Brain Freeze

Compared to the overly saturated zombie market this wasn't too bad. I've seen better or worse zombie movies in the last year. There's a few interesting things going for this but overall it falls flat. The only half decent acting was from Roy Dupuis and the other characters you'd want dead from the zombies ASAP.

A French Canadian zombie movie with an emphasis on quirky comedy alongside the usual invasion scenario. I wasn't too impressed with this low budget feature which I felt was just going through the motions without innovating or offering anything new at any point. A cold blur filter on the filming and cheap contact lenses for the zombies. Uninteresting characters and humour that fails to hit the mark. Not for me.

Preparing for a winter storm, the residents of a small Quebec-centered island are shocked to learn that their friends and neighbors have turned into flesh-eating zombies created by a golf resort looking to grow greener grass for playing during the winter and must try to get to safety before the city is overrun.

There's quite a lot to like with this one. One of the strongest aspects featured here is the early work here to give us an idea of the community before the main invasion sets in. The very fact-of-life presentation here with the look at the family getting ready for the day, the workers at the golf resort preparing for the upcoming guests when it opens for the season, and the police officers attempting to patrol the area creates a fantastic starting point for the film to five into the world created here. As this gives way to a fun and lighthearted but not quite funny setup, generally everything here is quite fun and inviting to what's happening later. This early work goes a long way towards enabling the fun that comes along with the zombie outbreak throughout the community. Those early confrontations at the golf resort or the family being confronted by their turned member are just goofy enough to have some lighthearted moments while keeping some suspenseful moments in play here due to the fact that the zombies are shown to be vicious and bloodthirsty. The confrontations within the house trying to outwit and outmaneuver the infected trying to get away from them and escape offer up quite a lot of fun chases, some nice humor, and some gory kills along the way. The second half to this one is where the film picks up nicely. With the reveal of the zombie threat and who's responsible, the series of encounters between the few survivors and the zombie horde still there is quite fun with the scenes at the treatment plant or the golf resort that includes several fine confrontations and the evolution of the zombies into a different look which comes off nicely. Since this one also manages to incorporate a decidedly pointed commentary on the nature of the rich poisoning themselves for their own vanity for the sake of the poor, there's much to like here in this part of the film that overcomes the film's lone flaw. There's only that one issue plaguing this one, which is the lack of information that comes from the zombies. They seem to behave in accordance with the scenes' demand, running after victims when there's nothing it needs to do with them yet enables the ability for them to be handled safely with select tools and instruments so that they are calm and docile when need be. The changes done whenever the film demands it is the big factor that somewhat undermines the suspense here when the creatures that are acting as threats create such a problem. This is enough to lower the film slightly but isn't much compared to the other positives.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and constant themes of children-in-jeopardy.

I reckon if you take one message from this movie, it has to be: only drink Coca Cola ... I'm kidding of course, but there is some movie truth in there. The brain freeze of the title does happen during the run time of the movie - of course it very likely is also a wordplay on what happens to many people in this.

A nice little movie, with interesting leads. The main focus though (and not just because the director said it), is the baby of the movie. And while for some, babies in movies can feel cliche and annoying (I emphasize I am talking about movies, not the real world), the baby in this movie is amazing. I doubt it will get nominated for an Oscar/Academy Award, like the director suggested in his video message to us festival goers, but you can clearly see how good the little ones are (played by twins).

Other than that, you can expect the usual ... good effects overall though, well acted and edited too. Predictable and a bit of a let down when it comes to the ending (which is a bit cliche to say the least), but nobody is perfect, right?

Well, the 2021 Canadian movie "Brain Freeze" is a fun little foray into the zombie genre. And I do believe that this is actually the first Canadian zombie movie I have had the pleasure of sitting down to watch.

Sure, before I sat down to watch "Brain Freeze", I must admit that I hadn't even heard about this movie from writer and director Julien Knafo. So I wasn't sure what I was in for here, aside from it being a zombie movie. And from the movie's cover/poster and its listing as a horror comedy here on IMDb, I figured that chances were that this could be a good movie. Needless to say, that with it being a zombie movie, of course I had to watch it regardless.

And I will say that "Brain Freeze" is certainly watchable, and does have some nice enough aspects to it. However, the movie just sort of had a strong feeling of mediocre permeating it. And the movie just never really managed to shed that mediocre feeling and step up into the big league. Now, don't get me wrong here, because I am not saying that "Brain Freeze" is a bad movie. Not at all. It just wasn't a particularly outstanding zombie movie. And truth be told, amidst the sea of zombie movies, then "Brain Freeze" just sort of fades into the background.

The storyline told in "Brain Freeze" is pretty standard stuff, something you see nine out of ten times whenever a new zombie movie is released. So there is nothing grand or innovative about writer Julien Knafo's storyline here. Sure, it was entertaining enough for what it was, but it was just too generic, if I have to be bluntly honest.

The acting performances in the movie were good, and actually carried the movie a great long way. I wasn't familiar with the cast here, so that was something I enjoyed. If I have to point out a single performance that stood out from the others, then it would have to be Roy Dupuis (playing Dan), because he really carried the movie almost single-handedly.

Visually then "Brain Freeze" was actually good enough. This is not your average infection-type of zombie movie, so that works in favor of "Brain Freeze". Writer and director Julien Knafo managed to create something interesting enough here for that aspect of the storyline.

Ultimately then "Brain Freeze" is a mediocre addition to the zombie genre. A shame, though, because there definitely was some potential here.

My rating of "Brain Freeze" lands on a five out of ten stars.