Pontypool

Think of this witty, economically gory little tour de force as "28 Days Later" written by linguist Noam Chomsky.

Between its ridiculous setup and its hard-to-care-about ending, McDonald still manages to craft an engaging suspense film that -- when you're not scratching your head in puzzlement -- will have you on the edge of your seat.

A horror flick that's all talk and (almost) no action? The risk pays off better than you'd think.

The premise has potential, but there's no follow- through. And there's no actual zombie mayhem; we learn everything secondhand -- from phone calls to the station.

Pontypool doesn't jell--its pretensions way exceed its reach--yet it's madly suggestive, and it rekindled my affection for the genre.

Pontypool is something like a claustrophobic, locked-in-the-barn zombie movie, only almost without zombies.

A zombie flick sans bite.

A shoe-string budget, perfectly executed and horrifyingly captivating. The premise may be a little far-fetched in the physical aspect of "failure to acquire a victim", however the psychological foundation is very plausible. Those incapable of understanding such a complex possibility will find far less enjoyment in Pontypool.

It's actually a great movie. This is the reason why I gave it a low rating. It has such an original idea that it could have been so much better. Especially the finale is the kind that doesn't suit all that tension. This movie is a diamond wasted.

While the fact the entire movie is spent inside and around a recording booth may seem like a cop-out on special effects, it creates a very interesting, realistic view point on an apocalypse setting. We join our main character, Mazzy, a radio talk show host, in what seems like just another day in the life. Quickly news spreads of a nearby outbreak of strange behaviour, and from there we're very slowly fed bits of information that explain what's happening, much like what would happen if you were hiding in your home watching the news during an outbreak. While immediately you may assume this is a typical zombie movie, it has a very, very interesting twist on the viral disease, which I don't want to discuss for spoiler reasons, given that it's a huge discovery and will leave you smiling once it's communicated to the audience. Personally it's difficult for me to call this a horror film, while it has it's resonating ambiance playing in the background, and over-the-phone deaths, and plenty of gore, it's not what I would typically consider horror: more of just a thriller, but perhaps that's because of it's lack of tropes (aside from the outbreak viral disease idea). Nonetheless, whether it's Mazzy's silky-smooth voice, or the uniqueness of Pontypool's disease, it was an enjoyable and engaging watch. The low score is mostly due to the fact that the acting was kind of all over the place, while it wasn't bad in any respect, it seemed mismatched much of the time, throwing extreme emotions around where they shouldn't be, which just left me confused or chuckling. It felt slightly claustrophobic being filmed in such close-quarters the entire hour and a half, and the solution to the disease was extremely silly; showing the audience that the unique and refreshing writing stopped at the creation of the disease, and did NOT carry into the cure or resolution of the film. Regardless, I do recommend Pontypool if you enjoy outbreak films (I can't really call it a "zombie" movie, but it's very similar in spirit), and don't mind seeing a whole lot of nothing for a majority of the film. But I should remark that the story taking place without showing what was actually happening until later was handled very expertly and was made surprisingly interesting.

I respect its attempt to get out of the zombie formula. That's always welcome, however its narrative discourse ends too soon, and the claustrophobia gives way to tedium when neither the rhythm nor the tone gets a boost, while the plot overstays its welcome. Good concept though, it just lacked punch.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]