Paul Brian McCoy">
Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      Paul Brian McCoy
      December 31, 2018
      News, PDI Press, PDI Press Catalog
    Recent
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • VOICES FROM THE NIGHT: The Living Dead Tell Their Stories

      John E. Meredith
      October 31, 2018
    • American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia

      psychodr
      March 24, 2018
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-S
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
  • Columns U-Z
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • Promising Young Woman (2020)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      January 1, 2021
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • Promising Young Woman (2020)

      Nate Zoebl
      January 1, 2021
    • Possessor: Uncut (2020)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      December 31, 2020
    • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

      Nate Zoebl
      December 24, 2020
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Dory Hoffman
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 30, 2019
      DVD/Blu-ray, News
    Recent
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      psychodr
      July 30, 2019
    • X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives on Digital 9/3 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD 9/17

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 16, 2019
    • Avengers: Endgame arrives on Digital 7/30 and Blu-ray 8/13

      psychodr
      July 16, 2019
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • Promising Young Woman (2020)
  • Possessor: Uncut (2020)
  • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
  • Tenet (2020)
  • I’m Your Woman (2020)
  • Westworld Season 3: The New World Blu-ray
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-S
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
  • Columns U-Z
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Movies

2012 EZMM: The Dead Outside (2009) & Pontypool (2008)

Paul Brian McCoy
April 9, 2012
Movies, Reviews, Zombies 101

EasterZombie

Jesus saw fit to take umbrage with our little film festival and decided to knock out our power Easter evening just minutes before preparing to begin The Dead Outside. Clever bugger that he is, just five minutes or so after giving up and going to bed about three hours later, when the house and the world outside was dark and getting colder and colder, there was light.

You’d think he’d avoid the cliché, but what can you do?

So both Saturday and Sunday were devoid of zombie goodness, but Monday doth make up for it. Prepare, good children, as I bear witness to the artful restraint of Scotland’s The Dead Outside and bask in the glory of Canada’s Pontypool.


UNHOLY MONDAY

Dead Outside

  • The Dead Outside
  • Director: Kerry Anne Mullaney
  • Writers: Kris R. Bird & Kerry Anne Mullaney
  • Scotland 86 min.

This is a pretty special film. Made on a budget of approximately £4,000 and shot over 15 days in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, writer/director Kerry Anne Mullaney has put together a remarkably artistic and disturbing piece of zombie cinema.

I’m not calling this a movie, because this has aspirations beyond just titillating you or bringing in some easy bucks. The performances are low-key and at times amateurish, but are never not believable. The script is skeletal in its structure, but gives you just enough to keep you interested. The direction is smart and artistic, choosing to focus on the psychological aspects of the story rather than wallow in gore or exploitation sleaze.

And I’m a viewer who loves gore and exploitative sleaze, believe you me.

I will admit to being a bit distracted as the film began, finding it hard to get a footing. The approach to zombies here is less on them as walking dead and more on them as after-effects of a viral plague that first turns you into a raving, violent loon, suffering from hallucinations and paranoia.

As such, our main characters, Daniel (Alton Milne) and April (Sandra Louise Douglas) provide two points of contact with this post-apocalyptic world. Daniel is shell-shocked after watching his wife and child succumb to the plague and the infected. April is possibly schizophrenic and dealing with killing her grandparents – and anyone who wanders onto the property.

It’s all very claustrophobic and filming in Scotland in March gave it a natural bleakness. Everything is cold and subdued, with a pale visual palette that matches the characters’ emotional states.

Honestly, it couldn’t have happened better if it had been planned.

There’s a cursory nod to a larger story and an outside world looking for a cure, but this is really a very intimate, almost private film about madness, loneliness, and loss. It’s probably not a film that many people are going to give much of a chance (as demonstrated by Rotten Tomatoes’ 19% viewer rating), but this is a well-crafted little film and provides an inspiring look at what you can do with very little money, but with some style and smarts.


  • PontypoolPontypool
  • Director: Bruce McDonald
  • Writer: Tony Burgess
  • Canada 93 min.

This is a film that earned a Metacritic score of 54 out of 100 and viewers give it a 68% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That means that the majority of people watching and rating this film are fucking idiots.

