Die, Nazi Zombie, Die!!!!

   
     Is it a little strange that I get the warm and fuzzies when talking about zombie movies?  I suppose so, but they are just so good!  The two movies that I chose are not the typical zombie movie that involves a virus spreading throughout the planet.  Nooo...these have NAZI zombies!!  
     Blood Creek and Dead Snow are my most recent favorites. Blood Creek...well, I'll admit I first noticed it for who's in it: Michael Fassbender, Dominic Purcell and Henry Cavill.  It had me at Michael Fassbender.  Then I started to watch it and became interested in the movie.  The beginning appealed to the historian in me.  It starts off in black and white, with a caption at the bottom of the screen reading: West Virginia, 1936.  We meet a German family who has been notified by the German government that they will play host to a scholar (Michael Fassbender) who has travelled to West Virginia to study a rune stone similar to the Kensington Stone.  The family seems apprehensive, but allow the historian into their home.  They soon discover that this person is not only a historian but also a member of Hitler's inner circle and a Nazi occultist.  Hitler and his inner circle believe that this rune stone is a way to develop their "THIRD EYE" and get supernatural powers and eternal life.  The downside is that in order to tap into the third eye, the follower must forever drink human blood. To do this without getting caught, he enlists the German family against their will.  Fast forward to 2007~We meet a young man who is struggling with the apparent death of his brother, two years earlier.  After coming back from a tour of duty, the brother went missing, was never found and declared dead.  Late one night, the young man hears a knocking at his door and is shocked to discover his presumed dead brother. It turns out that the brother has been held captive for the past two years by the German family and constantly bled by the (now) Nazi Zombie.  Without really telling the young man anything, the brother gathers all the guns he can find and the two set off for the farm to kill the Nazi Zombie.  While the younger man feels some sympathy for the family that has been lived in captivity for so long and not aged, the brother feels nothing for the people who basically treated him ( and others ) like cattle to be slaughtered.  The brothers tie the family up while they wait for the Nazi Zombie to awaken from his slumber.  When he does wake up, all hell breaks loose and he soon has the upper hand in a battle against the siblings. 

     I admit, I watched this movie twice, because the first time I was not sure what I thought of it.  It is gruesome in parts, but I liked it overall because of the storyline.  It blends true historical events with a "somewhat" far-fetched story.  And did I mention it has Michael Fassbender?  Also, just a side note, Dominic Purcell was in another favorite of mine, The Gravedancers.  But that is for another time.

Dead Snow,is just all sorts of fun!  It's about a group of  medical students who go on a skiing holiday in the remote mountains of Norway.  They start off by enjoying themselves in the typical cabin-getaway fashion, lots of drinking and sex.  But soon discover that they are not alone and must fight off hungry, Nazi Zombies .  Why are there Nazi Zombies in Norway, you ask?  Well, this is an interesting story:  Apparently there was a particularly brutal and sadistic Nazi general (of course they all where) who, along with a group of soldiers, occupied the area during WWII.  The villagers decided to rise up against their Nazi oppressors and drove them into the mountains.  The Nazis are never heard from again and presumed dead.  They have in fact been hiding out in caves and guarding the treasures that they stole while pillaging the tiny Norwegian village.  These treasures are literally and metaphorically stained with the blood of the dead and in the midst of the Nazi's insatiable greed, they are turned into zombies (of course).  Now, back in the present, one of the students finds a gold coin belonging to the Nazi Zombies and thereby waking them up from their decades-long slumber.  One by one the students are picked off until only one is left.  But not before they fight back and take down all but one of the Nazi Zombies: the sadistic general.  What I love about this movie is that it is a fantastic mixture of humor and horror.  It is definitely not a movie that takes itself too seriously and is really, really enjoyable...if you like that sort of thing.  Stay tuned for my next post, I'll have more horrors from Norway!