They say a rising tide lifts all boats; one can only hope that remains the case with the current wave of international horror cinema. This mode of culturally specific storytelling on page and screen has given many communities of color a platform, with a new wave of Indigenous creators stepping into the horror mainstream.
Writers like Stephen Graham Jones and filmmakers like Jeff Barnaby have rooted their stories in their Indigenous identity – and with any luck, Nyla Innuksuk will soon join that company on the success of her alien invasion horror-comedy Slash/Back. Set in Pangnirtung – a remote village in the Canadian territory of Nunavut – Slash/Back focuses on teenager Maika (Tasiana Shirley) and her small group of friends. Stuck in the perpetual daylight of the summer solstice, Maika needs a distraction – especially when saddled with wild child Uki (Nalajoss Ellsworth) and the quiet Jesse (Alexis Vincent-Wolfe), the latter of whom spends her days pining after the new boy in town. So when the group stumbles across an alien lifeform that adopts the skin of living things, Maika soon realizes that her wish for more excitement may have gone horribly, horribly wrong.
There are obvious comparisons between Slash/Back and Attack the Block, Joe Cornish’s 2011 cult classic. Like its predecessor, Slash/Back plays with the sense of isolation – geographic or cultural – that is quietly absorbed by our protagonists from a young age. But Innuksuk’s film also serves as a commentary on Indigenous identity. Despite her father being a respected keeper of Inuit tradition, Maika nurses a streak of internalized racism, openly sneering at the artwork and iconography found in the homes of her friends. It takes an existential threat to her community for her to embrace her cultural heritage, but when she does, no aliens can stand in her way.
There is also a collectivism to Slash/Film, a sense of interconnectedness and mutual aid that speaks to the experience in remote communities. While the film often plays this for laughs – resolving fights between teenagers who recognize their social options are limited – this approach elevates the horror elements, too. Forget cliched moments of failed self-preservation; Maika and her friends exhibit an innate understanding of how their strengths and weaknesses fit together. In the preparations for the final battle, the group sits down to share what they’ve learned about the Skins – it’s hard to remember the last time a group of survivors in a horror movie actually compared notes.
And despite a reach that sometimes outstretches its grasp – several alien-animal hybrids are unfortunately just a little beyond the visual effects budget of the film – Innuksuk and her crew do not sell the creature elements short. The aliens themselves are a delightful piece of costume design, with each monster wearing the saggy, hollow skin of a character they have sucked dry. One part folklore, one part Vincent D’Onofrio from Men in Black, these creatures give the film something many low-budget horror movies forget to provide: a memorable monster.
So even accounting for the growing pains that come with a small budget and a cast of unknowns, Slash/Back delivers the goods. From a soundtrack of First Nations artists – including a score by the award-winning electronic group The Halluci Nation (aka A Tribe Called Red) – and stunning landscape cinematography by Guy Godfree, there are so many dynamic elements in Slash/Film that cause the film to punch weigh above its weight class. Fingers crossed that this is just the first of many doors to open for Innuksuk and her talented cast.
Slash/Back
Narrative Feature Competition, World PremiereThursday, March 17, 6:15pm, Stateside
Online: March 14, 9am-March 16, 9am
This article appears in Guide to SXSW 2022.