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Last week was a big week for the zombie genre. “Blood Quantum” (written, directed, and edited by Jeff Barnaby) ate up at the Canadian Screen Awards, collecting 7, including best lead actor for Michael Greyeyes who plays Traylor.
The premise for this zombie film is simple, what if the zombie infection arrived but the indigenous people and possibly indigenous animals (less clear on this because salmon were affected but they are migratory and I don’t know if this route was always on their path or if man intervened making it so) are immune to the virus?
The first thing you see on screen is an “Ancient Settler Proverb” that mutates and changes phrasing, much like the settler descendants will mutate themselves in the film. It does a good job of establishing voice, tone, and POV right off the bat in a quick and effective way.
It’s set in the fictional Red Crow Indian Reservation, in 1981. As a horror fan, I enjoy things set in the pre-cyber age as not having the ability to communicate at all times creates more stakes/tension.
The first character we meet is Gisigu (played by Stonehorse Lone Goeman) as he guts salmon. It’s gory but in a very efficient way that you know is going to be useful later. Only the salmon don’t stay dead.
It then hits you with opening credits which introduce the first of a handful of stunning images that will make you wonder if there is a graphic novel, there isn’t.
Horror movies have a tendency to lean into as much graphic language as they do violence but the good ones also lean into humour. This one has a few comedic gems, both verbal and visual.
The heart of the movie is family. What is family? How do you protect your family? And the relationship of fathers and sons.
The family at the center of it is Traylor, his father, Gisigu, his ex, Joss (played by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), and his two sons, Lysol (played by Kiowa Gordon) and Joseph (played by Forrest Goodluck). He had Lysol as a teenager and he wasn’t raised by him and, it’s also implied something bad happened to Lysol’s mother. Joseph is currently acting out and has gotten his girlfriend, Charlie (played by Olivia Scriven), pregnant. Add in a zombie apocalypse and the tensions that were bubbling up even without the aid of flesh-eating monsters were bound to rise.
On the day of the zombie apocalypse, Charlie was scheduled to get an abortion but the movie does a 6-month flash-forward and she is well into her third trimester now. Now having a girl carry a kid that she didn’t want to carry is a choice but zombie movies are all about taking away people’s choices so it fits with the genre.
In case you couldn’t figure out how the virus worked yet it’s clearly displayed in spray paint on their barricade gates “If they’re red they are dead if they’re white they bite.”
Charlie is white, while Joseph and his family are indigenous, and she keeps going out to bring in more survivors. I would assume most of the people she brings in are white survives in that indigenous people are immune. However, as stated both on the gates and by James (played by Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs) that doesn’t mean indigenous people cannot be killed by zombies. One of the people Charlie brings is visibly bitten and is killed, and Lysol wants to check the others. Lysol knows any white person could turn into a zombie and thus be a danger to himself so he wants them all gone but Traylor and Joseph both disagree with him, only Joss says he’s not wrong.
Lysol’s fears are proven to be true, one of the people Charlie brought in lied about being bitten, and he finds out in true horror movie fashion when she bites off his penis. Instead of killing the zombie, Lysol lets her loose to kill all the people on the reserve, white and indigenous alike.
Lysol, along with Moon and James plan to burn it all down, they see their lack of resources and want to eliminate the strain. But Traylor, Gisigu, and the rest of their badass group are determined to save as many people as possible. They had a survival plan they were sure was going to work if Lysol hadn’t gone rogue. The body count is high and there are few survivors in this zombie flick.
It isn’t until the climax that we finally learn Lysol isn’t even his given name, that it’s a name he was given or took for himself before the zombies. His very name makes him the “Chekhov’s Gun” of story, if he hadn’t have tried to wipe out 99.9% of the characters it would’ve been more shocking than any penis bite could’ve been.
The film uses many familiar horror/zombie tropes, including having a person wield a chainsaw for kills. But the protagonists in this are predominately indigenous and the chainsaw itself is introduced in the Mi’kmaq language giving these tropes fresh life.
Currently available on Crave.
Score: B+
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