MovieChat Forums > Pontypool (2009) Discussion > Better title: The Talking Dead

Better title: The Talking Dead

posted 10 years ago by blando3
4 replies | jump to latest

I liked the radio concept, hearing the zombie (or whatever they were) attacks described, rather than seeing them. However, when it introduced the language thing, that the virus was spread through English words, the movie totally lost me. That was such an intangible, conceptual plot point, that I didn't see how it worked in the real-world setting of Pontypool (the town and the film). The doctor's performance was laughable, and the final few minutes, where they kiss, and then shout random gibberish words on the air over a dramatic soundtrack had me cringing.

I don't understand the fiercely positive reviews of this film. Some will say I'm ignorant, or that I don't appreciate quality films, but I watched this film twice and found myself dozing off both times.

[–] kurt7825 10 years ago

the dead didn't talk much

[–] blando3 10 years ago

They actually did talk, and they spread the virus through words, and the movie was all talking, hence The Talking Dead.

[–] kevinbelmont55 10 years ago

I can tell you why you didn't enjoy the movie. You had high expectations and/or were expecting something great. Same thing happens to me all the time. Last movie that I was "meh" about was Gravity. All hype when it was just a beautiful movie to look at, not food for thought.

[–] jaf-14 9 years ago

I liked the idea -- it's just whacky enough to be interesting.

This is going to sound really pretentious (forgive me, or flame if you must), but it reminded me of the phonograph analogy in "Godel, Escher, Bach" -- the analogy was that for any record player of sufficient complexity, there can be constructed a record that, when played on that record player, would destroy the record player. Similarly, for any computer of sufficient complexity (i.e. one that is Turing-complete), there exists (or could be written) a computer program that would compromise that computer.

So if we view the human mind as one kind of "sufficiently complex computer", then it would seem to follow that there could be an idea that, when understood, would compromise/damage/destroy the human mind that understood it(**). Where it gets a little unrealistic is when that idea is simple enough to fit on a missing-cat poster, but never mind that for now; imagine that the idea damages its host mind in such a way that causes the host mind to spread the idea to other hosts; if such an idea were to arise by random chance, it could then spread very quickly through various communications media. Add zombie elements to taste and serve topped with gravy and back bacon, and we have our movie. :)

(**) insert Ayn Rand joke here