Blood Quantum (film)

Blood Quantum is a 2019 Canadian horror film written and directed by Jeff Barnaby and starring Michael Greyeyes, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Forrest Goodluck, Kiowa Gordon, Brandon Oakes, Olivia Scriven, Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, and Gary Farmer.[2][3] The film depicts the effects of a zombie uprising on a First Nations reserve whose residents are immune to contracting the plague because of their indigenous heritage, but must still cope with the consequences of its effects on the world around them, including white refugees seeking shelter on the reserve.[3]

Blood Quantum
Promotional release poster
Directed byJeff Barnaby
Produced byJohn Christou
Robert Vroom
Written byJeff Barnaby
StarringMichael Greyeyes
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
Forrest Goodluck
Kiowa Gordon
Brandon Oakes
Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs
Gary Farmer
CinematographyMichel St-Martin
Production
company
Prospector Films
Distributed byElevation Pictures
Release date
  • September 5, 2019 (2019-09-05) (TIFF)[1]
Running time
96 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Blood Quantum premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was named second runner-up for the People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness. The film was made available for streaming on Shudder in the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland on April 28, 2020,[4] and has received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

In 1981, on the Red Crow Indian Reservation in Quebec, Canada, fisherman Gisigu catches a number of salmon, and observes that they continue to move after being gutted. Elsewhere that morning, Gisigu's son, indigenous sheriff Traylor, responds to a call about a dying dog that belongs to his ex-wife, nurse Joss. Traylor euthanizes the dog by gunshot. He goes to visit Joss, and learns that their son Joseph has been arrested for vandalism in a nearby town and is in jail with his half-brother Lysol. Traylor then visits Gisigu, who shows him the gutted yet moving salmon. Joss's dead dog reanimates in the trunk of Traylor's police car, and Traylor shoots it. Gisigu and Traylor set the dog and the fish on fire.

Traylor and Joss head into town to free Joseph from jail. Traylor, Joseph, Lysol, and police officer Shamu encounter an ill, violent man in the jail who bites Joseph on the arm. Joseph goes to a hospital, where his white, pregnant girlfriend Charlie is waiting. That night, Traylor responds to a call from a indigenous man named Shooker. Traylor enters Shooker's house and is attacked and bitten by Shooker's white girlfriend, whom Traylor beats with the butt of a shotgun. Traylor and Shooker head to a bridge where Joss, Joseph and Charlie have found themselves after having escaped the hospital in an ambulance.

Six months later, the outbreak of flesh-eating "zeds"[5] has become widespread, and the Red Crow Reservation has been turned into a fortified compound. Its residents have learned that indigenous people cannot be infected by the "zed" plague, though white people can. Lysol has become increasingly aggressive towards Joseph and others' tendency to bring outsiders—such as a man and his young daughter, the latter of whom was bitten by an infected person, as well as a girl named Lilith, who hides the fact that she has also been infected—to the compound.

That night, at Lysol's shelter away from the compound, Joseph finds a now-zombified Lilith chewing on the severed penis of Lysol. Joseph and Lysol drive back to the compound with Lilith in restraints. Lysol stabs Joseph with a knife, and lets Lilith loose inside the compound. Traylor and Gisigu, who went on a mission to eliminate zombies at a gas station with fellow tribesman Bumper, return to the compound to find it overrun with zombies. They learn that Joss, Joseph, Charlie, and eight other survivors are trapped in the basement of the compound. In the process of rescuing them, Traylor is eaten alive by zombies.

Joss, Joseph and Charlie escape with Gisigu and Bumper. While Gisigu and Joseph enter a church to stop two associates of Lysol from murdering a group of survivors, Lysol finds Joss, Charlie and Bumper. Lysol kills Bumper and Joss shoots Lysol, but not before Lysol is able to unleash a zombie from the trunk of a car. The zombie bites Charlie, and Joseph arrives and kills the zombie. Joseph and Gisigu lead a wounded Lysol away from the scene, and Joseph stabs Lysol. Gisigu lets off a gunshot into the air, alerting zombies to the location where Lysol is; the zombies proceed to eat Lysol alive.

Joseph, Charlie and Joss set out into a large body of water on a boat. Gisigu, armed with a sword, stays behind on land to fight off the zombies. On the boat, Charlie gives birth to a baby girl. Charlie, succumbing to her bite wound, asks Joseph to kill her before she transforms into a zombie, and he mournfully shoots her in the head.

