Since their inception, zombie films have always been the most socially conscious of horror films. Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead‘s criticism of race relations and consumerism respectively still ring true today. Domestically the zombie genre has arguably gone very stale; if Jim Jarmusch can’t make a great zombie movie, I think we’ve all lost interest. Luckily, the last few years have treated us to some excellent zombie fare internationally. From South Korea’s Train to Busan and Kingdom to Japan’s One Cut of the Dead to the Cuban Juan of the Dead, non-American filmmakers are finding new spins on the genre. Blood Quantum, the new film by Jeff Barnaby, does just that with the indigenous people of North America, the Mi’gMaq people of Canada specifically.
Blood Quantum takes place in 1981 on the Red Crow Indian Reservation just as things are getting weird. Gutted fish are flopping around, a dead dog attacks a man, and the hospital is noticing a spike in bite related injuries. Deputy Traylor (Michael Greyeyes) is right in the middle of this, bailing his two sons out of jail just as a white man in their cell initiates a bloody attack. Just as things are coming to a head, the film jumps ahead in time to find the Mi’gMaq people having set up a walled survivor’s camp. The real kicker: they have discovered that they are immune, the plague only affecting the white population.
While this is reportedly the largest budget indigenous-directed film in North America, it’s still a fairly low budget film. There are some spots where that tends to bleed through, but the gore is surprisingly effective. From the decapitating badassery of the sword swinging grandfather (Stonehorse Lone Goeman) to numerous machete, shotgun, and chainsaw deaths, the film doesn’t shy away from showing the bloody violence of this world. Given that we’ve seen the zombie outbreak story a million times, I also appreciated the approach here of slowly introducing the plague. It starts with the animals on up to nurse Joss (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) noticing a shortage of tetanus shots at the local hospital.
The zombie sequences are pretty good, but nothing we haven’t seen before. What makes Blood Quantum stand out is its unique perspective and clever reversal of colonial violence. Now the white people depend on and even mythologize the Mi’gMaq, thinking that if they are immune they can possibly even cure those who have been bit. Lysol (Kiowa Gordon), characterized largely as a troubled young criminal in the making, holds a grudge against the white people that the community continues to bring in despite the risk of them being infected. The big turn in the film comes when he makes a decision to turn on those white people and drive them out of his community in the most violent way possible, an act that threatens to destroy everything his family has built.
The social commentary, while clever, is often a bit mishandled and muddled. The third act moves extremely quickly as major characters’ deaths feel very rushed. Much of the great character work feels sort of tossed aside in favor of a big zombie horde sequence. The centerpiece in the end is the fight for Joseph (Forrest Goodluck) and his pregnant white partner Charlie (Olivia Scriven) to deliver their child safely into this bloody world, hoping that the infant will inherit the immunity from his or her father. The idea evokes Children of Men (the final scene will seem very familiar to fans of that film), and it elicits ideas of cultural reconciliation, but never feels like its given the weight that it should have.
All in all, Blood Quantum is a unique zombie film that will surprise and even shock at times. It’s an impressive feature given the budget, and although it doesn’t always land exactly the way you might want it to, the film stands strong on the pillars of a fantastic idea and a great group of characters.
Blood Quantum is directed by Jeff Barnaby and stars Michael Greyeyes, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Forrest Goodluck, and Kiowa Gordon. It is currently streaming on Shudder.