THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

The dead, for some reason, are coming back to life to devour the living. Only the Indian inhabitants of the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow are immune. Somehow, humanity must put aside its differences and learn to work together if there is to be any hope for the future of civilisation.

MY VERDICT:

Blood Quantum is definitely a good example of a Zombie movie with some innovative ideas about racism and human culture but, unfortunately, it lacks the substance needed to give the film the lasting power it deserves. You see, there just is not much in the way of overarching story to tie the whole experience together; the action starts early with some wonderful tension building mystery and then jumps six months forward, where the immune Indians have setup a defensible shelter. With the mix of people in a confined location and the fact that Indians are immune to the Zombie plague while the "white man" is not, conflict is bound to brew but, when things go bad, it is kind of brushed over as to why the perpetrators did what they did. There is also the end of the film which, in my mind, is pretty terrible as a conclusion; nothing is solved, the situation is still very bleak with almost all the characters in the movie having died and the Zombie plague is still just as bad as it was always was. However, the acting is suitably high-quality - the leading role played by an actor from Fear the Walking Dead is no stranger to acting like the leader of a survivor camp and it shows. I especially love the acting during the initial outbreak, when the Zombies (alongside Zombie fish no less) first show up as the actors panic realistically, fumbling and making mistakes while not completely losing their minds. Skipping forward six months, the characters develop in the ways you would expect after the fall of civilisation which is entertaining to watch. There is no law at this point, no order, so why should the native people of Red Crow help the "townies"; white people who flee the cities in hope of saviour abroad? The movie compares the Zombie virus to a natural force spawned by 'mother Earth' to bring the futuristic cosmopolitan people of the cities back to the animal state they were in the beginning, the Indians being spared the terrible fate because they worked alongside nature, not bending that nature to their will. On the other hand, maybe, wherever the plague comes from, the native Indians are immune just by some random fluke of evolution or chemistry; all people are equal and all can be killed, whether eaten alive by the dead or turning into one, dying is dying. That's why I recommend Blood Quantum most; it may not be outstanding quality or be wonderfully original but it makes you think - and when it comes to Zombie movies, often as brainless as the undead themselves, this is a very rare luxury indeed.