Pontypool is a zombie flick crossed with Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio. The whole story takes place in the local radio studio of the small town of Pontypool, Ontario. I'm not into zombie films but this one almost worked for me.
Grant Mazzy is an Imus-like DJ on his first day at this station. He's broadcasting from the basement of a church with his engineer and producer, the others didn't come into work that day. After some opening bits that go on a little too long they get an odd report of a riot from their traffic reporter. The newswires have nothing on it and for the first half we struggle as they do with partial information. This was the best part of the film, intriguing and somewhat tense, but certainly not scary.
But this isn't a typical zombie film and they try a different take on what's happening that plays off of the fact that the medium of the film is radio. The reveal was an interesting idea that got dumber as it went along.
I missed it but apparently there was a copy of Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash in the film. Fitting with that, I spent much of the last half hour trying to figure out if there was a meta component in the plot. If not, it's a dumb movie. If there is, I don't think it worked. And either way, I wasn't ever frightened.
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