Movies
Dead Snow (Død Snø) (limited)
“DEAD SNOW is a decent time-waster, but it’s not funny enough to you laugh, not scary enough to make you cringe, and too derivative to be truly memorable.”
I watched and reviewed COLD PREY a couple of weeks ago, and I caught DEAD SNOW at Sundance this past weekend. Both films are from Norway, and both films share a few striking similarities:
A group of 20-somethings escape to the mountains of Norway for Easter weekend.
The youths are stranded at a secluded building deep in the icy mountains.
While stranded, everybody drinks lots of alcohol and constantly references American horror movies like the EVIL DEAD trilogy or THE SHINING in common conversation.
A character is catastrophically injured (falling off a snowy cliff; a compound leg fracture), only to miraculously return to the action moments later.
And lastly, the youths’ attempts to have sex generally end in tragedy.
So what’s different about DEAD SNOW? Well, honestly, both films are so similar, it all comes down to the scariness of the villain. In one corner you’ve got your hooded pick-axe killer from COLD PREY. Hey, a pick-axe is a scary weapon, it’s all phallic and everything, and getting stabbed hurts really bad. So there, the pick-axe killer. And then in the other corner you’ve got the Nazi zombies from DEAD SNOW, who are scary for the first 40 minutes when they hang back in the shadows, but once Captain Herzog and his cadre of undead soldiers are exposed to the light of a blustery winter day, you can see that their zombie make-up isn’t that scary after all. But they DO bite big chunks of flesh out of people, which is pretty harsh. Kind of a toss-up.
DEAD SNOW attempts to throw a few SHAUN OF THE DEAD-inspired moments of comedy into the mix, and a few of them fly, but most of them don’t. The gore fluctuates between bad-ass and non-existent: there’s a cool dismemberment scene, and if there’s any reason to see DEAD SNOW it’s for its head-tearing scene, but the filmmakers end up bailing on the gore potential of some of the kills, and when the remaining Norwegians take up armfuls of power tools to face the zombies head on, it’s too much CGI, too late. (For the record, I’m behind Mr. Disgusting’s abhorrence of CGI blood.) This is standard issue Norwegian horror, if there is such a thing. DEAD SNOW is a decent time-waster, but it’s not funny enough to you laugh, not scary enough to make you cringe, and too derivative to be truly memorable.
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At the Abigail premiere, Dan Stevens listed Norway among his four favorite vampire movies. “I just saw a great movie recently that I’d never heard of,” he told Letterboxd. “A Greek film called Norway, about a vampire who basically exists in the underground disco scene in ’80s Athens, and he can’t stop dancing ’cause he’s worried his heart will stop. And it’s lovely. It’s great.”
You won’t find a better endorsement than that, but allow me to elaborate. Imagine Only Lovers Left Alive meets What We Do in the Shadows by way of Yorgos Lanthimos. The quirky 2014 effort follows a vampire vagabond (Vangelis Mourikis) navigating Greek’s sordid nightlife circa 1984 as he dances to stay alive. Not as campy as it sounds, its idiosyncrasies land more in the art-house realm. Stylized visuals, colorful bloodshed, pulsating dance music, and an absurd third-act reveal help the existentialism go down in a mere 74 minutes.
With the recent solar eclipse renewing public interest in the astrological event, Bloody Birthday is ripe for rediscovery. Three children born during an eclipse – Curtis Taylor (Billy Jayne, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose), Debbie Brody (Elizabeth Hoy), and Steven Seton (Andrew Freeman) – begin committing murders on their 10th birthday. Brother and sister duo Joyce (Lori Lethin, Return to Horror High) and Timmy Russell (K.C. Martel, The Amityville Horror) are the only ones privy to their heinous acts.
Bloody Birthday opened in 1981 mere weeks before the release of another attempt to claim the birthday slot on the slasher calendar, Happy Birthday to Me. Director Ed Hunt (The Brain) combines creepy kid tropes that date back to The Bad Seed with slasher conventions recently established by Halloween and Friday the 13th – with a little bit of the former’s suspense and plenty of the latter’s gratuity. The unconventional set up helps it to stand out among a subgenre plagued by banality.
Starting in the late ’70s and throughout the ’80s, Italy built an enterprise out of shameless rip-offs of hit American movies. While not a blatant mockbuster like Cruel Jaws or Beyond the Door, 1989’s Alien from the Abyss (also known as Alien from the Deep) was inspired by – as you may have guessed from its title – Alien, Aliens, and The Abyss.
After a pair of Greenpeace activists attempt to expose an evil corporation that’s dumping contaminated waste into an active volcano, the environment takes a backseat to survival when an extraterrestrial monster attacks. Character actor Charles Napier (The Silence of the Lambs) co-stars as a callous colonel overseeing the illicit activities.
Director Antonio Margheriti (Yor: The Hunter from the Future, Cannibal Apocalypse) and writer Tito Carpi (Tentacles, Last Cannibal World) take far too long to get to the alien, but once it shows up, it’s non-stop excitement. The creature is largely represented by a Gigeresque pincer claw that reaches into the frame, giving the picture a ’50s creature feature charm, but nothing can prepare you for its full reveal in the finale.
Set against the backdrop of displaced Syrian and Palestinian refugees, What Is Buried Must Remain is a timely found footage hybrid from Lebanon. It centers on a trio of young filmmakers as they make a documentary in a decrepit mansion alleged to be haunted on the outskirts of a refugee camp. Inside, they find the spirits of those who died there, both benevolent and malicious.
It plays like Blair Witch meets The Shining through a cultural lens not often seen in the genre. The first half is presented as found footage (with above-average cinematography) before abruptly weaving in more traditional film coverage. While the tropes are familiar, the film possesses a unique ethos by addressing the Middle East’s plights of the past and the present alike.
Cathy’s Curse is, to borrow a phrase from its titular creepy kid, an “extra rare piece of shit.” The Exorcist, The Omen, and Carrie spawned countless low-budget knock-offs, but none are as uniquely inept as this 1977 Canuxploitation outing. Falling squarely in the so-bad-it’s-good camp, it’s far more entertaining than The Exorcist: Believer.
To try to make sense of the plot would be futile, but in a nutshell, a young girl named Candy (Randi Allen, in her only acting role) becomes possessed by the vengeful, foul-mouthed spirit of her aunt, destroying the lives of anyone who crosses her path. What ensues is a madcap mélange of possession, telekinesis, teleportation, animal attacks, abandoned plot points, and unhinged filmmaking that must be seen to be believed.
Visit the SCREAMBOX Hidden Gems archives for more recommendations.
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