In 2009, Tommy Wirkola (not to be confused with Tommy Wiseau) unleashed Dead Snow unto the world. A brutally violent meta-horror-comedy about a group of friends who go to a cabin in the woods only to uncover a lost treasure that resurrects Nazi Zombies. The meta-comedy comes from using and abusing tropes, especially focusing on paying homage to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series. It was a funny nasty movie with a simple premise.

Dead Snow 2: Red Vs Dead smartly abandons everything that made Dead Snow what it was. A straight continuation from the final moments of Dead Snow, Dead Snow 2 moves out of the mountains and into the lowlands. The lone survivor, Martin, now down one arm, is chased by the Nazi zombies who cling to his car. At the end of Dead Snow, he had defeated the last of the zombies. But, because he had a spare coin in his pocket, they come after him again. Through a series of incidents, Herzog (the lead Nazi) also loses his right arm, before Martin’s car goes flying off a cliff into the hinterlands.

The hospital that found Martin attached Herzog’s arm to Martin, and Herzog attached Martin’s severed arm, thus forming the basis for a feud. With Herzog’s zombie arm, Martin achieves zombie super strength, and both have the ability to resurrect dead people to form zombie armies. To further complicate matters, Martin is joined by the Zombie Squad, a group of adult geeks whose whole life is wrapped up in the zombie culture, and they desire to kill zombies.

Herzog had initially been on a task from Hitler to take over a town, now is going to finish up his mission and march on the town again. Stopping by a museum to grab a tank and some weapons, he continues on his march. Martin, however, also hit the museum, and decides to resurrect Russians to combat the Nazis, thus recreating WWII in zombie terms. You have the Americans, you have the Russians, the locals, and the Nazis.

The wit in Dead Snow 2 isn’t in the reuse or meta parody of horror or horror comedy tropes. The wit stems from Dead Snow 2’s willingness to go as far as possible as frequently as possible. For kicks, there’s a zombie who becomes a loyal pet, who is used for all manners of violent and painfully cruel activities. From dead kids to smashed heads to intestines a plenty, Dead Snow 2 never says no to a drop of blood in the film. Dead Snow 2 feels more like an ode to Peter Jackson’s insanity than Sam Raimi’s parody. It has more in common with Dead Alive than with Evil Dead, even keeping the sardonic cruel wit that Jackson brought to his early work.

Coming in at 100 minutes, Dead Snow 2 doesn’t feel bloated at all. Just about the time you’re wanting the final battle to kick in, the final battle does kick in. It’s also smart and witty and trashy . All of these elements make Dead Snow 2 the perfect new midnight movie. There isn’t a moment in it that will lull you to sleep.