Chainsaws, Zombies, and Nazis, that's why they call me Mr Happy (Dead Snow, 2009)

There is much to love about this film.

Dead Snow combines classic horror movie tropes (horny students, an ominous warning from a grizzled old man, an isolated cabin, gruesome deaths) with exhilaratingly gorgeous cinematography. The pristine, eerie beauty and silence of an alpine landscape is juxtaposed with an impressive grossout factor that includes Nazi zombies drooling blood, a pretty Scandinavian girl literally stomping a zombie's head into mush, and a student being squeezed by one of the zombies until his brain plops out onto the cabin floor.

The premise is elegant in its simplicity. Several sex-crazed Norwegian students go up to a cabin in the mountains for an Easter break full of debauchery and snow sports. An unstable old man shows up uninvited at their cabin to warn them to get the hell out of there because the area is "Evil." Back in World War II, it seems, the Nazis had established an outpost in the area and there had been a final, climactic showdown between the locals and the occupying forces. In fairness to the kids, who naturally ignore the old man's warning, he neglected to mention that the area is now infested with semi-sentient Nazi zombies from hell commanded by their old leader, Colonel Herzog. The rest of the story is pretty predictable--the zombies show up and pandemonium breaks out. In an obvious nod to Evil Dead II (which the film namechecks earlier) one guy amputates his own arm with a chainsaw.

The characters make abundant American pop-culture references, mostly to horror movies. There is even an allusion, in perfect English, to a line from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ("Fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory") that made me do a doubletake. It's frankly embarrassing that the Norwegians are ahead of Americans in quote mining Indiana Jones sequels. As a bonus, the fat nerdy pop culture junkie actually gets some action from arguably the hottest of the hot girls in the film.*

Visually, the movie is just perfect. The evisceration, immolation, and chainsaw dismemberment scenes have to rank among the best ever filmed. The sense of (fleeting, oh so fleeting) triumph after one particular battle between the kids and the zombies evoked by the image of blood-soaked protagonists against a translucent blue and snow white background is absolutely brilliant. The soundtrack, especially in the combat scenes, complements the action masterfully. Even the nutshelling of plot points is executed with a deadpan sense of humor that's funny even in subtitles (thanks in no small part to the fact that the actors know when to ham it up and when to tone it down).

Oh hey, did I mention the part where a dude is literally pulled apart, like drawn and quartered, by a bunch of zombies? I didn't? Well I should have, because that scene was aaaaaaawesome.

Dead Snow is probably as close as I have ever seen to a perfect zombie film.

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* Though my personal preference was for the kind of nerdy introvert with dreadlocks, because I like nerdy girls with curious hair.