Got to see the movie Pontypool yesterday. I have to admit I’m not a great fan of zombie movies. The problem is that most of them are just standard fare – try to reach safety without being bitten and therefore becoming a zombie yourself. There are some examples where this is done really well: Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later being two examples, but for the most part the zombie film is as dead as its victims.
Having said this, I felt it was with a heavy heart that I began watching. Now, I need to tell you from the get go that I have a scoring system for telling whether a movie works for me or not – it’s how long I get into the film before I look at my watch. To give you two examples; Gangs of New York lasted 1 hour 50 before I looked at my watch, and that was only because I needed to empty my bladder fairly desperately. As a contrast, Open Water had me looking at my watch after five minutes. After 15 minutes I was praying for the two characters to drown and put us out of our misery. Never was a review line so cruelly used – “Jaws meets The Blair Witch Project” – bollocks, more like.
Anyway, back to the film. This is an Indy Canadian production, set in a small town Ontario radio station. As the plot unfolds it is apparent that something is going seriously wrong in the local town of Pontypool as the main characters try to understand what is happening via the reports coming in from their ‘eye in the sky’ and police radio and try to put it on the air.
By this point I was feeling the tension rise as my imagination started to put the picture together of what was going on outside. A tension that the director, Bruce McDonald, kept rising throughout the film.
The acting talent was excellent, with an outstanding job done by Stephen McHattie as the grizzled talk show presenter drifting downwards in the twilight of his career.
This is another great example of the quality films that the independent producers are putting out nowadays. It’s unfortunate that these movies often never see the lights of a cinema due to the lack of being picked up for distribution.
I looked at my watch after 42 minutes, not a bad score at all for a zombie movie. But beware, if all you are looking for is another zombie gore fest, you’ll be very disappointed by this film, as this is more like a taut thriller than a horror film. The tension keeps coming all the way up to the finale, which is not obvious. If you can’t see this film at the movie theatre, look out for it on DVD, it’s well worth the watch.
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