★★★★ out of ★★★★★
🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Trevor Solway
Show creator and writer/director Trevor Solway’s Tales from the Rez is a six-part Canadian horror anthology series with a focus on ghost stories from Canada’s indigenous peoples. For this series, he combined his childhood love of television horror anthology shows with the Blackfoot ghost stories he heard from his older relatives while growing up, and the result is a fun set of horror and horror-comedy episodes with a unique cultural twist.
In “Queens Hotel,” a recovering alcoholic tries to rescue his brother from the life of a barfly, but a mysterious stranger has other plans.
“Grave Consequences” finds two women friends attempting a get-rich-quick scheme involving the digging up of ancestors’ tools.
“Giddy Goat” concerns a Halloween party where a friend encourages his part-goat, part-human friend to try his luck with romancing a social media star. Needless to say, things do not go as smoothly as planned.
“Something in the Water” shows that there are supernatural lessons to be learned when a group of partiers display their disrespect for nature.
“Taxi Me to Hell” is a clever twist on the ghost hitchhiker urban legend.
“The Sandhills” ends the series on a more serious and ultimately poignant note in its exploration of an adulthood plagued by memories and trauma of childhood abuse.
Host Uncle Randolf (Charles Duck Chief) isn’t your usual horror anthology series host, as he introduces and wraps up each episode in his occasionally grumpy, always deadpan, and in its way charming style. The series’ opening sequence and episode titles are all reminiscent of EC Comics’ horror titles with a definite nod to the beloved Tales from the Crypt TV series.
Solway’s obvious love for classic television anthology horror storytelling and his pride in his Blackfoot Nation traditional ghost stories is clearly evident in this high-quality, masterfully crafted series.
The acting is top-notch. Some performers appear in more than one episode, as Solway places characters in different stories that have some interweaving threads. Production values, cinematography, and sound design are all marvelous. The practical effects and makeup work are also highly impressive.
I can’t recommend Tales from the Rez strongly enough. I consider it must-see for aficionados of horror anthologies, and its distinctive cultural spin adds an extra level of captivation to the proceedings. Here’s hoping for future series and at least one feature-film version!
Tales from the Rez screens as part of Canada’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival, which runs November 20–25, 2023. For more information, please visit: https://bloodinthesnow.ca/.
The series is also part of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
