Back ’round 1981, down on the Mi’gmaq tribe’s home turf of Red Crow, animals keep coming back from the dead. Enter: Sheriff Traylor (Michael Greyeyes) who has to deal with the ‘sitch first hand when he is tasked with putting a bullet into the pooch belonging to his ex-wife Joss (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers)… which of course turns zombie right quick!
Not content to just resurrect various and sundry animal types, this mysterious whatever soon has the same effect on the local Caucasian occasion (the natives are immune to the transformation). This causes an extra layer of static as our hero’s son Joseph (Forrest Goodluck) has a preggo white old lady named Charlie (Olivia Scriven).
Time passes and the reservation becomes a fortified, post-apocalyptic style stronghold… but the hungry dead are definitely at their doorstep, and they want in like a mother fucker! Naturally various members of the tribe splinter and form their own allegiance, lead by a true psycho named Lysol (Kiowa Gordon)… who just so happens to be Taylor’s son as well… which may make the Sheriff’s Save Ass plan a bit dicey to implement with all of the in-fighting going on making life inside the compound as uncertain as life among the zombies outside it’s walls!
Look, I could do the normal review bullshit and give you an analysis of how solid the performances are (they truly are), how blood-soaked the film’s many gore sequences are (also very, very, true), or how competent a filmmaker writer/director Jeff Barnaby is (oh fuck is he ever)… but that isn’t what makes Blood Quantum so damn special.
So, what is that special thing? Simply put, this is the true successor to George A. Romero’s “Living Dead” masterpieces, and it hits like an iron fist right to the third eye of your social consciousness.
We get a deep dive into the mindset of a group of First Nations people; all of the bullshit they’ve had to endure, all of their rage, and all of their pride (not to mention family and societal relations)… all of which bubbles and boils as once again the white man tries to destroy their world… at least on the surface level.
While that is all well and good, Barnaby (who incidentally grew up on a reservation) doesn’t present his protagonists as perfect angles either. It’s this truthful, heartfelt, and most assuredly real look at these folks and how they function when the shit hits the freaky fan.
In short: This is a look at marginalized people focused through the eerie eyeball of the horror biz, and I can just see ol’ George lovin’ every fuckin’ minute of it!
All of that being said, this is no preachy snore-fest… at it’s heart Blood Quantum is a horror picture first and foremost, and (as mentioned above) we get all of the wild violence and carnage drenched set pieces (realized with practical effects artistry of the highest order) lovers of the gut-munchin’ genre crave, so win/win mother fuckers!
Filled with great characters, ghoulish gore, and a bit of the ol’ social commentary; Blood Quantum is the best zombie flick since Romero’s original “Living Dead” trilogy… and that is simply fact, not bullshit hyperbolic fuckery.
