"Pontypool"....anyone seen it yet???

[GRMonLI]

And would you consider it a zombie movie?

I just started watching it.

[mpokera]

I have seen it several times. I enjoyed it, they did a very good job of creating a truly creepy atmosphere and a generated some real scary tension with what had to have been almost NO budget at all.

As for the question about whether its a zombie movie? It certainly doesnt fit the GAR/TWD canon. The creatures arent dead at all, its much more similar to 28 days later infecteds. Is that a zombie movie? Personally I dont think so, dsnt mean it cant be scary and a good time to watch zombies to me are reanimated corpses.

[EvilNed]

Watched it and really liked it. A zombiefilm? Yeah, I think so.

But I'm also of the school of thought that considers 28 Days/Weeks Later to be zombie movies. Just because they're not GAR zombies doesn't mean they're not zombies.

A comparison that comes to mind immediately is Pontypool and Dead Air. Pontypool is of course the superior film.

[clanglee]

Yeah, it was really good. . . .the whole "language becoming infected" thing was a bit hard to swallow, but they made it plausible. And yeah, I consider it a zombie movie.

[GRMonLI]

Well I finished it...and i liked but...but I am not really sure I "got it" LOL LOL LOL

[wayzim]

Yeah, it was really good. . . .the whole "language becoming infected" thing was a bit hard to swallow, but they made it plausible. And yeah, I consider it a zombie movie.

Not at all ... or maybe it's because I grew up during a time when Subliminal ( in ad work and other media; like, say, The Exorcist - for example ) was an art form .
There was also a brit film called Breakfast At The Manchester Morgue (74)which accidently woke the Dead with sonic waves.

Pontypool, on the other hand, refreshed it with a nice little twist.

It's always fun to watch Stephen McHattie(most notably recent in Watchmen, and I remember him from a 70's maxi series called Centennial ) and I really liked Lisa Houle (who's married to McHattie ) as Sidney Briar.
And I loved the little Sin City style film noir coda. Just hope the sequel brings us something new.

Is it a Zombie pix, you betcha. Folks put into a trancelike state? That qualifies under some definitions.

Wayne Z

[BOBSMITH]

I haven't seen the film yet but I'd like to get a copy on DVD.

[Eyebiter]

Thread from last year http://forum.homepageofthedead.com/showthread.php?17045-pontypool&highlight=pontypool

[snowwarrior]

I live about 30 minutes from Pontypool Ontario. I took a drive through there last summer and took some photos. If I can find them I'll post them. Not much to see there, it wasn't filmed on location. There's only one church in town so that's probably where the radio station is supposed to be. There's also an old grain elevator there and that would be where the traffic reporter was broadcasting from. Where's those damn photos?

[snowwarrior]

Ok here's some pics of my "exciting" trip to Pontypool!

[bd2999]

I liked it. It could have done some things better but I thought the idea for the cause of the infection was fairly novel and would be apocalyptic if it occured. So that was cool. I also liked all the performances and the atmosphere of the movie. It relaly has a feel to it that goes from work as usual to how are we going to get out of this, to we can fix it all then everything is taken away. I just really digged the atmosphere.

[zomtom]

Just reading this thread has made me want to watch this again. I haven't watched it in over a year. Good movie. I guess I'll get that dvd now and have a drink.

[ZombieGrrL]

I loved Pontypool. I was thinking about it a couple of weeks ago & keep meaning to watch it again. It's a different type of zombie film - more psychological, which I think is fantastic. After I watched it I was thinking about it for days.

[Philly_SWAT]

A comparison that comes to mind immediately is Pontypool and Dead Air. Pontypool is of course the superior film.
I agree that Pontypool is better than Dead Air, which is weird seeing as Johnny and Barbara from Night '90 are the stars.

[MikePizzoff]

But I'm also of the school of thought that considers 28 Days/Weeks Later to be zombie movies. Just because they're not GAR zombies doesn't mean they're not zombies.


:mad: Don't get me started!

[EvilNed]

I agree that Pontypool is better than Dead Air, which is weird seeing as Johnny and Barbara from Night '90 are the stars.

Yeah. But Night 90 isn't really that good.

[Neil]

yeah. But night 90 isn't really that good.
:poke:

I love it!

[Mr.G]

Yeah. But Night 90 isn't really that good.

What? Mr. G dislikes! Some of the dialogue should have been updated but IMO it's a minor classic!

[EvilNed]

Yeah? Well you guys are WRONG!

[Neil]

Love the feel of the film! The opening is excellent!

But the overall premise just doesn't quite work IMHO. Shame! But a nice, well put togethor ride!

[MikePizzoff]

Yeah. But Night 90 isn't really that good.

Alright, now I really got a bone to pick with you!