Cast

Production

Blood Quantum was filmed in 2018, primarily at the Kahnawake and Listuguj reserves in Quebec and the city of Campbellton, New Brunswick.[6][7]

The film's title refers to blood quantum laws, which have been used in the United States to determine indigeneity based on the percentage of one's indigenous ancestry.[7][8] Barnaby has described the film as offering commentary on colonialism.[8]

Release

Blood Quantum was brought to the Cannes Film Market in May 2019 as part of "Fantastic 7", a program of genre films sponsored by various international film festivals, where it was sponsored by the Toronto International Film Festival.[9] Its public world premiere took place at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival,[10] where it was named second runner-up for the People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness.[11]

The film was acquired for international distribution on the Shudder streaming service in 2019, with Canadian streaming rights to be held by Crave.[12] The film was made available for streaming on Shudder in the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland on April 28, 2020.[4]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 7.16/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Blood Quantum blends bloody horror with sociopolitical subtext, taking a fresh bite out of the crowded zombie genre in the bargain."[13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[14]

Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times gave the film a mostly positive review, writing that its "central premise is inspired: When dead people come back to ersatz life, it turns out that Indigenous folks are immune — a sardonic twist on their ancestors succumbing to diseases imported by the European settlers."[15] Matthew Monagle of The Austin Chronicle gave the film a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five, and wrote that it "rejects the default white gaze of so many horror films, choosing to tell a story through an unapologetically Indigenous lens."[16] Joe Lipsett of Bloody Disgusting wrote that "Blood Quantum serves both as a reasonably entertaining zombie film, but more importantly, as a vital socio-political critique of real historical events in Canada."[17]

The Guardian's Benjamin Lee gave the film three out of five stars, writing that it is "best taken as a violent slab of late-night exploitation, made notable by a powerful conceit and some evocative visuals. It's just a shame that the execution can't quite catch up with the premise."[18] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars, commending its action and social commentary but criticizing its "poor performances and awkward dialogue".[19] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of "C+", writing: "The filmmaking in Blood Quantum is seldom as compelling as its premise, and it's frustrating to watch such a fresh take on the zombie genre be mired in several of its most rotten tropes. [...] But when it works it works".[20]

gollark: Heavserver has had a DTel call open for I think over a decaminute now, I suspect the other end forgot how to hang up.
gollark: It's a "phone" because it's, er, circuit-switched inter-random-server Discord messaging?
gollark: The point is, messaging over the internet is... entirely different to messaging over Discord, and has been done in even more ways already.
gollark: Not voice, textual meßages.
gollark: And websockets run over TCP.

References
  1. "Blood Quantum". Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  2. Miska, Brad (May 1, 2019). "First Look at Cannes Zombie Title 'Blood Quantum'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  3. Brown, Todd (April 5, 2018). "Michael Greyeyes Anchors The Cast Of Jeff Barnaby's Blood Quantum". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  4. Mack, Andrew (April 27, 2020). "Blood Quantum: Shudder Surprise Drops Jeff Barnaby's Indigenous Canadian Zombie Thriller". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  5. Knight, Chris (April 23, 2020). "Blood Quantum is a zombie movie with First Nations politics on the brain, says Chris Knight". The Telegram. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  6. Malyk, Lauren (April 5, 2018). "Filming set to begin on Jeff Barnaby's Blood Quantum". Playback. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  7. Yamato, Jen (May 8, 2020). "How indigenous zombie horror film 'Blood Quantum' became prescient in the pandemic". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  8. Ahearn, Victoria (September 7, 2019). "In Jeff Barnaby's Blood Quantum, zombies offer commentary on colonialism". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  9. Lang, Jamie (May 8, 2019). "Cannes Fantastic 7 First-Ever Lineup for Genre Projects". Variety. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  10. Howell, Peter (July 31, 2019). "Indigenous films highlight Canadian slate at TIFF 2019". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
  11. Vlessing, Etan (September 15, 2019). "Toronto: Taika Waititi's 'Jojo Rabbit' Wins Audience Award". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  12. Wiseman, Andreas (June 26, 2019). "AMC Streamer Shudder Picks Up Zombie Thriller 'Blood Quantum' For US, UK & Australia; XYZ Strikes Int'l Pacts". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  13. "Blood Quantum (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  14. "Blood Quantum Reviews". Metacritic. CBS. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  15. Vincentelli, Elisabeth (April 28, 2020). "'Blood Quantum' Review: Inspired Splatter". The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  16. Monagle, Matthew (May 8, 2020). "Blood Quantum". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  17. Lipsett, Joe (April 29, 2020). "[Review] Shudder's Indigenous Zombie Film 'Blood Quantum' is Entertaining AND Important". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  18. Lee, Benjamin (April 29, 2020). "Blood Quantum review – grimy zombie horror offers intriguing twist". The Guardian. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  19. Tallerico, Brian (April 28, 2020). "Blood Quantum movie review & film summary (2020)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  20. Ehrlich, David (April 28, 2020). "'Blood Quantum' Review: Indigenous Canadian Zombie Movie Bites Into Colonialism". IndieWire. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
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