Combining history, horror, action, and a survival tale, writer-director Casey Walker’s Ithaqua manages to conjure a meditation on Canada’s — yes, Canada’s — past and the evils it birthed, with its tongue planted firmly in cheek. It’s quite a feat for any film, much less a low-budget feature, to juggle seemingly disparate elements so effortlessly. So bravo then, to the cast and crew of this latest release from Hammer Films, which brings to mind another cult classic, Bone Tomahawk.
1821, Fort William, Canada — a remote fur trading outpost. American mercenary Cole Franklin (Luke Hemsworth) is recruited to lead a trading party to an Indigenous village. Tensions rise within the group, which includes the brash English soldier, Lt. Walker (Kevin Durand), but are soon overshadowed by a dark force. It has the ability to invade them, driven by insatiable hunger. A cult, led by demented leader McKellar (Michael Pitt), seems to have embraced the evil force. Cue spilled guts and torn-off limbs.
Steeped in mysticism, the film moves along briskly. Walker and his team — including co-writers Pascal Trottier and Peter Scott Vicaire — sustain a tone of menace, tinged with both poignancy and humor. Bryn McCashin’s cinematography complements the narrative beautifully, the palpable cold emanating off the screen, snow blanketing the horrors but unable to shield them, forming a stark contrast against all the shadows and fire-lit murk. Blitz/Berlin’s score further immerses the proceedings in uncanny territory.
A woman in a fur coat stands alone among snowy pines as blue smoke rises behind her in Ithaqua.
“…has the ability to invade them, driven by insatiable hunger… cue spilled guts and torn-off limbs…”
Apart from tense standoffs, the film contains its share of gnarly moments: a tooth torn out and thrown with a clank into a sink, a blown-off head and a body that won’t stop moving… A scene involving a bear trap and, um, a bear suit does a wonderful job showcasing the film’s go-for-broke inventiveness, as does a cannibalistic bloodbath.
The acting from its impressive ensemble is uniformly excellent. Luke Hemsworth underplays it wisely, his low-key performance resonating due to the shimmering glimpses of feeling he allows to intermittently show. Kevin Durand steals scenes effortlessly; he sidesteps the usual clichés and transforms his initially irredeemable character into a flawed, sympathetic human being. Michael Pitt similarly holds the screen, chewing (literally) scenery with a vengeance. It’s a criminally underrated trio of actors who deserve more big-screen hits.
Walker examines the seeds of violence, racism, and misogyny that have since grown and spread in this country (albeit through a Canadian prism), but the message is subliminal, there if you see it in an otherwise relatively straightforward story of men fighting otherworldly evil, and each other.
Its focus on characters and themes, as well as the milieu it establishes so thoroughly (characters speak three languages: English, French, and Ojibwe-Cree), makes Ithaqua stand out in the over-saturated crowd of cheap-thrills horror. This one has something to say. It just happens to spill (and consume) buckets of gore while saying it.
"…steeped in mysticism..."
