Martin managed to escape from the army of diabolical Nazi zombies that attacked him and his friends, guilty of having seized, during a weekend in the mountains, a chest full of gold coins dating back to World War II and belonging to the German troops. The escape seems to go well, but the protagonist still possesses part of the treasure. A detail not overlooked by Commander Herzog, who unleashes a long pursuit during which the monstrous creature loses his arm. Taken to the hospital, Martin is suspected by the police of having killed his friends and undergoes an arm transplant, self-amputated earlier following a bite from one of the zombies. However, not everything is in the right place: the limb attached to him, in fact, is that of the German commander, who, consequently, is endowed with that of the young man. Once again, the destinies of the two intertwine until they culminate in a fierce confrontation that sees as its battlefield a village in the Norwegian countryside, already included in Hitler's war plans in 1942. But our hero will not find himself alone in facing the terrible threat, finding unexpected allies.
The uniform and the military world have always exerted a strong fascination on directors and screenwriters, as demonstrated by the enormous amount of war films that have made cinema history in every era. A strong bond renewed even in recent years with works that have sought to shuffle the cards, blending classic war atmospheres with others closer to fantasy or even horror. A shining example is the excellent "Frankenstein's Army" by Richard Raaphosrt, in which we find ourselves facing zombie-robots spawned from the mind of a mad doctor, or the Nazis occupying the dark side of the moon in "Iron Sky" by Timo Vuorensola. The latter belongs to the new wave of talented Scandinavian directors who have emerged in recent years, including the Norwegian Tommy Wirkola, who, after the unsuccessful Hollywood experience with the disappointing dark fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters," returns to his homeland with his new "Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead," the sequel to the successful "Dead Snow" from 2009. A work that confirms Wirkola as a director capable of inserting his strong comic and irreverent charge within a zombie movie that is strongly splatter and violent just right.
Unlike the previous chapter, Wirkola seems to have a much larger budget and, for this reason, manages to bring to life spectacular battle sequences with plenty of explosions and tanks reproduced in the most faithful manner possible. The main attraction, however, remains the well-made tricks and splatter effects, always more declined in their most comic and grotesque form in the manner of the first Peter Jackson. The New Zealand director represents only a small part of Wirkola's marked citationistic vein, which sees as its main reference point Sam Raimi and, in particular, the cult "Army of Darkness," whose influence can be seen both in the introduction that summarizes all the events that occurred in the first film and in the sequence of the awakening from the tombs of the two groups of zombie soldiers.
We spoke of irony as a genuine strong point of the film. An element that Wirkola manages to distribute with great balance throughout the plot and, above all, uses not only to give life to the usual easy and predictable gags but also to address delicate and not-so-delicate topics. The motley group of burly zombie soldiers intent on completing a useless mission decades old, in fact, can be interpreted as the only effective heritage of the megalomaniac plans of the Third Reich. There are also biting references to the world of the Church with the figure of a priest attracted to a young confirmand and to the stereotypes of American cinema, embodied by the group of nerds from the "zombie squad" who, at every minor success, sing the classic cloying chorus "U-S-A, U-S-A."
In short, a varied structure from which a group of very good actors benefit greatly in maneuvering between the macchiettistic and horror tones of the story. In particular, Vegar Hoel (as Martin) and Orjan Gamst (the interpreter of Commander Herzog) deserve mention, very good at giving his character great charisma and the right aura of meanness, essential for a film that, despite everything, positions itself as a horror.
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