Slash/Back thrills with both a genuine terror and its youthful energy: SXSW Film Festival Review

Unless you’re already an established name in the industry – and even then, to some degree, getting a film off the ground can have its challenges – the process of seeing a film through its production stages is never without its hurdles.  So you can only imagine how it was for a first-time director like Nyla Innuksuk in making a feature with unknown actors, travelling to the end of the world to a community nobody has ever filmed a film in before, featuring a language not put forth on screen.

To call Slash/Back a labour of love then would be an understatement.  Not only from the perspective of her respect of the Arctic community at the centre of the film – more specifically Pangnirtung, Nunavut, a sleepy hamlet nestled in the majestic mountains of Baffin Island in the Arctic Ocean – but of the genre films that have so clearly inspired the eventual horror-leaning adventure the film’s narrative adopts.

Taking a page out of the book of Richard Donner’s 1985 cult success The Goonies, Slash/Back – the title a play on the term “clap back”, the notion of defending yourself near-instantly if being mistreated in some form – initially plays out like a somewhat normal summer day for teen Maika (Tasiana Shirley) and her ragtag besties, Jesse (Alexis Vincent-Wolfe), Leena (Chelsea Pruksy) and Uki (Nalajoss Ellsworth); no school, no cool boys (well, maybe one), and 24-hour daylight.

Trading gossip and urban legends, the beauty of their coastal community and the tranquillity of their day is quickly threatened when they spot what they believe to be a polar bear.  Its odd, jerked movements, dead eyes and loose skin suggest a creature of a different form though, and when it savagely attacks Aju (Frankie Vincent-Wolfe), Maika’s young sister, they fire off a shot with Maika’s rifle – a point of contention between Maika and Uki’s differing views on their place within the community – scaring the beast off but leaving it wounded; its black blood covering the shaken Aju.

Whilst Innuksuk so easily could have maintained Slash/Back‘s narrative as one driven by the mythical creature at its core, she and co-writer Ryan Cavan further the alien-like mentality suggested in the unnerving appearance of the polar bear by introducing a species that wears the skin of its victim – whether that’s animal or human – resulting in a violently-minded, the-hunted-become-the-hunter-skewered feature that takes pride in its depiction of women, especially young women, taking back their own power.

Though on the surface Slash/Back is a horror laced adventure film, the aforementioned power balance of the predominantly female cast and the final title credits switching between “Slash/Back” and “Land/Back” leans into the importance of Indigenous land ownership and the institutional racism that have affected the featured community.  If you fear that Innuksuk’s film will be a little too heavy-handed you needn’t worry, but when looking deeper at the atrocities these young girls face in the form of deformed aliens literally trying to steal their surroundings, it’s simple to note the underlying thematics.

Whilst Slash/Back may take a little bit of its time in getting to its more action-driven set-pieces, audiences who appreciate their genre thrills with substance and a certain naturalism should enjoy the youthful energy of Innuksuk’s vision.  Its casting being predominantly young doesn’t limit its appeal either, delivering a film that genuinely terrifies at times and proves remarkably relatable at others as it captures the carefree nature of adolescence without insulting that assemblage either.

THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)

Slash/Back is screening as part of this year’s SXSW Film Festival, which is being presented in-person and virtually between March 11th and 20th, 2022.  For more information head to the official SXSW website.

Peter Gray

Film critic with a penchant for Dwayne Johnson, Jason Momoa, Michelle Pfeiffer and horror movies, harbouring the desire to be a face of entertainment news.