Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #4 - Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014)

Just when you thought you had gotten all of the mileage you could get out of the juxtaposition of "Nazi" and "Zombies", you were proven WRONG! Dead Snow 2 is a tour de force, taking (some) of what made up the first film and cranking it up to eleven. More action and comedy than horror (not that the first movie lacked either of those), this one has quite a different feel to it, but was still extremely enjoyable, albeit for different reasons.

The film starts off right where the last one ended: with the only survivor of the Nazi Zombie attack (Martin, the guy who cut his arm off and then got bitten in the dick) trying to escape in a car but probably not succeeding. Zing zang zoom he survives but ends up in the hospital- thank goodness they were able to reattach his arm! Except... wait a minute, his arm wasn't in the car... That's right, he wakes up with a ZOMBIE ARM! An arm with a mind of its own, and (he'll find out later) magic powers. But the Nazi Zombie leader now has HIS arm (not that it ever becomes relevant) and has set out to conquer Norway or something. So it's up to our magic-zombie-armed protagonist and some nerdy American self-titled Zombie Hunters to evade police and raise an army of Russian Zombies to fight off the Nazi Zombie horde.

Needless to say, this is quite a different film than the first. No more college student shenanigans, no more tense dark scenes with evil lurking in the shadows, no more harbingers of doom- this movie is high-octane Zombie Violence pretty much from the moment it starts until right before the scene at the end where the protagonist brings back his dead girlfriend as a zombie and has sex with her in his car. (That actually happens.) There's definitely a healthy amount of self-awareness here, the film never takes itself too seriously, but I really would have preferred a movie that stuck a bit closer to what the first had going for it. Don't get me wrong- the action in this one is VERY good, with some amazing stunts and great choreography and much better special effects than the first one- but like I said, I really enjoyed the lower-key, fun-times-hanging-out vibe that the first one had. This one is car chases, tanks running over stuff, large-scale battles, and MAGIC ZOMBIE ARMS and it just feels a bit... lesser, all things considered.

This one is still hilarious, it's still a ton of fun, I still recommend it nearly as much as I recommended the first. But it definitely wasn't scratching the same itch. Watch both if you can, but if I had to pick one I think I would pick the first. (Also: If you're going to watch this one, make sure you get a version with good subtitles. I had a serious time struggling to get the subtitles to work properly, sometimes they were way too early and sometimes they were way too late, and most of the time they were so poorly-translated I honestly couldn't tell what the characters were trying to say. I tried not to let it affect my rating but it's still something viewers should be aware of!)

Overall Rating: 8.5/10 Ham-handed Star Wars References

Blast From the Past: When Martin is fighting off the Zombie Leader in the car at the start of the film, the radio comes on and what song is playing? Why, it's "You Touch My Tralala", by Günther! Quite possibly the best song to ever become a meme. More movies should feature this song.