Slash/Back review.
Director Nyla Innuksuk shows off an ample amount of talent in her debut feature film Slash/Back. She overcomes budget constraints and inexperienced actors by filling the screen with beautiful landscapes and an ability to keep everything flowing forward in an entertaining way. It’s a funny movie with heart and horror in equal measure.
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Slash/Back
Directed by Nyla Innuksuk
Screenplay by Ryan Caven and Nyla Innuksuk
Starring Tasiana Shirley, Alexis Wolfe, Nalajoss Ellsworth, Chelsea Prusky, Frankie Vincent-Wolfe and Kristian Bruun
Slash/Back Review
It didn’t really occur to me until Slash/Back was over that I had watched another example of a gateway horror movie. It’s odd that it didn’t cross my mind since the story centers around teen girls fending off an alien. The reason it wasn’t obvious to me from the start is that Slash/Back is so well made. I’m not saying that movies to introduce kids to horror can’t be good productions…it’s just that they so often aren’t. We talked about what makes The Monster Squad hold up so well as a gateway horror movie. Slash/Back shares some similar qualities.
A group of teen girls discover an alien invasion has come to their home in Pang, a hamlet near the arctic. The aliens take the skin of animals and humans to hide themselves. When the elder members of the community are unavailable it falls to the girls to fight back and stop the aliens themselves.
Like in The Monster Squad we are presented with a group of smart likable young people who find bravery in the face of something scary. There…it was a collection of classic monsters. In Slash/Back it’s aliens. In both cases the kids feel duty bound to band together and put a stop to the craziness.
The aliens here don’t have the personality to carry scenes on their own. What we largely see is an animal or a person who is clearly a skin suit being operated by a slimy, multi-tentacled alien. It’s all a bit like Edgar in Men in Black if the suit fit worse and they couldn’t speak. It’s also pretty effective. Budget limitations prevent Innuksuk from going full boar on effects…but she captures exactly what she needs to.
The cast is largely inexperienced. It shows in some positive and negative ways. The good is that these feel like real people who react the way a person would to this situation. The bad is that some of the line delivery could have stood another take. It’s only occasionally distracting, however. For the most part it’s kind of charming. I think they get away with it a bit because these are kids.
One of the big hits in the movie is how gorgeous the scenery is. Innuksuk captures beautiful imagery throughout Slash/Back. The mountains and the sea filling the background provide a look that movies of a much higher budgets fail to attain. It’s a unique film setting and Innuksuk captures it lovingly.
Slash/Back combines humor with bravery the way The Monster Squad did. It’s not quite as funny…and it’s never quite as thrilling…but what is here is plenty filling for those seeking an enjoyable hour and a half of entertainment. Kids should enjoy seeing the resourceful, intelligent, real talking young characters bravely stand up for themselves and each other.
The influences on Slash/Back are obvious. A bit of John Carpenter’s The Thing mixed with a dash of Attack the Block, topped off with some of that Monster Squad chemistry. If that sounds like a winning combination…it is. Combine all of that with it’s beautiful setting and indigenous cast and Slash/Back becomes something that feels new and lived in at the same time.
In a way Slash/Back feels like a proof-of-concept movie. Innuksuk proves she can helm an engaging, beautiful film on a modest budget. The script (co-written by Innuksuk) proves, once again, that the best use of kids in a movie is to treat them with respect and give them agency. Let’s get her a big budget to work with and see where she wants to take us next.
Scare Value
There are plenty of flaws that you can pick out of Slash/Back. Focusing on them would miss what it accomplishes. Nyla Innuksuk has made a wonderfully fun feature debut set in a location you don’t get to see often with a cast that feels like real people living out a real situation. Running just shy of 90 minutes makes this an easy watch that your kids might enjoy with you. This Slash/Back review recommends spending some quality time in Pang.
3.5/5
