Dead Snow: Red Vs. Dead (2014) **1/2
I wavered back and forth while deciding which star rating to award Dead Snow: Red Vs. Dead (2014), Tommy Wirkola's sequel to his 2009 film Dead Snow (my review here). In some ways, the sequel is superior to its predecessor. Wirkola takes the same approach that Sam Raimi did with Evil Dead II (1987) (my review here), upping the comedy and gore from The Evil Dead (1981) (my review here).
The protagonist in DS:RvD, Martin (Vegar Hoel, returning from the first film), even takes the same trajectory as Ash Williams in the ED films—in the first film he's unprepared for the onslaught of undead violence perpetrated toward him and his friends and by around the midpoint of the second film, he's confident and ready to kick ass. So much so are Wirkola's Nazi zombie films modeled after Raimi's signature series that it just feels a bit old hat. There's no denying that there are funny moments and some amusing kills with impressive f/x, but I feel like I've seen it before.
Additionally, the biggest thing that DS:RvD is missing is heart (something that the ED films do have, despite all the harm and humor contained within). More specifically, I should say that DS:RvD tries to have its cake and eat it too in that regard. While women/children/the handicapped/basically everyone are fodder for horrible deaths and the film shows a complete disregard for human life (in a "hilarious" and often juvenile way), it also expects us to care about just a handful of characters that I never really did and opts for a (admittedly funny) "romantic" ending. Again, basically been done before and better in Peter Jackson's Dead Alive (1992) (my review here). If I were younger and this were my first exposure to this kind of splatfest, I'm sure I'd be more enamored with it. At my age, I tend to look for something more from my horror films or I'm satisfied with just revisiting my favorites and the classics that set the bar.
Back to the star rating...I ended up settling on the same one that I gave the first film (again in much the same way that I rate the first two ED the same) because overall I don't think it's a better film and while both films are entertaining escapist cinema best enjoyed with a large rowdy audience, neither of them is particularly great and I don't feel the need to revisit either one.
The protagonist in DS:RvD, Martin (Vegar Hoel, returning from the first film), even takes the same trajectory as Ash Williams in the ED films—in the first film he's unprepared for the onslaught of undead violence perpetrated toward him and his friends and by around the midpoint of the second film, he's confident and ready to kick ass. So much so are Wirkola's Nazi zombie films modeled after Raimi's signature series that it just feels a bit old hat. There's no denying that there are funny moments and some amusing kills with impressive f/x, but I feel like I've seen it before.
Additionally, the biggest thing that DS:RvD is missing is heart (something that the ED films do have, despite all the harm and humor contained within). More specifically, I should say that DS:RvD tries to have its cake and eat it too in that regard. While women/children/the handicapped/basically everyone are fodder for horrible deaths and the film shows a complete disregard for human life (in a "hilarious" and often juvenile way), it also expects us to care about just a handful of characters that I never really did and opts for a (admittedly funny) "romantic" ending. Again, basically been done before and better in Peter Jackson's Dead Alive (1992) (my review here). If I were younger and this were my first exposure to this kind of splatfest, I'm sure I'd be more enamored with it. At my age, I tend to look for something more from my horror films or I'm satisfied with just revisiting my favorites and the classics that set the bar.
Back to the star rating...I ended up settling on the same one that I gave the first film (again in much the same way that I rate the first two ED the same) because overall I don't think it's a better film and while both films are entertaining escapist cinema best enjoyed with a large rowdy audience, neither of them is particularly great and I don't feel the need to revisit either one.
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