Blood Quantum – Movie Review (3/5)

BLOOD QUANTUM is a new horror movie on Shudder. The story involves zombies and the indigenous inhabitants of a Canadian town who are somehow immune. The effects are awesome and the twists make this well-worth watching. Read our Blood Quantum review here!

Blood Quantum is a new horror movie on Shudder. Actually, it’s also labeled as a “Canadian Indigenous Zombie Thriller” which sounds like the coolest subgenre to me. Still, the word “horror” is missing from that label. With the amount of blood and zombies in this new Shudder addition, it’s definitely horror!

While the budget seems to have been in the low end, the effects are really awesome and executed in the perfect horror ways. That usually means they go over the top or simply show people reacting. Usually to some gruesome events that have blood going in every direction.

Continue reading our full Blood Quantum review below and check it out on Shudder now.

Awesome indigenous cast

There are so many familiar actors in Blood Quantum and (of course!) most of them are indigenous. All the main characters are indigenous and, fortunately, we’re past the days of just dressing up white actors for these roles.

One of the lead characters is portrayed by Michael Greyeyes who is always amazing. He was in season 3 of True Detective and also in several episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, the Netflix series V-Wars, and most recently, Home Before Dark on Apple TV Plus. Basically, you should know him from plenty of genre TV series.

You might like: Our review of the crime-thriller Apple TV+ series Home Before Dark here >

Also in Blood Quantum are Forrest Goodluck and Kiowa Gordon. If you’ve watched The Revenant (2015) or The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), then you will definitely recognize Forrest Goodluck from one of them. And Kiowa Gordon has been in both the Roswell, New Mexico TV Series, and several movies of the Twilight franchise.

Watch Blood Quantum on Shudder now!

Blood Quantum was written and directed by Jeff Barnaby and this is only his second feature film. His first movie was Rhymes for Young Ghouls from 2013, which I have not seen so I can’t comment on how he has evolved since then. What I can comment on, is the fact that Blood Quantum works very well in most ways.

My only real issue with this Canadian indigenous zombie thriller (gotta love that subgenre name) is the fact that it’s a bit too long. Or rather, the pace is simply slowed down too much during its runtime. This is unfortunate since the overall story is extremely engaging and the zombies work perfectly.

To me, the beginning of this movie was easily worth a 4 out of 5 rating and I’d love to give it 3½ but we don’t do that on our site. Essentially, I just want to let you know that this is better than a rating of 3 and I expect Jeff Barnaby’s next movie will be better. Bottom line, if you’re into zombie thrillers and horror movies, then you really should check this out on Shudder!

BLOOD QUANTUM is available now on Shudder in the US, UK & Ireland!

Details

Writer & director: Jeff Barnaby
Stars: Michael Greyeyes, Forrest Goodluck, Kiowa Gordon, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Olivia Scriven, Stonehorse Lone Goeman, Brandon Oakes, William Belleau, Devery Jacobs, Gary Farmer