It´s a mighty strange beast, an intellectual B-movie that offers equal parts semiotics and projectile gore.
Pontypool (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:75
Fresh:62
Rotten:13
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Witty and restrained but still taut and funny, this Pontypool is a different breed of low-budget zombie film.
Theatrical Release:May 29, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: It’s not just the snow storm that’s chilling in this Canadian zombie movie from director Bruce McDonald (THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS). Stephen McHattie (WATCHMEN) stars as controversy-courting radio DJ... It’s not just the snow storm that’s chilling in this Canadian zombie movie from director Bruce McDonald (THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS). Stephen McHattie (WATCHMEN) stars as controversy-courting radio DJ Grant Mazzy, who can only find work in Pontypool, Ontario, where he broadcasts his show from the church basement. The monotony of relaying the small-town news of a blizzard is broken when Grant begins to report strange stories of violence to his listeners. It is soon revealed that there’s a virus infecting the whole town, and Grant and his coworkers barricade themselves in the office. But the virus doesn’t use the standard methods of blood or air for its transmission; instead, language is responsible for the disease, which leaves Grant wondering whether it is better to spread the news or keep quiet. [More]
Starring: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Hrant Alianak, Georgina Reilly
Starring: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Hrant Alianak, Georgina Reilly
Director: Bruce McDonald
Director: Bruce McDonald
Screenwriter: Tony Burgess
Producer: Jeffrey Coghlan, Ambrose Roche
Studio: IFC Films
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Reviews for Pontypool
Laurie Anderson would be proud: language is a virus in [this] zombie(-esque) thriller set almost entirely within the walls of a basement radio station.
Interesting zombie flick. A little too claustrophobic with all of the scenes in a makeshift radio station. Too much description and not enough action, almost like War of the World's radio broadcast. Still, worth watching once. Paul Chambers, CNN.
This year Canada's PONTYPOOL ranks as high as any United States science fiction films I have seen.
This low-budget picture is a little too claustrophobic, and it grows tedious. The ominous, overbearing musical score tries but fails to jack up the tension.
Inventive and genuinely suspenseful, this is a welcome addition to the expanding zombie/virus canon.
This cerebral horror movie plays Scrabble with the genre’s cinematic lingo.
This unsettlingly quirky account of semiological breakdown and small-town apocalypse plays like My Winnipeg for fans of intellectual horror. Pontypool is as astonishing as it is original, and amply repays multiple viewings.
It’s always an unexpected bonus in a zombie film to find the brains evident in the screenplay rather than splattered all over the scenery.
Tight as a drum and the most inventive spin on a zombie-plague premise in years.
An immersive film built on inference and interrupted signals rather than cheap shock-jock tactics. But the question remains: why the hell didn’t they call it Dead Air?
Ignore the shaky tongue-tied opening fifteen minutes; when Pontypool gets its words in order it reminds you how much creepy fun can be had in keeping the horror tantalisingly offscreen.
Big on atmos, low on incident, this claustrophobic chiller captures the hysteria of a town flailing on the frontline of disaster.
Talky and claustrophobic, Pontypool is a mash-up of Orson Welles' notorious The War of the Worlds radio broadcast and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, with a tone and cast that's reminiscent of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13.
In its best moments the film offers an entertaining throwback to the Seventies heyday of John Carpenter and David Cronenberg, when a creepy situation could be just as effective as a burst of stomach-churning special effects.
Latest News for Pontypool
May 28, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Up And Drag Me to Hell Are Certified Fresh
This week at the movies, we've got a high-flying house (Up, with voice work by Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer) and a demonic curse (Drag Me to Hell, starring Alison Lohman and... More...
May 10, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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