Writer/director Julian Knafo’s Canadian feature Brain Freeze serves up plenty of social satire and humor in its tale of a zombie outbreak on an island inhabited by affluent people who want to golf year-round despite the weather. The film is a fun offering that takes on several targets but never gets overly heavy-handed in its messages.
A biotech company comes to the rescue of the rich folks with a DNA-modified solution that taints the local water supply and turns people and animals into zombies that sprout grass from their bodies. After a series of unfortunate incidents, phone-addicted teen André (Iani Bédard), baby sister in tow, crosses paths with security guard and survivalist Dan (Roy Dupuis), whose adult daughter Patricia (Marianne Fortier) has been infected with the zombie virus. André and Dan try to survive and find a way to either track down the cause of the outbreak or escape the island, while an ultra-right wing disc jockey (Simon-Olivier Fecteau) fans the flames of conspiracy and anger, calling for complete destruction of everyone on the island.
Knafo does a super job of balancing the humor with action and suspense, and his pair of lead characters are both flawed but likable guys who form an interesting bond. Bédard and Dupuis invest their characters with great odd-couple energy and the actors show strong chemistry together. There’s much more green goo on display than blood, giving the zombies and their attacks a unique look.
Brain Freeze follows some of the tropes and beats of zombie cinema, but uses them as a springboard to satirize corporate greed, racism, class differences, and other targets. It’s a high-energy effort with protagonists who are easy to root for, and comes recommended for viewers who enjoy humor with their living dead fare.
Brain Freeze screens as part of Montreal’s Fantasia 2021, which runs online from August 5–25, 2021. For more information, visit https://fantasiafestival.com/en/.
Note: My review is for the French language version with English subtitles. The trailer below is for the English dubbed version.
