Nazis are villainous enough, but - as the gleefully gory Dead Snow so chillingly illustrates - Nazi zombies are the personification of pure evil.

As Dead Snow opens, a group of Norwegian twenty-somethings are making their way to an isolated weekend retreat. Their plans? To ski, party, and get haked. The plans are cut short however, when murderous Nazi zombies show up and spoil the party.

Dead Snow certainly has a familiar set up. With it's intentionally obvious first act and self referential humor, this film knows exactly what it wants to be; a blood drenched slice of playful zombie horror. Once the Nazi zombies make their appearance, Dead Snow really comes alive in a relentless, lively bit of gory fun that evoked big time cheers from the audience I screened it with.

There are several memorable moments to speak of in Dead Snow but highlights include a human entrails bungee jump and a perverse outhouse sequence you won't soon forget. The snowy Norwegian backdrop serves as a perfect setting for the mayhem and it's clear that director Tommy Wirkola is a huge fan of the genre. With nods to genre classics of yesteryear (i.e. Evil Dead, Dead Alive, the works of John Carpenter, Romero's "Dead" series) and more current masterworks of horror (i.e. The Descent), Dead Snow strikes up a slightly awkward fusion of laugh out loud humor, mean spirited hijinx, and spine tingling terror, but overall, it's a dead fun.

Dead Snow isn't at the same level as Sam Raimi's playfully scary Drag Me to Hell (pick this gem up on DVD), but for a film about Nazi zombies, you could do a lot worse. This is a fun time and if given the opportunity, see it with a midnight crowd.