Shudder surprised horror fans last night by releasing Jeff Barnaby’s zombie thriller, Blood Quantum. The film, which parallels our own global contagion crisis, is available now in the US, UK, and Ireland.
When the dead rise, only the immune survive.
Synopsis: It’s 1981, and a virus infects earth and turns its inhabitants into undead hordes with only one community spared and left to fight in this distinctive and relevant spin on the zombie siege horror.
The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi’gmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are immune to the zombie plague. Traylor (Greyeyes), the tribal sheriff, must protect his son’s pregnant girlfriend, apocalyptic refugees, and reserve riffraff from the hordes of walking white corpses.
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In light of widespread cinema closures, Shudder has rerouted from their planned Spring release for Blood Quantum and spontaneously launched it at a moment in history where it could not be more significant. “We knew the film was important and timely when we acquired it last year, but given recent events, Blood Quantum’s themes of isolation, fear of contagion, and humanity struggling with the ramifications of a global virus have only grown more relevant,” said Shudder General Manager Craig Engler. “When a theatrical release became untenable due to the real-world pandemic, we decided to accelerate the launch of Barnaby’s film so it would reach the biggest audience possible.”
The film stars Michael Greyeyes (True Detective, Fear the Walking Dead), Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant, The Miseducation of Cameron Post), Kiowa Gordon (The Twilight Saga), Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open), Olivia Scriven (Degrassi: Next Class & The Next Generation), Revered MMA trainer Stonehorse Lone Goeman, Brandon Oakes (Rhymes for Young Ghouls), William Belleau (Frontier, Scalped), Devery Jacobs (American Gods, The Order, Rhymes for Young Ghouls), and Gary Farmer (Dead Man, Jimmy P).
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Jeff Barnaby is a First Nations filmmaker born on the Mi’gmaq reserve, where both Blood Quantum and his debut feature, Rhymes for Young Ghouls, take place. He is the writer, director, editor and composer of Blood Quantum, which opened TIFF’s Midnight Madness program in 2019. His films frequently cast from within the Indigenous community and paint a stark and scathing portrait of post-colonial Indigenous life and culture – in this case, painting it in blood.
Blood Quantum is produced by Quebec-based production company Prospector Films as well as John Christou and Robert Vroom, and executive produced by Todd Brown, Nate Bolotin, Gabe Scarpelli, Ryan Shoup, Adrian Love and Noah Segal.
Blood Quantum rolled-out on all Shudder platforms as of Midnight EST on April 28th. New members can get 30-days free with the promo code SHUTIN when signing up at Shudder.com.
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