In Slash/Back, an Alien Invader Tangles With Badass Teen Girls

Summer in Pangnirtung—“Pang” to the Inuit locals, an island hamlet positioned “a million miles from anywhere,” besides possibly the Arctic Circle—is peak mischief time for the bored teenagers who reside there… till, as we see in sci-fi story Slash/Back, a slimy customer touches down for an invasion trip.

Directed and co-written by Nyla Innuksuk in her function debut, Slash/Back has a well-known story construction, following a gaggle of children who need to step up and defend their properties from a sci-fi menace. There’s additionally the well-worn “alien appears in isolated place” angle, which the script acknowledges with an overt reference to John Carpenter’s The Thing. What units Slash/Back aside is its setting—it was shot on location precisely the place it takes place, in a distant pocket of Canada’s Nunavut territory—and the best way it weaves Inuit tradition, together with monster lore, into its storytelling.

Slash/Back establishes proper from its prologue that Inuit tradition emphasizes looking—as essential character Maika (Tasiana Shirley) learns from her father, “in order to survive, we must be knowledgeable and patient.” This lesson proves essential when Maika, together with mates Jesse (Alexis Wolfe), Leena (Chelsea Prusky), and Uki (Nalajoss Ellsworth), understand that one thing uncommon is going on. A bear lumbers out of the wilderness, shifting in an oddly discombobulated method, oozing black blood, and… taking pictures tentacles out of its eyes? This freaky phenomenon quickly begins affecting people, and the children—largely left to their very own units by their dad and mom and the opposite adults on the town, who’re by some means each overprotective and fully checked-out—observe the story beats you’d anticipate (together with a pleasant “gathering up all the weapons we can lay our hands on” montage) towards the inevitable showdown. Along the best way, Maika particularly learns a invaluable lesson about embracing her heritage and being happy with the actually life-saving abilities she has discovered rising up surrounded by Inuit traditions.

As we construct to the massive battle, the women are incessantly distracted by their very own drama, like who’s being annoying simply to get consideration, whose little sister is being an excessive amount of of a tagalong, and who’s getting too near another person’s crush. “Can we go back to hunting a blood-sucking alien?” certainly one of them mutters after yet one more squabble divides the group. These interactions can gradual the plot down, however they really feel true to life. On the opposite hand, whereas the performers are partaking, the appearing is uneven all through. You can perceive why—the Slash/Back youngsters have been apparently actually cast on location, including much more authenticity to the story—nevertheless it’s noticeable sufficient to work in opposition to the film, particularly throughout any scene through which somebody must be expressing heightened feelings… which is a number of the time.

And, to not pile onto a micro-budget film that was clearly a labor of affection, however the particular results used to carry the aliens to life are fairly restricted, which you may get a way of from the picture above. (Unfortunately, there’s no Thing-level creature grandiosity right here.) That “labor of love” half is what’s most essential although—Slash/Back has a number of coronary heart and good intentions behind it, to not point out a uniquely compelling setting, and it’s unimaginable to not root for its kick-ass younger solid.

Slash/Back arrives November 18 on Shudder.

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