Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead

[Malcolm]

Synopsis:
The Nazi zombies from the last flick take on the lone survivor and an army of recently raised Russian zombies.

Review with minor but necessary spoilers for Dead Snow:
One of the most jarring things you'll notice is that all the Norwegian actors recite their lines in English. It kind of takes away from the atmosphere, because everything else, all the uniforms, signs, stores, etc. have Norwegian writing. The production value has also been upped considerably. The stunt work is better, there are more explosions, more brutal zombie deaths, ad nauseum. They even managed to snag Derek Mears (the latest Jason) for a few of the best scenes.

In a nod Evil Dead, the only dude to live through the original, Martin (same actor), manages to make his way back to civilization and a hospital. Due to a strange series of events going back to the first flick, his right arm has been swapped with the right arm of Colonel Herzog (also the same actor). This is rather important because Herzog's power to rouse the long deceased from their graves en masse lives in his right arm. It also makes you punch like Hercules. He can individually bring the recently dead back to life with his left, though. Turns out he was on a Lidice-style, "burn this shit to the ground like it's Atlanta" kind of mission given to him personally by Hitler ... and then got distracted torturing and looting the area where he died.

Martin recovers in the hospital and is contacted by three losers from America who still live with their parents and call themselves the Zombie Squad (I'll call them Fred, Velma, and Daphne). They fill the same role as the cabin fodder from the predecessor, i.e. piss you off most of the movie yet somehow become amateur murder machines by the end. About halfway into the flick, Martin stumbles on his ability to resurrect corpses. The kicker is that the ones he raises are loyal to him and anyone with him to the point of obliteration. Fred mentions that Herzog had worked to death and summarily executed an entire group of Russian soldiers not too far from their present position.

There's a noticeably different tone from the first film. It's not horror except for the somewhat grotesque zombies running around. This is much more of an action flick with comedy. Props to the nod to Pet Semetary at the end.

Verdict:
Decent sequel. If you watched the other one, watch this. Stick around for the post-credits scene.