Blood Quantum (2020)
“I’m not leaving this land again”
Blood Quantum is a zombie horror tale where the indigenous members of the Mi’kmaq reserve are immune to infection from the “zeds”. As the title implies (blood quantum refers to the not-good race-based evaluation of the quantity of “indigenous” blood in an individual), there is a lot of history packed into a 90 min horror flick. Writer-director Jeff Barnaby made sure to layer in as much pain & pride as possible when building his universe, and weaves together misogyny, intergenerational trauma, racism & colonialism while also making a gore-fest. The film looks amazing, the SFX are fantastic, and though the acting is a little clunky at times, the final act is intense, well-earned & absolutely worth the journey.
Barnaby spoke at length about his film, which had to forgo its theatrical release thanks to a real world pandemic. In May 2020, he talked to Vulture about the film’s villain & how he channeled righteous anger to build a backstory. “You’re leading this almost dual life of trying to maintain your identity and almost hold on to the anger, while at the same time letting it go.” He elaborated, using the (now formerly named) Washington Redskins as an example: “wrap your head around being a Native person living in Washington, D.C., and having to get up every fucking day and look at that stupid-ass caricature for the football team… You franchise a genocide, and it becomes a part of the capitalist network of selling things. Having that work on you day in and day out, you become trained to hate yourself… You have a hundred years of this just packed into one person. He’s going to be angry and self-destructive, and the worst thing about it is, he’s going to be righteous…”
I’d love to see what this director can do with a bigger budget, especially if he fleshes out grandpa Gisigu’s sword wielding back story! It’s streaming on Shudder right now ✌️
#horror #zombie #zombiehorror #indigenousday #indigenous #shudder #bloodquantum #film #filmmaking #filmmaker #cinemaphile #films #filming #filmcommunity #filmmakers #filmproduction #filmlife #cinema #cinematography #filmaker #movierecommendation #moviereview
