...to limited effect; overall it was a better film than I expected, never mind the dubious raves I've seen here and elsewhere, but sadly not up to snuff with the aforementioned hype. Nonetheless, auteur Tommy "I'm no household name--not even in Norway" Wirkola shows a talent for film-making that may yet come to fruition, at least if the trailer to "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" is to be believed. Hopefully his new writing partner will have reined in the sophomoric scatology and harebrained plotting that torpedoes "Dead Snow." By and large, he knows how to stage an action scene, if nothing else, and manages to get fairly decent performances from his cast of unknowns, all of whom seem to have continued working. So there is that.

"Dead Snow" doesn't really know what it wants to be. Is it a horror movie? Not really, because it's not scary; it's too silly for that. Is it a comedy? Not really, because there's very little humor in it that's worth a listen. "Shaun of the Dead," this ain't, let alone "Dead Alive" or "The Evil Dead." The story is derivative--think John Carpenter's "The Fog"--and worse, suffers from a lack of internal consistency and very difficult suspension of disbelief. The result is an insult to the intelligence of the audience, a typically unforgivable sin in the realm of cinema. A med student with an aversion to blood? Okay. Who later amputates his own arm and then cauterizes the stump with no great ill effect? Okay. Long dead intestines with the tensile strength to hold two men dangling over a cliff? Uh-huh. A woman who gets all frisky in a noisome outhouse? Sure. I could go on, but you get the idea. On top of that we get essentially generic characters who fail to endear themselves to us, so we don't care what happens to them at all. Not good.

Once again, Sturgeon's Revelation holds sway. Contrivance does not make for a compelling story. Fountains of grue are old hat, regardless of the quality of the effects and camera-wrangling. Let us hope that Wirkola has learned some lessons and has applied them to "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters." The trailer looks promising, but we all know how deceptive trailers can be.

Meanwhile, don't be snowed. You won't lose any sleep missing this one.