‘Slash/Back’ Review: Indigenous Cultural Representation, Horror & Alien Invasion Is A Great, Thoughtful Mix [SXSW]

The settlement of North America is intricately linked with the abuse, conquer, and genocide of the Indigenous people. Not only were these First Nations stripped of their lands, but their individual mythologies, cultures, and languages were eradicated via this settlement, stolen children, and abuses in the reservation and residential school systems. Of course, these myriad atrocities are impossible to list within a movie review, but one of the worst offenses of the North American frontier myth was to strip the North American Native people of their symbolic individuality — lumping hundreds and thousands of unique people and nations into one massive, enemy — the ultimate bad guy in the most popular U.S. film genre — the Western.

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“Slash/Back” is similar to filmmaker Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” which uses horror tropes to explore some of America’s original sins like the racial trauma of slavery. Set in the small Inuit hamlet of Pangnirtung, Arctic Circle, at the very tip of Canada, the cold, remote milieu adds to an isolated mooed. Directed by Nyla Innuksuk and written by Innuksuk and Ryan Cavan, the movie uses the conceit of an alien invasion — reminiscent of “The Thing” and “Attack the Block” — to explore the everyday realities of the young women who live in the village. Set against tradition, the landscape, and modernity, Maika (Tasiana Shirley), Uki, (Nalajoss Ellsworth), Jesse (Alexis Vincent-Wolfe), and Leena (Chelsea Prusky) are a group of typical teens. They spend time insulting each other, looking up from their cell phones and riding their bikes. On a dare, one of the teens dares Maika to steal her father’s boat and rifle to prove her hunting skills. The group encounters their traditional prey — a polar bear — and proceed to shoot it to prove their skills. When the bear rises after a fatal shot, and begins shambling towards the girls in a zombie-like fashion, “Slash/Back” moves into an altogether new register.

Using the metaphor of the alien invasion for the encroachment of “white” culture on Inuit lands, “Slash/Back” reverses the traditional tropes of “Indians” attacking “whites” with profound effect. After all, the first human victim killed and possessed by the alien force is a white policeman who had previously given the teens attitude. He is also the first zombified human that the teens resourcefully and successfully kill. That Maika and the other kids use traditional Inuit hunting techniques makes these kills all the more profound, as is the fact that they don traditional war paint.

“We are hunters,” Maika repeats throughout the movie. “Slash/Back” makes clear that she has inherited the mantle of her father, who was previously the village’s chief hunter. If it was not clear that the film’s message is political, it is made explicit when Maika prepares for battle while wearing a leather jacket which reads “NO JUSTICE ON STOLEN LAND.” Since the bodies of native children sent to residential schools in Canada were recently discovered in two of the country’s provinces, this slogan adds resonance to the film’s, and by proxy, the teens’ battle. Yes, they are battling alien forces, but more importantly, they are slashing back, using traditional hunting weapons like harpoons to fight against racist movie tropes that previously positioned their cultures as the inhuman enemies.  

North American horror films have used and abused Native Americans’ settings and mythology as the basis for their plots, if not the tribes themselves as the biggest threat in the frontier. These racist tropes include the “Poltergeist“’s house built on an “Indian Burial Ground” or “Pet Semetary”’s special powers of resurrection. In the decades since these movies, few things have actually changed, as seen in Kerri Russell vehicle, “Antlers,” which uses these same outdated, exoticized “other” tropes, incorporating Indian mythos — in this case myth of the Wendigo as a vehicle for whites to triumph, yet again, over these cultural stereotypes. 

“Slash/Back” however, reverses these racist plots, following the releases of many other successful genre titles coming from Native North American Indians (U.S. term) and First Nations People (Canadian term). Among these titles are the spectacular horror movies “Blood Quantum” (2019), Steven Jones’ horror novel “Only Good Indians” and Métis author Cherie Demaline’s much-lauded YA novel, “The Marrow Thieves.” Given the everyday horrors of the residential school system, impoverished life on the reserves, eradication of language and culture, and the generational traumas of stolen land and genocide, it is no wonder that the horror genre proves fertile ground for indigenous filmmakers. 

“Slash/Back” is a welcome change, and the movie is even more important for having a female director and a predominantly female cast. Empowerment, in this case, is threefold. Nyla Innuksuk, an indigenous female director, focusing on an empowered female teenage cast is a profound statement in itself – given that missing and murdered Indigenous Women is a reality that has reached epidemic proportions in the 2000s. What the movie makes clear, by inference and by representing the realities of small village life, is that life in these communities is already horrific. It does not take much, by extension, to make these realities into a horror genre. Thus, this film, and recent others by indigenous genre filmmakers and writers have much in common with the so-called Horror Noire Renaissance, as both oppressed groups use horror to express their everyday realities. 

While the horror material is compelling and works well within the genre, what is even more profound is the movie’s depiction of the everyday lives of youth in the Northern tip of North America. The cinematography does most of this work, as sweeping drone shots show the tiny Arctic village set against the majestic beauty of the gorgeous landscapes. The clapboard shacks and unpaved roads are completely at odds with the scenery, and although the villagers live in harmony with nature, it is obvious that poverty and lack of resources affect the everyday lives of these youths. Thus, the film has and maintains a neorealist edge. Even though it escapes into the fantasy of horror, the horror of the every day, the environment that these young people are growing up in is likely just as horrific to the average (white) viewer. 

“Slash/Back” is a satisfying new entry into the horror genre, but even more interesting in relation to its likely historical significance. By showing mainstream audiences what the everyday lives of these young women looks like, and by showing the metaphorical and political significance of reversing the racist tropes that dominate popular culture, the film makes a substantial contribution to the ongoing discussion of North American history generally, and more importantly, who gets to tell their own stories. [B+]

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