Because goddamn if this isn’t the most intense, clever, freshest approach to the whole survivalist plague genre that has been made in the past fifteen to twenty years then I’ll eat my hat. This is the only film to get a second viewing in the Annual Easter Zombie Movie Marathons, even though there are no actual zombies in it.

Because it’s that fucking good.

That it only brought in an estimated $32,000 bucks during its release is appalling. It cost $1,500, 000 to make, and for a low-budget film that’s a lot of green. Now granted, it didn’t have a wide release. Hell, it barely had a release at all. I can only hope that video revenues made this worth its while, because this is a film to be cherished.

You heard me. Cherished.

I haven’t watched a film with a better script in years. The performances are spellbinding. Stephen McHattie’s voice as DJ Grant Mazzie is a low growl that draws you in and keeps on the edge of your seat with its intensity. The money was clearly spent on equipment and that’s the smart choice. We don’t need another gore-fest that will be forgotten once Easter is over.

What we have here is smart, scary, and looks good. It looks real good.

There’s not another film in any of these marathons that has gripped me like this one.

For the uninitiated, Pontypool is the story of a small Canadian town that is host of a viral outbreak unlike anything you’ve ever seen on film before. Like other films of this nature, we have a plague outbreak turning ordinary people into raving, violent cannibals. But get this. It’s not spread by bite or blood. It’s spread by language.

Certain words are infected.

When you hear them, they get caught in your consciousness, repeating like that song you can’t get out of your head while you’re trying to get to sleep. Then the meaning starts to slip and you can’t express yourself anymore. You just repeat things that you hear without comprehension. Then, as director Bruce McDonald says, “you become so distraught at your condition that the only way out of the situation, you feel, as an infected person, is to try and chew your way through the mouth of another person.”

That’s some fucked up shit right there.

The film pulls back from excessive gore, choosing instead to use selective moments of intense violence to punctuate what’s happening, as our heroes, isolated in a radio station in the basement of an old abandoned church, narrate events and transmit reports from eye witness callers.

It’s all very classic War of the Worlds radio-drama, and is so remarkably effective I can’t believe that nobody’s done it before with this genre.

While every aspect of this film is exceptional, the heart of it all is the script. Tony Burgess adapted his own novel, choosing to jettison most of the mind-bending linguistic tricks and horrifying first-person experiences of losing one’s mind to the word virus (it’s a helluva read – go check it out, too), and to focus instead on people who talk for a living having to deal with a verbal holocaust. Every character is written as a three-dimensional person with a history and life outside of this cold Valentine’s Day morning, and the concepts tossed about by Dr. Mendez (Hrant Alianak), the only person with a clue about what is going on, are fantastic.

This is the sort of film that I watch movies in hopes of stumbling across.

They’re not zombies; they’re “conversationalists” that want to eat your fucking face. And I’m alright with that. It’s scarier and more intense than nearly any zombie film of the last decade, and you should all go watch it right now. Or if not right now, as soon as you get home. Or later this evening.

Shit. I don’t care when you fit it in, but you need to fit it in.

Pontypool is the best film of the 2012 Easter Zombie Movie Marathon, and the best film of any Easter Zombie Movie Marathon. I can think of no better way to close out this year’s festivities.

(Visited 28 times, 1 visits today)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Alton MilneBruce McDonaldEaster Zombie Movie MarathonEZMM 2012EZMM 2017Kerry Anne MullaneyKris R. BirdPaul Brian McCoyPontypoolSandra Louise DouglasStephen McHattieThe Dead OutsideTony Burgesszombies

2012 EZMM: Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) & The Dead (2010)
The Darkest Hour (2011) Blu-ray Review

About The Author

monsterid
Paul Brian McCoy
Co-Founder / Editor-in-Chief / Dreamweaver

Paul Brian McCoy is the Editor-in-Chief of Psycho Drive-In. His first novel, The Unraveling: Damaged Inc. Book One is available at Amazon US & UK, along with his collection of short stories, Coffee, Sex, & Creation (US & UK). He recently contributed the 1989 chapter to The American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1980s (US & UK). He also kicked off Comics Bulletin Books with Mondo Marvel Volumes One (US & UK) and Two (US & UK) and PDI Press with Marvel at the Movies: 1977-1998 (US & UK), Marvel at the Movies: Marvel Studios (US & UK), and Spoiler Warning: Hannibal Season 1 - An Unauthorized Critical Guide (US & UK). Paul is also unnaturally preoccupied with zombie films and sci-fi television. He can be found babbling on Twitter at @PBMcCoy.

FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK

Daily Top Ten

  • EZMM 2016 Day 6: Zombeavers (2014)EZMM 2016 Day 6: Zombeavers (2014) by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Lost in Translation 353: Fan Work – KITT vs KARRLost in Translation 353: Fan Work – KITT vs KARR by Scott Delahunt
  • Django Unchained (2012)Django Unchained (2012) by Paul Brian McCoy
  • The Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about Racism, Rape, and RemorseThe Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about… by Thom V. Young
  • The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz (2005) by Jessica Sowards
  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Vol. 2The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol. 2 by Shawn Hill
  • Big Eyes Smart Mouth - Jin-Roh: The Wolf BrigadeBig Eyes Smart Mouth – Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade by Serdar Yegulalp
  • Super Mario Brothers The Movie: One Of The Worst And WhySuper Mario Brothers The Movie: One Of The Worst And Why by Steven Savage
  • Blade Runner 2049 Blu-ray ReviewBlade Runner 2049 Blu-ray Review by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Riding Shotgun: Before He Was James Bond and Lord Sinclair, He Was a MaverickRiding Shotgun: Before He Was James Bond and Lord… by Don McGregor

PDI Press Bestsellers

Entertainment Earth

Weekly Top Ten

  • Dungeons & D-Listers: Barbarian Queen (1985)Dungeons & D-Listers: Barbarian Queen (1985) by Alex Wolfe
  • The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Page to Screen: The Boys Season OnePage to Screen: The Boys Season One by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Lost in Translation 344: Remaking Weekend at Bernie’sLost in Translation 344: Remaking Weekend at Bernie’s by Scott Delahunt
  • The Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about Racism, Rape, and RemorseThe Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about… by Thom V. Young
  • Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) by Corin Totin
  • Advance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-rayAdvance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-ray by Paul Brian McCoy
  • If It Ain't Funk He Don't Feel It: Howard the Duck (1986)If It Ain’t Funk He Don’t Feel It:… by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Unnatural Selections: Two-Headed Shark Attack (2012)Unnatural Selections: Two-Headed Shark Attack (2012) by Brooke Brewer
  • Dungeons & D-Listers: Deathstalker (1983)Dungeons & D-Listers: Deathstalker (1983) by Alex Wolfe
Entertainment Earth

Latest Reviews

  • Promising Young Woman (2020)

    Nate Zoebl
    January 1, 2021
  • Possessor: Uncut (2020)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    December 31, 2020
  • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

    Nate Zoebl
    December 24, 2020

Latest Columns

  • Lost in Translation 371: Spitting Image

    Scott Delahunt
    January 15, 2021
  • Anything Joes: Unboxing: Symbiote Studios 12″ G.I. Joe Plush Cobra Commander & Snake Eyes

    Greg Engle
    January 13, 2021
  • Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! – Apocalypse Male

    Paul Brian McCoy
    January 9, 2021

INSTAGRAM

psychodrivein

Psycho Drive-In
Today at http://psychodrivein.com In Memoriam: Si Today at http://psychodrivein.com

In Memoriam: Sir Sean Connery (1930-2020)

But without further ado, here are some of our favorite performances by the late, great Sir Sean Connery.
---
Read more of our tribute at the link in our profile!

#Marnie #RobinAndMarian #Outland #TimeBandits #TheUntouchables #IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade #FindingForrester #SeanConnery #JamesBond #SirSeanConnery #Zardoz
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transla Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 362: Remaking Airwolf

The pilot could be used with the same beats, with String holding Airwolf as collateral to force the Firm to find St-John. 
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #Airwolf
Today at http://psychodrivein.com In Memoriam: Al Today at http://psychodrivein.com

In Memoriam: Alex Trebek

Trebek seemed to have a good sense of humor and did not shy away from poking fun at himself. 
---
Read more of Jessica's tribute to Trebek at the link in our profile!

