However, over the last decade, Canadian horror cinema has been wholly changed by indigenous storytelling and offers a new viewpoint on the genre. This evolution has lessons to be learnt, not only to make film industry more diverse, but for Indigenous filmmakers to foster their way of addressing historical and contemporary issues with horror filmmaking.

Pioneering Indigenous Horror Films and Filmmakers

From blending traditional narrative and modern storytelling to the borrowed horror elements, indigenous Canadian filmmakers have managed to carve out a niche of their own in the horror genre. The late Jeff Barnaby, a Mi’kmaq director noted for his movies such as Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Blood Quantum, and more recently, connects with indigenous Canadians, is one that stands out. The operative word here for Rhymes for Young Ghouls is vengeance, and in doing so delves into the traumatic legacy of residential schools as a young girl seeks retribution on those in the oppressive authorities. Blood Quantum is a fresh spin of the zombie genre, discovering Indigeneity immune to the outbreak as it confronts external threats to the community as a whole.

Clearcut (1991) is another important work directed by Ryszard Bugajski. It is this play between these activitists (anti-logging) and industrial loggers that this film focuses on, through a raw presentation of resistance and retaliation. Not only do they entertain but they set one thinking; shining a light on Indigenous perspectives within the horror genre.

Cultural Themes and Symbolism in Indigenous Horror

However, there are often a sense of cultural themes and rich symbolism in Indigenous horror films providing the audience a profound indigenous viewing of the world. The Wendigo is a recurring motif in Algonquian legend and symbolizes:​

• Insatiable greed​
• Consequences of violating natural laws​

This entity has been adapted in various narratives, serving as a metaphor for:​

• Colonial exploitation​
• Environmental destruction​

On the importance of conceptualizing the issue of Immunity in Indigenous people in Blood Quantum (2019), an allegory of survival under colonization because:

• Resilience​
• Sovereignty​

Edge of the Knife (2018), the first Haida language, for feature use, tells of a man turned Gaagiixiid, or wildman, themes include such as:

• Guilt​
• Redemption​
• Human connection to nature​

Horror elements are used to talk about historic and present day matters through the symbolism of cultural symbols to which both Indigenous and non Indigenous people identify with.

Contemporary Challenges and Triumphs in Indigenous Horror Filmmaking

There are many issues that stand in the way of Indigenous filmmakers in Canada from securing funding to fighting industry bias. Yet, they have endured to get remarkable wins. Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat and myself form Sugarcane, on the mission of St Joseph’s and how St Joseph’s mission is systemic in residential school abuse as in Canadian Indigenous school such as St Joseph’s mission and how infanticide as in being killed after birth exists in residential school. 

The film, after its 2021 Sundance premiere and screenings including at the White House and Canadian Parliament, became a star on Hulu. In doing so, this has caused this movement about pasts of these institutions. It’s also an historic marker for the movie industry for Sugarcane will be the first time an indigenous North American filmmaker would be nominated for an Oscar. The film has incited debate regarding genocide when referring to Indigenous, and the debate has fast become a persistent memory among those who happen to know what has transpired.

The Future of Indigenous Horror in Canadian Cinema

When emerging filmmakers come in, there’s a little brightness to the Native horror horizon in the Canadian cinema. Additional mention should be made of Berkley Brady, Métis director, for her work on Dark Nature (2022), a horror of trauma and redemption among Indigenous people. What I’m describing here is more of an authentication and the expression of the pleasure of Indigenous voices in the fiction of horror.​

That said, there are also collaborations between the mainstream platforms and the indigenous creators, adding more opportunity for these stories to spread. All film festivals and institutions that tear indigenous horror films apart still function with space: to show, admire, cherish them. Continuing these narratives, they expand the scope of the Canadian cinema and the fact that the theme and the genre can be changed to new and sophisticated views from many ways.

Reimagining Fear: Indigenous Voices Transforming Canadian Horror

The horror films produced by indigenous Canadians are a hybrid genre, a mixing of genre with cultural story telling. They give viewer an opportunity to see fear and the supernatural in new ways. These films explore traditional myths and weave them with modern day issues, and as a result, entertain as well as engage and invite reflection and discussion on the Indigenous experience in Canada. With more Indigenous filmmakers going into the horror genre, they are continuing to shatter that stereotype and expanding the Canadian cinematic canvas.