Film Review: BRAIN FREEZE (2021)

 BRAIN FREEZE (2021) Canada 1hr 31mins

Director: Julien Knafo

"Winter is here... but not for the rich who want golf all year round!" - Patrick Nault

"We're the victims here... not the bad guys" - Dan

The rich, gated community peninsula of Peacock Island, is home to wealthy business men who love to play golf, their families and normal working class people who work for the golf clubs. In order to provide year round golfing a chemical is engineered to melt the snow in the winter season making sure that the grass will grow all year round. This chemical gets into the islands water system turning all the residents who drink the water into frenzied, green eyed zombies with a craving for human flesh. Andrè (Iani Bèdard), a young teenager who seems to only drink coke saves his baby sister from their mum when she turns and ends up teaming up with a security guard called Dan (Roy Dupuis) who is a closet survivalist and super protective of his twenty-something daughter Patricia (Marianne Fortier) who works at the golf club. Realising they are probably the only survivors they seek to discover how the virus came about and what will happen to the island. In the meantime, golf club officials have sent over their own operatives to make sure the infection is never traced back to them and to make things right before the entire island is "neutralised".

This French speaking zombie comedy kind of reminds me of a mixture of Z NATION meets ATTACK OF THE LEDERHOSEN ZOMBIES (2016) only not as laugh out loud. I suppose the humour is dark like it is in BLACK SUMMER but the zombies are as animated, comedic and quirky like the ones in the aforementioned shows. BRAIN FREEZE (2021) is clever and engaging, it may not be anything particularly new but for the most part it is well acted and a lot of fun! I am not a fan of child actors, especially not babies, but Iani Bèdard is just the right amount of moody teenager for me, never really over the top. He does some silly things but not enough to make you dislike him. His baby sister, Annie, has a reasonable amount of screen time but luckily is never the main focus. Roy Dupuis as the only "grown up" with a decent amount of screen time is the funniest and most endearing character. He appears to be quite lonely as a single parent but is fiercely protective over Patricia. He constantly listens to conspiracy theorists and is an avid listener of Patrick Naults radioshow over on the mainland. He has an abundance of tinned goods and supplies in his garage should disaster strike. The only thing he is yet to master is the art of making fire. In one attempt he uses the powder from a shotgun cartridge which results in him spending the rest of the movie with only one eyebrow!

The zombies are really great and interesting characters in this. It may take a little while to get going properly but once it does there is lots of great zombie action! Green is the key colour here. The molecule of the toxin that gets into the water is green. Once infected (by ingesting the water) the first hint of infection is green saliva, in turn this stains the teeth green and once completely turned the eyes turn bright green. They are compelled to bite and feast on human flesh which also spreads the virus. Turning is almost instant and the virus is not restricted to just humans, poor Ruby the Jack Russell! The zombies change the longer they are infected. When chasing after prey they are fast, ravenous and violent but are not the sharpest tools in the box and are easily confused by walls or glass and will ignore you if they think you are one of them. When not on the hunt for human prey they are almost dormant. Attracted to water and sunlight they seem to be photosynthesising and start to sprout vegetation from their limbs and orifices. They hit a stage of decomposition quickly and bits of them fall off frequently. All of this being said BRAIN FREEZE (2021) is not a particularly gory movie. The practical effects on and around the zombies are great and highly effective with some gross facial deformities but they manage to get away with not showing much gore in detail. Ok there is some fake blood thrown about the place and a couple of close up neck bites but that is about it. The rest is off camera or just hinted at plus they use a lot of green liquid and flame throwers.

The introduction of the two women known as Maud and "the protocole" are a good twist but also an excuse/reason for a happier ending then there would have been without them. The use of babies or infants to sway the way things may go has always ground my gears a little and finding out if the movie has the balls to go through with killing off said infant usually goes one of two ways. Unfortunately, BRAIN FREEZE (2021) chooses the safe option but not before trying to make you think they wont. Plot wise it does take a little while to get going, I think the real zombie action starts about 22 minutes in. The side story of the radio DJ Patrick Nault before, during and after the outbreak is kind of annoying as you would think that listening to him early on he would be more "pro the people" then he really is. The two ladies that play Maud and "the Protocole" are a little wooden. Plus the ending is a bit of a rip off of ZOMBEAVERS (2014) and [REC]4: APOCALYPSE (2014). It is subtitled which I hope wont put you off as despite all of these small faults it is a lot of fun and well worth a watch. I enjoyed BRAIN FREEZE (2021) for it's humour and entertainment level and score it 3 brains out of 5. 

BRAIN FREEZE (2021) is currently streaming on SHUDDER over here in the UK. It is also available on DVD and Blu Ray.