#AlexTrebek #Jeopardy #PepperAnn #Rugrats #FamilyGuy #MamasFamily #TheGoldenGirls #TheXFiles
Today at http://psychodrivein.com The Best of The Today at http://psychodrivein.com

The Best of The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror Episodes

The Simpsons’ Halloween Specials/Treehouse of Horror episodes are some of the best episodes of the show.
---
Read more of Jessica's list at the link in our profile!

#TheSimpsons #TheSimpsonsHalloweenSpecial #TreehouseOfHorror #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020
Today at http://psychodrivein.com The Psycho Driv Today at http://psychodrivein.com

The Psycho Drive-In Halloween Party Playlist

For your Halloween enjoyment, here are 161 songs - around 10 hours of music for you - cultivated by the Psychos here at the Drive-In!
---
Listen to the Psycho Drive-In Halloween Party Playlist at the link in our profile!

#Halloween #HalloweenPartyPlaylist #Playlist #Music #Spotify
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transla Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 361: Bean the Movie

The plot is simple enough; Mr. Bean has to accompany the painting, Whistler’s Mother, from the Royal National Gallery in London to its new home at the Grierson Art Gallery. 
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #BeanTheMovie #MrBean #RowanAtkinson #PeterMacNicol
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Pegg and Frost Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Pegg and Frost Return in Time for Halloween: Truth Seekers

It is an unexpected treat this Halloween season that Frost is in Truth Seekers, a Prime series dropping a first season of eight episodes on October 30.
---
Read more of Mike's article at the link in our profile!

#TruthSeekers #SimonPegg #NickFrost #SusanWokoma #JulianBarrett #MalcolmMcDowell
Today at http://psychodrivein.com The Existential Today at http://psychodrivein.com

The Existential Horror of Charles Burns’ Last Look Trilogy 

Last Look tells the story of pretentious art school loser and punk rock scene hanger-on, Doug, as we weave our way through his memories and dreams.
---
Read more of Paul's recommendation at the link in our profile!

#CharlesBurns #LastLook #XedOut #TheHive #SugarSkull #BlackHole #GraphicNovel #31DaysOfHorror #31DaysOfHorror2020 #Halloween
Today at http://psychodrivein.com How That Thing Today at http://psychodrivein.com

How That Thing Ended Up on my Porch: Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated

Underneath all the monsters and mayhem in Mystery Incorporated, the core of the show is the sometimes irrational love we have for the animals in our lives.
---
Read more of Mike's article at the link in our profile!

#ScoobyDoo #ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated #MysteryIncorporated #UdoKier #HarlanEllison #JeffreyCombs #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020 #Halloween
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Nosferatu (1979 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Nosferatu (1979)

With Nosferatu, Herzog isn’t interested in crafting a horror film with easy scares. 
---
Read more of Peterson's article at the link in our profile!

#Nosferatu #Nosferatu1979 #WernerHerzog #KlausKinski #IsabelleAdjani #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020 #Halloween #Vampire
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Terrifies, Horr Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Terrifies, Horrifies, Forever Scares—Roky Erickson and the Return of the Living Dead

Like many others, possibly even you, I first heard Roky Erickson’s music in Return of the Living Dead (1985). 
---
Read more of Fred's article at the link in our profile!

#RokyErickson #BurnTheFlames #ReturnOfTheLivingDead #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020 #Halloween #TwoHeadedDog #2HeadedDog
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Stay Alive (200 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Stay Alive (2006)

Being listed as “Disney’s only slasher film,” my interest in Stay Alive was definitely piqued.
---
Read more of Jessica's review at the link in our profile!

#StayAlive #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020 #Halloween #JimmiSimpson #FrankieMuniz #JonFoster #SamaireArmstrong #CountessElizabethBathory #VideoGame #Slasher #Disney
Follow on Instagram

TWITTER

My Tweets

Look Who's Talking

Amari Wolfe
Amari Wolfe - 12/11/2020
Popcorn Cinema: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Don't know why, but the mention of Whammo Air Blasters made me laugh until it hurt. Very nicely...
mega leo
mega leo - 12/5/2020
Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
To torture someone takes a cold kind of sadism. One that exceeds rage or revenge. One that shows a...
Dignan
Dignan - 10/29/2020
Nosferatu (1979)
Thanks for that, I can never seem to nail down that movie!
RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

Large_rectangle_336X280
All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-S
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
  • Columns U-Z
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: