Earlier this month Julien Knafo’s Brain Freeze was the film that opened the hybrid physical and online edition of Fantasia International Film Festival, now it has just had its international premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest. The French language Canadian film offers a quirky interpretation of the typical zombie movie. Set within the affluent confines of a gated community, the peace is disturbed after a new special fertiliser ends up in the water supply, turning all that drink it into mindless zombies. In the midst of the chaos is young teenager Andre (Iani Bédard) and his infant sister Annie. Panicked and alone, the pair meet up with the community’s security guard, Dan (Roy Dupuis). Luckily for the boy and his baby sister, Dan has been practising his survival skills, but after an outside government operation to cut off the afflicted area, they find themselves battling for escape as well as their lives.
Brain Freeze is an enjoyable, albeit occasionally cartoonish, viewing experience. It is, however, a bit of a tonal minefield. The film starts brilliantly, Knafo building up to the outbreak slowly and cleverly, planting breadcrumbs of dread to produce a toe-curling feast of unease. There’s a good pace to the set-up and events are moving along pretty well, but then not long into the outbreak, the film introduces a subplot that really jars with what we’ve seen before. Suddenly we are introduced to a set of twins that are dressed like they’ve just walked off of the set of a science fiction action movie. They function as an extension of the company responsible for the chemical that has caused the mutation, but their inclusion just feels strange. The two hardly interact with any of the main cast and there’s a sensation that they belong to a different film entirely.
For the parents, or friends or relatives of those with little ones, there is a whole other layer of stress that revolves around baby Annie. In the lead up to the outbreak, Andre finds himself babysitting Annie when their nanny doesn’t come to work and his attitude and behaviour towards her are a parents worst nightmare. He is not vicious or violent towards her, just utterly clueless and therefore completely dangerous. There are some moments of humour generated from some of his babysitting mishaps, such as him having to rely on YouTube to teach himself how to change a nappy, which is an amusing instance. However, other scenes will have you sitting with your heart in your mouth. As stressful as these sequences are, they are vital to show the character and relationship progression through the journey of the film as Andre finally finds his brotherly love for Annie. It’s like a warped twist on Labyrinth, just with zombies, Kale popsicles (one of the most traumatic elements of the movie), and green gunk.
The choice of zombie make-up is an interesting one. Knafo leans heavily into the fertiliser aspect and makes his creatures green; everyone’s teeth and faces are smeared with bright green goo and gunk. He doesn’t stop there though, as instead of decomposing, the afflicted start to ‘decompost’ slowly morphing into pieces of Earth. It’s all a bit Troll 2 and that might help endear it to fans of strange genre movies. The design certainly ensures that these zombies will stick in your memories, and they inject some much needed fun into a film that otherwise has a fairly serious tone.
A tonal conundrum, Brain Freeze has a lot of clever touches and great moments during its opening section, but struggles to sustain the same energy throughout. As the energy levels drop, the story gets muddied with the addition of seemingly disposable new side characters who exist almost entirely outside of the main plot. The final result is an entertaining way to spend ninety minutes, but that’s about it.
Brain Freeze
Summary
Brain Freeze suffers from peaking a little too early, meaning that for the rest of the film it spends its time trying, and failing, to recapture its spark. Knafo does however give us an interesting green-fingered version of the iconic zombie creature whilst at the same time exploring the journey of a boy becoming a man in the midst of chaos.
Brain Freeze was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2021. Brain Freeze will be released by Blue Finch Films on 6th September 2021.
