In last week’s Bloody Streaming Roulette installment, Abattoir (2016) was anything but a winner. After so much promise, at the end the film just felt hollow. As I stated at the end of my review last week, I have now lost four out of my last five games of chance. I’m starting to think my luck is running out. But as always, I come back to the gambling table, hoping to steer some of you clear of the mediocre horror fodder that is prevalent in today’s streaming services.
SPIN THAT SHIT!
Pontypool (2008)
This flick takes shows us a day in the lives of the simple folk who live in the small rural town of Pontypool, in Ontario Canada. An AM radio disc jockey and his crew are working the morning shift on Valentine’s Day, with a blizzard outside. The radio show goes about its normal morning. School closing announcements, local bingo games, you name it. That is, until they begin receiving reports of what seems to be a mob force or riot beginning to take place in Pontypool. Where masses of people are trampling and murdering each other. As the snow and paranoia begins to mount, did the crew of this morning AM radio show just do their last?
I had passed over this film many times over the years. Never quite pulling the trigger to watch. No real reason why, it just never piqued my interest. It’s probably been sitting in my queue for a couple of years now. Thanks to BSR, I can now take it off my ever-growing list.
Pontypool is an interesting addition to the zombie/infected crazies genre. The entire film takes place from the perspective of the radio team, dealing with the crisis. We don’t see the infected very often, all we are mostly given is a radio presence trying to make sense of all the random call-ins and bizarre reports. The acting was adequate for a low budget affair. The actors really portrayed the tension and confusion quite well.
As for the gore, there is really none to speak of. The driving force of the film is the characters’ reactions to this crazy situation. Don’t go into this expecting a zombie film, these walkers are just infected. Think 28 Days Later or The Crazies. There is a viral infestation that is taking over seemingly normal people, making them obsessed with passing on the virus.
Now let’s get down to business. At times, this film doesn’t feel like a horror film. But all the horrific themes are present. Isolation, tension, paranoia and of course crazy people attacking. I believe Pontypool is a film you all should see and judge for yourself. It will not blow you away by any means, but this flick is a very original idea to the genre we hold dear.
Is Pontypool enough to bring me back to my winning ways?
There you have it. I think this is a cult film where you like or hate it. I really enjoyed it!
Pontypool is a prime example of a movie you should take a chance on.
IMDb: 6.7/10
ZombiSurvivor: 7.0/10
Thanks for reading boils and ghouls! Stay tuned next week as I will yet again tackle the roulette wheel of death!
STAY SCARED!
-ZS
