BLOOD QUANTUM [2019]

 "IF THEY'RE RED, THEY'RE DEAD.  IF THEY'RE WHITE, THEY BITE!" 

Another zombie movie.  Oh no, you say, not another zombie movie!!!  But I don't feel that way; as long as it's a good movie, I don't mind if it's a zombie movie.  And this is a really good movie!  On the Canadian Mi'kmaq reservation of Red Crow, an old fisherman Gisigu is gutting salmon he has freshly caught.  Suddenly, the gutted salmon starts flapping around.  Then all the gutted salmon begin flip-flopping all over the place.  Scene dissolves.  The local Sheriff Traylor is makes a call to a local man's house because the Sheriff's ex-wife's dog is there dying after rooting through the trashcans which may have contained some rat poison.  Sheriff Traylor has to shoot the dog to put it out of its misery; he places the dog in the truck of his patrol car in order to bring it to his ex-wife.  On the way, he visits his father Gisigu who shows him the still-lively gutted fish.  A thumping comes from the trunk of the patrol car and, upon opening it, the dead dog leaps snarling out of it.  

This is the terrific set up for BLOOD QUANTUM; the Mi'kmaq discover that they are immune to a sudden zombie plague which turns the whites into the ravenous undead.  Some animals (like all fish/sea life and dogs) are infected while other animals are not and are safe to eat.  The "If they're red, they're dead" quote at the beginning of this post is scrawled on the wall of the Rez's "safe place" where whites begin turning up for protection against the zombie outbreak; they are housed separately because of their tendency to turn "zedsickle" while the indigenous population are immune.  Of course, it's not hard to spot the anti-colonial statement but this film is not heavy-handed and has quite a bit of humour to it.  It is a solid entertainment with some superb zombie gore and looks like quite a substantial budgeted film; whether or not the budget was substantial it's certainly all up there on the screen.  And the acting is uniformly excellent.  Michael Greyeyes as Sheriff Traylor is a superb action hero; I remember him from the excellent 1998 film SMOKE SIGNALS by Chris Eyre.  Another heavy hitter is noted actor/filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers as Traylor's ex-wife Joss who gives a phenomenal performance as well.  Stonehorse Lone Goeman as the Sheriff's father Gisigu seems to have only done this one film but his performance is a wonderful combination of teasing humour and action-hero kickassery as he wields a samurai sword throughout the picture!  Forrest Goodluck (THE REVENANT) and Kiowa Gordon (oh dear . . . some of those TWILIGHT movies) as Traylor's good son and bad son respectively for the most part rise to the level of the script (which is nicely written by director Jeff Barnaby).  The only slight criticism I have is that the 98 minutes could've been tightened up as some scenes do tend to keep going after a cut would've been called for.  Barnaby is also the film's editor so that would seem to point to reluctance to wield the scissors more aggressively.  Also the cinematography by Michel St-Martin is particularly top notch!  All in all this is one terrific new-and-independent zombie movie that all horror fans should check out.