A
uniquely intelligent zombie horror about a radio host struggling to
survive in a small town in Canada during an outbreak of English
language spread zombie-ism. It's very low budget, and there may be a
disappointing lack of action and gore for true zombie horror fans,
but this is made up for by a focus on dialogue (as far as I'm
concerned anyway - this movie is not for everyone).
Stephen
McHattie does a fantastic job in the leading role, channelling a
Bruce Campbell-esque, pissed off, self aware kind of a character.
He's all about conspiracy theories and riling up his audience, only
now something really is happening. I found him very likeable; he's
genre aware to the extent that it's enjoyable, without it becoming
annoying, he's hammy and makes faces and has a certain surface level
dislike for other people that I find very endearing, and he has a
great voice.
These
qualities make him the perfect protagonist for the situation, as
there's a strong power of language kind of a theme. The rules that
the infection follow are fairly well laid out and stuck to, and are
original and difficult enough to remain a partial mystery for the
majority of the film.
The
writing is really this film's strong point. There are lots of double
meanings, and a lot of apparently throwaway dialogue, especially
early on, carries a lot of weight. It doesn't build tension as well
as I've seen descriptive scenes do before though, and at times the
musical accompaniment is overbearing.
It's
a good, quirky comedy horror though. It has a strong focus on the
breadth of sound contrasting with the claustrophobic little space
that it is set in, and is unclear, almost indecisive in tone (in a
good way).
Pontypool: 69.3