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Blood Quantum

✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

Canada
·
2019

1h 36m

Director Jeff Barnaby
Starring Michael Greyeyes, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Forrest Goodluck, Kiowa Gordon
Genre Horror
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It's 1981 in Quebec and the dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'gMaq reserve of Red Crow -- except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague, but who must still grapple with its consequences.

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WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?

60

The Guardian by Benjamin Lee

Barnaby’s colonialist take on the formula is far from subtle, and at times a little too bluntly on the nose, but he’s a film-maker with both something to say and the skillset to say it in a distinctive way, offering up an initially engaging alternative to mere guts and shock tactics.
63

RogerEbert.com by Brian Tallerico

I found myself admiring Barnaby’s editing and production skills—“Blood Quantum” looks great—but he’s not quite yet there in directing performances or writing dialogue. Everything here feels a bit too first draft or first take when the characters aren’t fighting off growling zombies.
50

Variety by Dennis Harvey

Despite sufficient gore, there’s more style than bite to this undead opus, which does not excel at scares or action set-pieces.
60

The New York Times by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Unfortunately, the film emulates many of its genre brethren’s inability to convert a promising start into a solid second act. . . . though a haunting finale almost redeems the flabby midsection.
70

Slashfilm by Meredith Borders

Blood Quantum makes some important points, gives us stuff to care about and then drenches it all in audacious gore. And isn’t that exactly what we want from our zombie movies?
38

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

The effects, the gory makeup and what-not, are first rate, and the means of dispatching zombies creative, here and there.
91

Consequence by Scout Tafoya

A lot of people are going to judge the film based on its success as a horror movie, and others will judge it as a political statement. Not that I think there’s a deficiency in any part of its personality, but I also think the panache with which it is both of those things and more — without looking to the history of genre or the future of civil rights for permission to say some pretty bold stuff — is why the film is a success.
75

Original-Cin by Thom Ernst

Blood Quantum is not short on social, and cultural observations, but neither does it scrimp on zombies gorging on lengthy intestines.