mag

Heeb Issue #21 : Chosen/Film

Dead Snow ( Død snø ): A Nazi Zombie Flick

Text by Stefanos Chen

Zombie films have proven fertile ground for perceptive directors aiming to bring society’s hidden truths to light—most notably George Romero’s Living Dead series, which first suggested the genre’s complexity in 1968 with its implicit anti-Capitalist and anti-military subtexts. Since then, critics have gazed scrupulously at the zombie film, seeking to uncover what it tells us about the culture we inhabit at a given moment in time. So what exactly do the blood-guzzling Nazi zombies in Tommy Wirkola’s Dead Snow (Død snø) tell us about what’s lurking in the current collective unconscious? Do the Nazi dead still haunt us?

 

Dead Snow, the Norwegian director’s second film, starts off like your run-of-the- mill horror flick: Co-eds rent cabin in the woods. Co-eds get wasted, proceed to have sex. Creepy passerby warns co-eds of impending doom. Co-eds await gory death. Except in this film, death takes the form of a squadron of thawed Nazis, driven into the mountains by angry Norwegian villagers 64 years earlier. Needless to say, these undead soldiers come back with a vengeance much more powerful than your average case of freezer burn.

 

By weaving Norway’s history of Nazi occupation into an otherwise Evil Deadesque blood and guts free-for-all, Wirkola introduces an element seldom seen in zombie films: history. According to Aviva Briefel, associate professor of English at Bowdoin College and noted horror movie expert, Dead Snow can be read as a call to “never forget,” but the concept of regurgitated Nazis is almost too obvious in terms of cinematic symbolism, especially given the film’s over-the-top premise and execution. Instead, Briefel sees the flick as one giant joke about forgetfulness.

 

“If you make Nazis into zombies,” she explains, “you’re saying you’re far enough from that trauma to make fun [of the past and] turn it into a monster.” It’s as if Wirkola is saying that Nazis are no longer scary on their own terms and need to be brought back as zombies to be truly horrible again.

 

Despite the fact that the film features a half-Jewish protagonist, Martin, don’t worry. Snow doesn’t degenerate into a hackneyed Holocaust-inspired horror show. Wirkola is far too clever for that. In one scene, a zombified Nazi attempts to scale a cliff using his own entrails. In another—in which Martin is bitten by a Nazi—his friend Roy tries to reassure him that he won’t become one of the undead: “You’re half Jewish. I don’t think they want you on their team.” Martin, unfortunately, is not convinced and takes the necessary measures. We won’t reveal his gruesome gesture, but let’s just say his act certainly suggests that the rules of the zombie universe end up frightening him more than those of the Nazi universe. At the end of the day, Wirkola leaves us wondering what kind of hold the Nazis still have over us.

 

comments

submit a comment
boychik says,

08.26.09 at 9:08 pm

Where can I see this?

boychik says,

08.26.09 at 9:08 pm

Do I have to go to Norway to see this film?

Puck says,

08.26.09 at 10:08 pm

It was on here at the MIFF. I imagine it’ll do the rounds of the underground/international film festivals.
I’ve also heard that this here internet can be used for downloading difficult to find films :P

stacyfariot12 says,

03.03.10 at 6:03 am

Despite the fact that the film features a half-Jewish protagonist, Martin, don’t worry. Snow doesn’t degenerate into a hackneyed Holocaust-inspired horror show.

certification says,

03.09.10 at 2:03 am

[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/640-802.html]certification exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/CompTIA/sy0-201.html]Cisco free material[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-901.html]free cisco study[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-825.html]pass4sure exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/640-816.html]certification study[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/SUN/310-202.html]free sun exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/VMware/VCP-410.html]cert study[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/CompTIA/N10-004.html]certification test[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-436.html]cisco certification study[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-892.html]pass4sure good exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/640-816.html]good cisco certification[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-504.html]pass4sure the exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/640-460.html]certification prepare[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/EXIN-Inc/ex0-101.html]pass4sure success exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-642.html]cisco good certification[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-873.html]certification obtain work[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/640-460.html]easy pass4sure exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/640-721.html]pass4sure help you[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-373.html]pass4sure suty[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/646-671.html]good pass4sure certification exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/CompTIA/sy0-201.html]pass4sure online certification[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/640-863.html]pass4sure exams[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/642-524.html]computer certification[/url]
[url=http://www.pass4sure.de/Cisco/350-030-LAB.html]obation pass4sure certification[/url]










loverboys says,

03.15.10 at 9:03 am

istanbul dans kursları

dans kursu

dans

logo_icons2_129 Facebook MySpace YouTube Twitter RSS Feed

this issue

features

Das Dreamboats

Last summer, Heeb brought you the first-ever Jewish Swimsuit Calendar. In this issue, we are proud to right this inequity with a sampling of some of Germany’s finest beefcakes—stripped of their lederhosen—for your lusty eyes. (read more)

chosen/film

Dead Snow ( Død snø ): A Nazi Zombie Flick

So what exactly do the blood-guzzling Nazi zombies in Tommy Wirkola’s Dead Snow (Død snø) tell us about what’s lurking in the current collective unconscious? Do the Nazi dead still haunt us? (read more)

interview

Chance of Pain

Novelist and screenwriter Jerry Stahl talks about self-loathing, his most recent novel, Pain Killers and finding humor in the Third Reich. (read more)

storytelling

Bundesliga

Halfway down a long corridor we stopped and Moe opened a door to an equally simple room: a white rectangle with a single window, a desk, a closet and a small bed. I asked Moe where exactly we were. He said, “A mental hospital.” I thought he was kidding and smiled. He wasn’t kidding. (read more)

the whole megillah

Nazi Punk Dress Up

Bomber jackets and combat boots are so 1997. In true late-‘90s teen movie fashion, Germany’s modern

(read more)

nosh pit

Ad Flavor

A Munich restaurant seasons its dishes with humor. “It’s a place to celebrate—to eat, to drink and to not always remember what the Germans did to the Jews." (read more)

features

Memoir

Read the winning entry to our fake holocaust memoir competition: German author Maxim Biller’s harrowing tale of pain, deceit and designer fragrances.

(read more)

Border Crossing

It’s been 20 years since the wall fell, and Berlin has become a Mecca for artists, intellectuals and, surprisingly, young Israelis looking for a new kind of freedom. (read more)

the whole megillah

Wurst in Show

Heeb’s favorite porn star and de facto sausage expert, Joanna Angel, finds out which wursts are worth purchasing and which will leave you wishing you had played it safe with Hebrew Nationals.   (read more)

nosh pit

The Final Solution German Chocolate Cake

Inspired by Black Forest cake, this version of the chocolate and cherry creation ratchets up the intensity with a cocoa-logged filling, espresso and a crown of sugar shards. Execute with thoroughness and precision. Like the Germans would. (read more)

sheeb

That Oven Feelin’

Roseanne Barr is a Nazi domestic goddess with a tray of gingerbread men (“Jew cookies”) burning in the oven. (read more)

honorary heeb

Hats Off

Blossom was cancelled in 1995, so quit calling Jenna von Oy Six.  (read more)

bible studies

Queer as Volk

Eccentric art star and mentor to a whole new generation of gender-bending artists, Javier Peres’s also a 24-hour party boy and nightlife impresario. So who better to ask than Peres, who founded his second gallery space in Berlin four years ago, for tips on how to unlock the pleasure chest that is Germany’s capital city? (read more)

features

Spoiler Alert!

Tarantino has done grindhouse, kung fu and French New Wave—now he’s taking on the war movie, and you’ll never guess who his first casualty is.

(read more)

purchase a copy

go to the shop

Quantcast