Pontypool review

Low budget horror that falls short of getting many screams

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Put a John Carpenter-esque hero (grizzled DJ Stephen McHattie) in a George A Romero-type scenario (a zombie infestation engulfing a rural radio station) with a Cronenbergian conceit (the infection is aurally transmitted) and what have you got?

A sizeable advance on director Bruce McDonald’s The Tracey Fragments, that’s what.

Big on atmos, low on incident, this claustrophobic chiller captures the hysteria of a town flailing on the frontline of disaster.

Conjuring an (offscreen) armageddon with just three leads, minimal gore and some alarming soundbites, it’s a lesson in economical filmmaking that only flips from ingenuity to incredulity in the garbled last act.

Freelance Writer

Matt Glasby is a freelance film and TV journalist. You can find his work on Total Film - in print and online - as well as at publications like the Radio Times, Channel 4, DVD REview, Flicks, GQ, Hotdog, Little White Lies, and SFX, among others. He is also the author of several novels, including The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film and Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting To This Is England.