Movie Review: Nyla Innuksuk's ‘Slash/Back’ (2022)

Slash/Back—an Indigenous, young-adult supernatural slasher thematically evocative of The Thing (1982)—interweaves young tenacity against monstrous odds with engaging ideas. With these upsides, however, there's some left to be desired in terms of pacing and delivery.

The Indigenous horror film, directed by Nyla Innuksuk and written by Innuksuk and Ryan Cavan, is an Inuit-Canadian story, focusing on the lives of a handful of young women living in the remote town of Pangnirtung, Nunavut, during the 24-hour days of summer. But Maika (Tasiana Shirley) and her friends soon find that there's something dangerous lurking not terribly far beyond the outskirts of town. The world they know is at risk as an alien presence reanimates the dead and challenges the friends' ability to survive a threat that seems to be from beyond the stars, but is instead from our own warming earth.

Image via IMDB

Where Slash/Back immediately shines is both in its dedication to the intersection of place, life, and culture for our main characters, and the themes that thread throughout the backdrop of the story. For example, it's genuinely both refreshing to see Indigenous kids get to be kids (before the supernatural threat lands). There's deals made with siblings, close friendships, bickering over boys and an overall mood of the summers we enjoyed as kids. But all this is set on a stage whose backdrop is some of the most beautiful country you'll see in a movie this year—snow-capped peaks shoulder in close to town, as much a part of the local population as the human and animal residents.

Adjacent to this thematic intersection, Slash/Back pulls no punches: The movie starts with a climate scientist measuring the ice not far from town, and what he finds is what makes him go missing. Slash/Back also certainly doesn't shy away from engagement with themes beyond global warming: In one confrontation between two cops, one white and one Inuk, in which the white cop demands where a kid put his bike helmet, acting antagonistic, an Inuk officer takes the time to speak to them in their language (Inuktitut), even telling one of the kids their dinner should be ready. One speaks from a position of power, while the other is genuinely engaged on a community level.

Building on engagements with local communities, Slash/Back also successfully juggles concerns about identity. As one line so sharply goes, "Aliens pretending not to be aliens, an Inuk pretending not to be an Inuk." One of our main characters spends much of the movie denying the importance of her Inuk upbringing, but it turns out it's that same strength and ability to work together that equips these friends with the power to overcome such a dangerous foe. Further explorations of the conflict of identity are found in the aliens looking like they're wearing human masks (very Leatherface), and how one of the group is able to take down an alien with an ulu. The ongoing confrontation sees the girls armed with traditional and contemporary weapons, using them and respecting them as tools to keep their town safe.

For all these positives, however, Slash/Back's delivery leaves something to be desired: For such a political (and cultural) impact of the alien, scenes of confrontation feel short and not as developed as they could have been. For example, fight scenes of the group against aliens that have taken over adult bodies end rather abruptly. These moments of awkward pacing are sprinkled throughout the film, though the final result yields a work that feels as intentionally awkward as the girls themselves try to navigate the beginnings of adulthood.

Overall, Slash/Back is a much-needed entry in young adult Indigenous horror, providing sharp commentary though somewhat awkward pacing.

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Article written by laura kemmerer

Laura tuned into horror with an interest in what these movies and books can tell us about ourselves and what societies fear. She is most interested in horror focused around the supernatural, folklore, the occult, Gothic themes, haunted media, landscape as a character, and hauntology (focusing on lost or broken futures).