Macabre…ish Horror Review: Brain Freeze
Brain Freeze, 2021/ 1 hr 31 min
In a gated community, in Montreal, on Peacock Island, a neighborhood golf course is testing out an experimental fertilizer that allows it’s wealthy patrons to golf all year round. Not only does it fertilize the green but it melts the snow in winter. It’s not all good though, also contaminates the water supply.
Meanwhile, a survivalist, Dan (Roy Depuis), who works security in the community and has a disdain for the wealthy and believes their excess goes against nature.
Then a teen, André (Iani Bédard), who is mostly neglected by his busy mother while she chases and maintains all the trappings of wealth. Usually it is just him and the nanny who looks after his infant sister, Annie. But on the day, he is left to watch his little sister, is the day the adults of the gated community began to turn into zombies.
And it happens, quick, within an hour of drinking a glass of water, the change is sudden and it does not only effect humans, not even animals are safe. The wealthy and their purse dogs are all turning into rabid, blood thirsty monsters. And the same water that turned them, subdues them.
A neighbor calls Dan and complains about sounds coming from a neighbor’s house, just to turn into a zombie and chase him down, herself.
André and his sister have not changed because his mother insists they drink bottled water and he only drinks soda. And Dan hasn’t changed because he’s not a local and hasn’t drank the water or been bitten. And after Dan hits André’s mom with his truck and she’s hit again by a giant tv, André and Dan team up after Dan saves him and his sister from a mob of zombies.
Soon their island is in quarantine and hot spots are being bombed by the military. But it’s only a matter of time before the entire island is obliterated. But before that happens, Dan calls into his favorite radio show to get the word out that there are uninfected people on the island and he suspects terrorists are to blame and he thinks he knows where to find them.
This is a French Canadian zombie horror and class warfare social commentary directed by Julien Knafo. These are fast zombies and the zombie effects and acting is pretty good. It’s not particularly bloody because they mostly show zombie blood, which is green. There is a good amount of zombie gore but I would not call this a gore fest. This movie is pretty fast paced and the original audio is French. The cast also includes Mahée Paiement, Marianne Fortier, Mylène Mackay ,Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Claudia Ferri, Stéphane Crête and Simon Olivier Fecteau.
It’s a brutal and sad ending but I really enjoyed this film and the zombie concept