"Ein, Zwei...Die!" Nazi Zombies @ SIFF

Published May 21, 2009 at 10:00 p.m.

Special to Seattlest: Tony Kay, B-movie evangelist and photojournalist--check out his photo essay, Neighborhood Metamorphosis. Since Tony is a unique item, we've kept him first person.

Some people wax nostalgic over a familiar old song. Others get misty-eyed when they hold a soft, comfy childhood quilt. Me, I get warm-fuzzies from Nazi zombies.

The SS-affiliated undead were a staple on drive-in screens back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, from Ken Wiederhorn's compact and enjoyable 1977 opus Shock Waves to Jean Rollin's goofy Zombie Lake to Jess Franco's ditch-water dull Oasis of the Zombies.

But it's been decades since a good old-fashioned Nazi zombie flick shambled onto theaters. Leave it to Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola to resuscitate (sorry) the sub-genre with Dead Snow, and leave it to the Seattle International Film Festival to bring it to local audiences twice in the next two weeks (once on May 23 for an Egyptian Theater midnight screening, and once at 9:30 p.m. on May 27 at Pacific Place).

The set-up: Med students trek up to a remote Norwegian ski lodge for some R-and-R. Creepy local tells med students stories about the evil Nazis who once terrorized the local townsfolk. Med students find stash of Nazi gold. Long-dead Nazis thaw out and come back to life to munch guts and retrieve treasure.

No, I haven't seen it yet. The trailer's been making the horror-geek circuit rounds, though, and it's a doozy--fast-paced, funny, and sledgehammer-scary as hell. Be there at midnight, with bells on, for a special kind of nostalgia.

Back | Read more at Seattlest - Arts & Ent