Pontypool (2008) : Yet another Canadian surprise

You were probably expecting a review on Resident Evil Extinction, but I decided to take a break from the Resident Evil series to talk about yet another fine Canadian Zombie film: Pontypool.

I watched this movie last week while I was in China early one morning at about 3:00am. My sleep schedule was all messed up, and I decided to watch something that I thought might suck in case I finally became sleepy and didn't catch the ending. I mean, lets face it, there are a lot of bad Zombie flicks out there.

Maybe it was my insomnia, maybe it was the fact that I was sitting alone in a hotel room 8000 miles away from home watching it in the dark............I don't know............but whatever it was, this movie creeped me out. I mean REALLY creeped me out.

The movie almost entirely takes place inside a radio studio, where cowboy-hat-wearing radio talk show host Grant Mazzy has recently began his employment after being fired from another radio station for probably just being himself: an arrogant self-centered guy who drinks whiskey-spiked coffee at 6:00am has no problem finding a way to piss off anyone and everyone he comes in contact with.


Mazzy has a strange encounter with a woman along the road on his way to work, and slowly the strangeness of the day builds to the point where its obvious that something is going terribly wrong in the town of Pontypool, Ontario. As a veteran Zombie fanatic like myself, you'll see the signs early on of a Zombie infection even though it takes awhile for our main characters to catch on, albeit a little late. It takes one of them to get infected to impart the true gravity of the epidemic to our host and his assistant.

"Pontypool" is an extreme departure from your typical Zombie film in several ways. First (and don't be disappointed), you hardly see ANY Zombies. You hear about them in news reports and a few pop up, but for the most part you see less Zombies in this film than the first 5 minutes of your average "Walking Dead" episode. Second, and most important, the Zombie "virus" is not spread by any means that we are used to. It's not airborne. Not in the water. Not spread by touch. Not by bites. I won't give it away but when I finally figured it out and thought about it in detail THAT'S when I really became creeped out..........

I won't give away any more of the plot because if you haven't yet seen this movie, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I ended up watching it a second time during my China trip because there were a few parts I wanted to take a second look at. That should tell you something.

My verdict? On a "Zombie Movie Scale of 1-10" I'd give this one a solid 7.5.

The "less-is-more" style of storytelling, combined with the strange plot-twist and great acting, made this movie very enjoyable and engaging. Even people who aren't Zombie fanatics will like this one. Just don't watch it alone in your hotel room in China at 3:00am.

WATCH IT IF: you, like me, seem to have a thing for Canadian Zombie movies, or are looking for something different. Or are stuck in a hotel in China with the urge to be really freaked out.

DON'T WATCH IT IF: you dislike anything Canadian eh, or are a purist and only like your Zombie movies full of hordes, big guns, and bad acting.

 

Pontypool is available for streaming thru Netflix. It is also available in DVD format from RedBox and Amazon.

More info can be found on IMDB here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226681/

Next Week: If you're reading this, drop me a line and tell me what you would like for me to watch and review......