Monday, July 23, 2012

Pontypool (2008)

This is a movie I never would have watched based on the name or the dvd cover.  The word Pontypool reminds me of some sort of pool game and the cover is boring.

After being fired, shock jock DJ Grant Mazzy ends up in an isolated small town called Pontypool.  He's not happy to be there and is even less excited about being expected to broadcast reports on such mundane topics as missing cats.

One night during his broadcast, he gets a call from a listener who tells him an angry mob is trying to break into a doctors office.  The stations reporter in the sky (who is really in a small car on a hill overlooking the town) also phones in a report of the mob before having to go on the run and file sporadic reports while hiding from the blood thirsty mob.

A press call from outside the town limits inquires into what is really going on and asks if the town has really been sealed off by the military.  Grant and his crew start trying to get the real story from listeners and discover there is some sort of virus changing people into uncontrollable mobs of killers.  Their only hope is to figure out how the contagion spreads so they can avoid becoming infected.

I really liked this movie, although I was not completely satisfied with the ending.  Unlike many recent movies, I was actually interested in the three main characters and wanted them to survive.  The actors do a fantastic job, the tension builds, and you keep wondering what is happening outside the studio.

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