[Danny]

Just watched this, i really enjoyed it. It felt like 30 days of night meets right at your door in terms of vibe. Lovely camerawork, very fluid but the more things get chaotic the more erratic it gets. i really dug the directing the male lead was brilliant.

[Neil]

Just watched this, i really enjoyed it. It felt like 30 days of night meets right at your door in terms of vibe. Lovely camerawork, very fluid but the more things get chaotic the more erratic it gets. i really dug the directing the male lead was brilliant.

I thought the opening scene with the oscilloscope was awesome at setting the feel...

Just a shame IMHO the overall premise didn't quite work...

[Danny]

I thought the opening scene with the oscilloscope was awesome at setting the feel...

Just a shame IMHO the overall premise didn't quite work...

didnt care, was enthralled to the end like a great outer limits episode. we see little violence, one moment of gore. the rest is people sitting and talking and how f*cking effective was it regardless of that? thats commendable shit son.

[MinionZombie]

didnt care, was enthralled to the end like a great outer limits episode. we see little violence, one moment of gore. the rest is people sitting and talking and how fucking effective was it regardless of that? thats commendable shit son.

Agreed.

Stephen McHattie (the lead) was boss in this flick too.

[Danny]

Agreed.

Stephen McHattie (the lead) was boss in this flick too.

reading his imdb he played the adult rosemarys baby in the seqeul to rosemarys baby. and there was a f*cking sequel to rosemarys baby! :eek:

[Neil]

ioAk3EfZMAg

LOVE IT!

[ZombieGrrL]

didnt care, was enthralled to the end like a great outer limits episode. we see little violence, one moment of gore. the rest is people sitting and talking and how f*cking effective was it regardless of that? thats commendable shit son.

Totally agree... not many movies can do that!

[shootemindehead]

Have you seen Pontypool
And would you consider it a zombie movie?

I just started watching it.

Yes and no.

It was ok and did well with it's limited budget. But it fizzled out in the second half and I couldn't accept the "language is a virus" hook. So, in the end it just an ok film, nothing special though.

[ZombieKeeper]

Looks good. I have it on netflix and will wait for it to be released.

[JDFP]

Didn't really care for it at all. I liked the general idea of the film as it's solid, but the whole "English is a virus!" thing was just 'meh' to me. Why not Chinese or Swahili or another language with "infected" words? Just don't get it. I do give kudos for not over-saturating the film with bad CGI (which is 90% of CGI anyway if you ask me) and I appreciate a film where stuff isn't blowing up every five minutes, but I just thought it kinda fell flat.

j.p.

[Neil]

Didn't really care for it at all. I liked the general idea of the film as it's solid, but the whole "English is a virus!" thing was just 'meh' to me. Why not Chinese or Swahili or another language with "infected" words? Just don't get it. I do give kudos for not over-saturating the film with bad CGI (which is 90% of CGI anyway if you ask me) and I appreciate a film where stuff isn't blowing up every five minutes, but I just thought it kinda fell flat.

j.p.

Sort of agree! The style was brilliant, but the crux of the story just didn't work for me!

[Mike70]

i absolutely loved "pontypool." just the kind of stripped down thing i go for.

not in anyway comparing it to hitchcock but it reminds me of those great flicks like "lifeboat" and "rope." you have a very small cast in a small space and you don't really know much about who is who and what is really going on.

plus, being a total philology geek, the idea of a language becoming infected fascinates me.

the thing i'd like to see explored more is if the infection can jump languages which share words. for instance, in the flick speaking french was safe but what about the words that are the same in french and english, there are more of them than you might think. if understanding the word causes the infection to activate, then wouldn't there be a risk that cognates could spread the infection from one language to another.

i'd be safe for a bit: je parle francais depuis quatre ans.

and what if a word like "computer" which is pretty much the same in every language is infected? problems could ensue...

i could go on about "pontypool" and its language aspects for 6 posts, but won't.

[Neil]

i absolutely loved "pontypool." just the kind of stripped down thing i go for.

not in anyway comparing it to hitchcock but it reminds me of those great flicks like "lifeboat" and "rope." you have a very small cast in a small space and you don't really know much about who is who and what is really going on.

plus, being a total philology geek, the idea of a language becoming infected fascinates me.

the thing i'd like to see explored more is if the infection can jump languages which share words. for instance, in the flick speaking french was safe but what about the words that are the same in french and english, there are more of them than you might think. if understanding the word causes the infection to activate, then wouldn't there be a risk that cognates could spread the infection from one language to another.

i'd be safe for a bit: je parle francais depuis quatre ans.

and what if a word like "computer" which is pretty much the same in every language is infected? problems could ensue...

i could go on about "pontypool" and its language aspects for 6 posts, but won't.
The overall premise of the story bugged me. But I loved the production itself :)

[LouCipherr]

I liked the general idea of the film as it's solid, but the whole "English is a virus!" thing was just 'meh' to me.


