Thursday, April 22, 2010

Pontypool (2009)


A zombie invasion as experienced by the staff of a radio station. Stephen McHattie is a radio personality on the air of a small radio stationwho begins to field calls about the strange things going on nearby. We watch as he and his crew stay in the studio field the reports that come in of something horrible happening outside.

Creepy well made film is the sort of thing that lets your mind work at creating a horror instead of actually showing it. When we do see the zombies they are through a blood stained glass studio wall. Its a slightly unnerving effect.

Wonderfully acted by a small cast, especially by McHattie who is one of the most under appreciated actors working today, they sell a film with a unique way of dealing with a horrible event. I like that we don't know a great deal and only having phone call reports to go on since it is very scary. For the most of the running time the film really works.

Unfortunately the film looses steam as events begin to take a cerebral turn. What is going on is a clever idea, the virus spreading the disease is connected to words but the concept doesn't completely work. While the idea of it may be neat and cool, the revelation of it is a little too unbelievable. Even knowing what was going on at the start still made it hard to take and it took everything down a couple of notches once it was revealed.

Its not a fatal flaw, I do love the film up to a certain point but there's a moment were I became disappointed. This should have and could have been the next big thing in zombie horror (it actually almost is).

The film is worth a look since the scenes where we don't know whats going on are chilling, and the ideas are clever even if they don't work in a horror film (maybe this would be a better novel).

Worth a look on cable (I saw this on IFC in Theaters on demand service) or on DVD.

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