Gore, EC Comics sensibility, zombies, and swords all crash together in an elixir of zombie-killing brilliance that doesn’t look like its budget. Director Maio Mackay’s T-Blockers recalls Humanoids from the Deep, C.H U.D. Deathline, Creepshow, and the work of Ed Wood and William Castle all in one literal modern neon nightmare within the Trans/Queer community. Big influences, yes, yet the film unabashedly pulls it off with style and a sense of poignancy.
Opening frames with panache you have Drag Race Etcetera Etcetera as a B-movie host who is delivering cryptical Ed Wood Logic in an imitation of the Amazing Criswell. EC comic palette abounds with colour and lighting; we get introduced to Sophie (Lauren Last) with her friend Spencer (Lewi Dawson), who, like most new film directors, are finding it hard when it comes to ideas and funding. However, at least she has a potential romance to keep life stable.
It is a small town in Australia, complete with everyday folk trying to come to terms with people who post rallies to gay/ trans announcements in washrooms. The off-the-track Dance Clubs with vegan booze, dark lighting, and lively music are hubs of activity on societal angst. Sophie and Spencer indulge in marathon drink sessions, worry about taking and affording hormone pills, and enjoy recreational substances served up by bartender and friend Storm (Lisa Fanto). Storm is the club enforcer, even dealing with a bearded Neanderthal male who gets out of hand with the assistance of Kris (Tosherio Glenn)
“…Dance Clubs with vegan booze, dark lighting, and lively music are hubs of activity on societal angst.”
Spencer thinks he/she sees Adam in the background of the club they do, but Adam has changed as he and many other males have been attacked by a black liquid parasite that turns them into raging, violent beasts. An earthquake unleashes an ancient evil that thrives on hatred. Struggling with shitty jobs and life prospects, Sophie and her friends also have to face off against a zombie attack that spreads. Sophie discovers that she also has a psychic link to the infected, in which her bunch of vigilantes try to destroy them.
At the heart of this film, amidst all the blood and violence that follows, is a portrait of the trans experience as it stands today. Issues raised in a sledgehammer way find Sophie wondering whether the parasites can ever be defeated. When you get rid of one, more just seem to come out as a government radio announcement banning Trans surgery for under eighteens is announced. Not the most subtle way to bring up the world where trans people are being discussed without inclusion. Decisions made by people harm other people, as Spencer laments now he/ she cannot afford surgery hormone tablets, plus she has lost the perfect person to love. Spencer cannot be who he/ she wants to be and is, as one battles those that call trans people ‘groomers,’ raising the question of who the real Zombies are that blindly obey cravings.
T-Blockers is equal parts comic horror and heartwarming coming-of-age story. All in all, though, the film is gloriously well done with fast edits, moving field of vision, strong use of foreground and background in a frame, and good closeups with a cast that delivers the lines like they were not lines. The picture even breaks the fourth wall, as it is called in theatre, punctuated by an aggressive, not out of place, music track that fits the bright palette and the swift movement of the practical gore. A bloody romp full of tears and revelations that centers on trans experiences with a middle finger to the bigots.
"…A bloody romp full of tears and revelations that centers on trans experiences with a middle finger to the bigots..."
