I haven't read all the reviews here, so I don't know if anyone has picked up on this interesting detail, but I am going to base my review on that anyway. I'm not going to summarize the plot again, I am just going to point out a few details, which might give this movie a little more depth, and makes it deserve a little more credit than your average run-of-the-mill zombie flick.
Somewhere along the movie, we see a semi-wide shot with the protagonists in the background, and the focus being on a book lying inconspicuously on a table in the foreground. The book is of course "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson. For those who haven't read the book, it deals, among other topics, with the notion that drugs, viruses and religions are fundamentally and structurally the same thing, namely "self-replicating parasitic information" (paraphrased from the German Wikipedia entry for Snow Crash). Also, communication is seen as a sort of "virus" enabling the indoctrination of people.
Rings a bell yet ?
There is a short quote by the author William S. Burroughs (the author of the controversial "Naked Lunch" and collaborator on the movie of the same title) that says "Language is a virus from outer space" ... to which Laurie Anderson, US performance artist and collaborator with Burroughs, adds the lyrics "that is why I'd rather hear your name than see your face". The quote is never uttered verbatim in the movie itself, but it kept floating around my head while I was watching it.
Take, for example, any group of followers of some religious belief that are "speaking in tongues" in a group. Don't they have an uncanny resemblance to the "conversionalists" (as they are called in the credits) of this movie? Vacant faces, incoherent babbling, raised arms, repeating words or phrases in a drone -Father thou art in Heaven...- ... minus the blood, of course ...
***
I'm usually not a big fan of Zombie movies. I just don't see the point in watching putrefying corpse in gray make-up shuffling around in torn clothes and dentally ripping the faces off the barely living with gusto.
I did enjoy 'Zombieland' though, because it gave the genre a little kick in the butt. Maybe, because of the "different approach" also present in Pontypool, and with my background as an language student (although that was a long time ago), I also liked this movie quite a bit.
Of course there are the gory scenes, but probably not enough of them for the real Zombie-Movie-Aficionado to be satisfied, so this explains some of the negative reviews on here. This is not necessarily a "simple" and "rip your guts out" horror flick. Some background knowledge *is* required to fully appreciate it
I'm not trying to sound arrogant or elitist, but I could indeed enjoy the movie intellectually, not only because the acting is quite good from all major characters involved, and the story keeps you on your toes, but also for its (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) subtext that language can be abused to make people *sick*, *dependent*, *submissive*, etc.
***
Even when you're not a big Zombie fan like myself, but you do like languages and the study of them, you might want to give this little gem a try.
Somewhere along the movie, we see a semi-wide shot with the protagonists in the background, and the focus being on a book lying inconspicuously on a table in the foreground. The book is of course "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson. For those who haven't read the book, it deals, among other topics, with the notion that drugs, viruses and religions are fundamentally and structurally the same thing, namely "self-replicating parasitic information" (paraphrased from the German Wikipedia entry for Snow Crash). Also, communication is seen as a sort of "virus" enabling the indoctrination of people.
Rings a bell yet ?
There is a short quote by the author William S. Burroughs (the author of the controversial "Naked Lunch" and collaborator on the movie of the same title) that says "Language is a virus from outer space" ... to which Laurie Anderson, US performance artist and collaborator with Burroughs, adds the lyrics "that is why I'd rather hear your name than see your face". The quote is never uttered verbatim in the movie itself, but it kept floating around my head while I was watching it.
Take, for example, any group of followers of some religious belief that are "speaking in tongues" in a group. Don't they have an uncanny resemblance to the "conversionalists" (as they are called in the credits) of this movie? Vacant faces, incoherent babbling, raised arms, repeating words or phrases in a drone -Father thou art in Heaven...- ... minus the blood, of course ...
***
I'm usually not a big fan of Zombie movies. I just don't see the point in watching putrefying corpse in gray make-up shuffling around in torn clothes and dentally ripping the faces off the barely living with gusto.
I did enjoy 'Zombieland' though, because it gave the genre a little kick in the butt. Maybe, because of the "different approach" also present in Pontypool, and with my background as an language student (although that was a long time ago), I also liked this movie quite a bit.
Of course there are the gory scenes, but probably not enough of them for the real Zombie-Movie-Aficionado to be satisfied, so this explains some of the negative reviews on here. This is not necessarily a "simple" and "rip your guts out" horror flick. Some background knowledge *is* required to fully appreciate it
I'm not trying to sound arrogant or elitist, but I could indeed enjoy the movie intellectually, not only because the acting is quite good from all major characters involved, and the story keeps you on your toes, but also for its (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) subtext that language can be abused to make people *sick*, *dependent*, *submissive*, etc.
***
Even when you're not a big Zombie fan like myself, but you do like languages and the study of them, you might want to give this little gem a try.