Sam Redlark

image generated by Craiyon This film review first appeared on Letterboxd. It contains spoilers for 'Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead' and 'Dead Snow'. These films are not for the faint of heart, and neither is this review. ~ Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead A film that bills itself as “the sequel you did Nazi coming” is not setting itself up as a poignant study of life under one of the most evil regimes of the 20th century. The dregs of the Third Reich may figure prominently in 'Dead Snow 2', but this film is not 'Schindler's List', or even 'The Sound of Music'. Its predecessor, which goose-stepped into theatres under the tag-line “Ein! Zwei! Die!” expanded the list of vengeful entities and criminal organisations that you should never steal gold from (generally speaking, leprechauns and the mob) to include Nazi zombies. Beginning as a fairly standard run through the well-mauled tropes of the monster movie subgenre, 'Dead Snow' followed the misfortune...

image generated by Craiyon This review was originally posted on Letterboxd ~ There is a scene in Susanna Nicchiarelli's dramatization of the final years of Christa Päffgen (better known by her stage name - Nico) when the singer is being interviewed on the radio. The DJ mentions the enormous portable cassette recorder, that she carries around with her in an oversized shoulder bag, and enquires whether she is looking for a specific sound. Nico replies that she searching for a sound that she heard as a child, carried to her on the wind: The sound of Berlin being bombed by the allies. “It was a sound that wasn't really a sound,” she reminisces. “It was, many things at the same time. It was... It was the sound of defeat.” By the late 1980s, Nico was 20 years past her prime. A former model and actress. In the early 1960s, she had embarked upon a career as a singer, despite a perforated eardrum that, combined with her heavy German accent, sometimes resulted in her vocal performances s...