Review of Pontypool (2009) by Justin I — 27 Nov 2009

Remember when monster movies used to be political? If you're an 80's child like me - of course you don't. Hollywood has been shoving Twilights and Zombielands (one for girls and one for boys, like Happy Meals) down our throats for decades now. The original Night of the Living Dead's themes is of a split society with racial undertones the year Bobby Kennedy/MLK got shot.

Fast-forward to earlier this year, 2009, for the Canadian epistemological-zombie movie held in a rural Ontario town. Pontypool starring Stephen McHattie as morning radioman Grant Mazzy, Lisa Houle as his producer Sydney Briar and Georgina Reilly as gopher Laurel Ann is both a throwback and a spin to an overused genre. The film takes place on a frosty whiteout morning, just another news day until reports of an unruly mob turns into reports of cannibalism. The three characters are forced to bunker in their station yada yada yada but what's thought provoking is how people become the zombies. What? It's not a zombie bite, curse, or infected blood!?!

Pontypool is a good movie, not great, but succeeds in building suspense through the human imagination rather then excessive gore. It is uniquely Canadian conveying a subtle rural hysteria in a post-9/11 era. It is also low budget but manages through the power of language and sound effects, a kind of 180 on the Orson Wells War of the Worlds radio broadcast (not the Spielberg/Cruise douchefest.) Fuck Hollywood, George A. Romero would be proud.