31 Days of Halloween: Blood Quantum

 2019, Jeff Barnaby (Rhyme for Young Ghouls) -- download

At least once during the season, I have to put on a zombie movie. Most are bad, some are terrible and occasionally we get something inventive or at done with good intent, if some style. Last year's Les Affamés, from Quebec, was better than most, but what I enjoyed the most about it, was the small moments, the focus on characters and their reactions. Not what most zombie fans would want, but Blood Quantum (named for the colonial era, and later, rules on what amount of "blood" was required to be considered indigenous), set also in Quebec, is exactly what the Fandom would want --- blood, violence and relentless death. And yet, it wasn't terrible.

The elevator pitch is what got this movie going -- it takes place on the Red Crow Reservation, a Mi’gmaq community on one side of a river, with a not-indigenous community on the other. The indigenous folk are not affected by whatever causes the zombie plague, despite it carrying to fish and dogs and white men. Very quickly Traylor, tribal police chief, rescues his family and others, and pulls them to safety, as the town on the other side of the river falls to the hungry dead.

Six months after the fall of civilization, Traylor, ex-husband of Joss, father of Joseph, son of Gisigu (the katana wielding zen warrior). is running a compound that protects his people and any white survivors they can rescue. But Lysol, Joseph's brother by way of ... Traylor (?) is angry, so very angry. Charged with protecting the community, he questions whether saving and protecting whitemen is in their best interest, as at any moment one infected person could turn the rest of them and endanger all the members of the community, white or not. There is also his post-colonial anger towards white people, something a movie focused on (and created by) indigenous folk cannot ignore. His fury is genuine and righteous, if not his choices. And his own fury leads to what he is warning people about, not caring who falls in his stead.

As a zombie movie, this is definite bleak and violent and tragic. There may be shining heroes in the story, but they don't last long, nor do they persevere. But the pace and dialogue is solid, and the world building is some of the best in recent years. I was surprised when the story took the 6-months-later turn, providing us some PoAp to the zed apocalypse. Alas, I am not sure how onboard I was with how fucking bleak it got. Maybe its just Walking Dead fatigue, maybe its just 2020 fatigue, but... wow, almost everyone dies. But I suspect that was the point, that for some people (or peoples) things don't ever turn out well.

P.S. Good interview with director Jeff Barnaby.