Review of Pontypool (2009) by Whit W — 10 Nov 2011

"Pontypool" is a tough one for me. First off, this is yet another zombie movie...of sorts. I don't want to reveal why the zombie apocalypse occurs, and I don't really think I bought into it entirely. I won't give it away, but it was kind of interesting.

For a zombie movie though, "Pontypool" has practically zero gore. Normally I'm okay with that but this movie does such a great job of verbally painting the initial zombie attacks, I was disappointed that we didn't get a single peek at what was happening. The dialogue between the "on the street" reporter and radio shock-jock Grant Mazzy is near perfect and Mazzy's voice (compliments of Stephen McHattie) so amazing, that it made me long for just a look at what was going on in the little town of Pontypool. It reminded me of how much I would have liked to get a glimpse of the monsters that entered the Earth through a portal accidentally opened up by the military in the Darabont/King stunner "The Mist". But alas, we get no such scene and for some reason the "less is more" approach stops working for "Pontypool". Now, I liked this movie but even the attacking zombies are barely shown. It reeks of low budget film-making which is fine, but not in a zombie movie. Zombies are barely scary when you actually see them.

I don't fully understand the cause of the zombie infection. It's different than other movies but ultimately unclear and that's what doesn't work for me. Is this a sort of clever shot at the talk radio industry? Is it a horror movie? Is it a tongue-in-cheek slap at zombie horror movies? I don't know.