Sort of agree! The style was brilliant, but the crux of the story just didn't work for me!

I'm in this camp too. Saw the flick, it wasn't "bad" but it wasn't anything brilliant, either. Was an enjoyable watch though.. I, like others, just couldn't latch onto the "language is a virus" thing. A bit too Chong ("far out, man!") for me.

[MinionZombie]

The premise is a little troublesome, but the execution otherwise is great - I really enjoyed watching it, but mostly for Stephen McHattie's excellent performance. :cool:

[Christopher Jon]

They did a pretty good job of containing the story to a single location but damnit, I need something to happen eventually. Yep, I got bored and didn't finish it. Maybe it picked up at the end, I dunno. At least it wasn't shot on an iphone.

[LouCipherr]

I really enjoyed watching it, but mostly for Stephen McHattie's excellent performance. :cool:

Yeah, he did put forth an excellent performance in the flick, I gotta give him that. ;)

[Neil]

The premise is a little troublesome, but the execution otherwise is great - I really enjoyed watching it, but mostly for Stephen McHattie's excellent performance. :cool:

...and the opening sequence is awesome!

ioAk3EfZMAg

[MikePizzoff]

Thought it started out pretty cool, but like it has been said six hundred times here, the whole explanation for the outbreak was very "Uh... what? Really?"

But, overall, I did enjoy it. Would probably see it again.

[Ragnarr]

Own it on dvd. Nice isolated feel to the flick in general, but the thought/word association aspect of the disease was a bit out there. I would include the movie as a z-flick even though it was kind of weird.

[AcesandEights]

Finally saw it and really enjoyed the film. I watched it alone this morning while the wife was out and glad for it--the film was easier to focus on without sharing the premise with any other viewers. Some good, fun ideas in the film and the cast sold it in excellent fashion.

[JonOfTheShred]

I've said it before on this forum, I'm a pretty big fan of this movie. It took zombies in an interesting new direction. The acting is spot-on, and there's a good slice of comedy in it to keep it from getting too dull, seeing as how it's all in one location.

Zombies talking NEVER works, but this....this DID work for me. The fact that all they can do is repeat each other, not really communicating but just spouting nonsense in a hive-mind type fashion was really unsettling and creepy, when they finally started to attack the radio station.

The spreading of the zombie plague through language is a very interesting concept. It could've been explained more thoroughly, but I guess they left that up to a potential sequel. (Google 'Pontypool sequel', it's an idea being tossed around and mulled over. Not sure if it's confirmed yet, but it seems likely.)


Yeah. But Night 90 isn't really that good.

Ya buncha yo-yo's!

Night '90 is one of my personal favorites!

[AcesandEights]

Night '90 is one of my personal favorites!

:thumbsup: I completely agree. It's not what one might call very ambitious, but it does what it set out to do very, very well.

[JonOfTheShred]

:thumbsup: I completely agree. It's not what one might call very ambitious, but it does what it set out to do very, very well.

Yup. Definitively creepy atmosphere and a great update to the original.
The 'epilogue' was also great, especially how it tied into Dawn. (Helicopter = Roger, Peter, Francine, and Stephen. The part of Dawn they're flying over the rednecks. "They're enjoying themselves!"
Some of the best 'character' zombies ever made. The two zombies in the cemetery. Uncle Rege. The zombie immobilized at the legs, creepily crawling in place.
And, of course, the awesome sound track.

Only thing lacking, really, was more gore...meatier headshots, a surplus of blood. Imagine Night '90 with the gore of Day of the Dead?

[Sammich]

Pontypool was on satelite again a couple weeks ago and could only get through about 20 minutes before I turned to something else. I still think the film maker's social commentary was about the Quebec Secessionist movement vs. english speaking Canadians, who by mere usage of the language, want to be and are no different from violent, murderous and mindless Americans.

IMO, Dead Air was a much better "radio host" zombie movie.

[Trin]

It was not a bad movie. The atmosphere was good and I liked the characters. I enjoyed the tension and the "trapped in" feeling.

I did not mind the premise but it was very poorly executed.


The idea that language could lead to some mental state is not implausible. Plenty of sounds and sound combinations have been proven to alter mental state. But a "virus" that "infects" language is hard to swallow.

But even that was within my ability to suspend disbelief. Where it failed was when the people started to figure out things that were way beyond what was immediately obvious or derivable from their situation. The character of the doctor was awful. He either needed to enter the scene knowing things based on his medical observations or he needed to just not know stuff. His figuring it out during the scenes was implausible. And what he was observing could've led to many disfferent conclusions.

They also kept violating their own semi-established rules. The DJ guy started to succumb to the "virus" ... then didn't. Which conflicted with it being an infection that spreads. They could seemingly talk all they wanted without becoming infected, yet outsiders got infected with one stray word.

It was just poorly thought out.

[acealive1]

good movie, but its no dead air