Nunavut-set horror movie Slash/Back spills plenty of blood, even if it’s missing some guts
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There is, though, so much promise in every chilly inch of Innuksuk’s vision, starting with her film’s firm sense of place – the director grew up in Nunavut, dreaming of darkness even when sunlight was 24/7 – and extending to how the director continues horror’s long tradition of sneaking in heavy themes that audiences might otherwise not so readily shoulder.Courtesy of Mixtape SB Productions Inc.
The most pointed of these is a cutting look at the trickle-down effects of institutional racism, with the film’s young heroes divided as to whether they should take pride in their cultural heritage, as the resourceful Uki does, or deride it with a defiant sense of self-hate, a stance that the antsy Maika resorts to adopting. And then there is the film’s central tension, which Innuksuk places in plain view: It is not as if Inuit people are unfamiliar with fighting off invading forces.
Yet for every keen cultural observation, and for every vicious tip of the hat to the horror classics that came before ,never seems entirely comfortable with itself. It was a well-meaning gambit to cast amateur Nunavut youth as the film’s lead alien-hunters, but the film’s high-concept vision requires a heightened comfort level with the camera – a kind of semi-honed showmanship – that the young performers so far lack, and which Innuksuk was unable to wring out of them.
It is also difficult to inject genuine fright into your largely straight-faced monster movie when the effects teeter between sketchy and goofy – a not-uncommon problem when it comes to Canadian horror in general, but hard to ignore here all the same.still announces the arrival of a major talent in Innuksuk. Here is hoping that she gets to kill bigger and better Canadian actors for many years to come.
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