Pontypool

I saw a preview for this a while ago, and I thought it looked pretty cool.  After the debacle that was The Horde, I was a little wary about watching this one.  Another low-budget zombie movie?  I decided to give it a shot, anyway.
This isn't your typical zombie movie.  First of all, they're not actually zombies (it's really more mind control than anything else), but they do act like zombies, so it gets thrown into that category.  Second of all, you really don't see many zombies.  There are a couple of scenes towards the end, but the majority of this movie takes place in a radio station, with just 3 characters.
They managed to take those three characters (a washed-up radio shock-jock DJ doing local news, his producer, and his technical manager) in that limited setting and make a tense and frightening thriller.  It starts slow...there are unconfirmed reports of a riot.  Their "chopper reporter" calls in to keep them abreast of the situation, and eventually starts giving reports of murder and cannibalism.  You can probably guess where it goes from there.
The ending wasn't great, but the rest of the movie was fantastic.  I was surprised by how much I liked this movie.

Rating: 4 stars

The Horde

I can't remember where I heard about this movie, but just look at that cover.  It looks fantastic, right?  Well, as The Zombie Diaries showed, you can't judge a low-budget zombie movie by its cover.
Really, this should have been a great movie.  It follows a group of police officers who decide to avenge their fallen comrade by killing the people who killed him.  Once they get to the building, the dead start coming back to life.  These aren't Romero's zombies.  They're undead, but they run, and they have superhuman strength.  The cops team up with the criminals in an attempt to survive.
Sounds good, right?
There are some decent scenes, but this movie just kind of annoyed me.  There wasn't much logic to the character's actions.  Their entire plan was to get out of the building...but they saw that the streets were filled with zombies.  So...you get out of the building.  Then what?  They never thought about that.  In one scene towards the end, the zombies apparently don't realize that they can climb on top of a car, which leads to a ton of zombies standing around getting shot and butchered (in a scene very close to this one, we actually see a zombie jumping over a pile of bodies to reach its prey).
And the characters were awful.  One of them seems to change midway through the movie, for no apparent reason.  None of them were likable.
The dialogue was terrible.  The acting might have been worse.
I didn't hate it, but I was pretty bored for most of the movie.
I was having such good luck with movies so far, it was about time I didn't like one.

Rating: 2 stars

Tonight is Pontypool, and I'm not sure where I'm going from there.  I was thinking of watching the original Halloween series...but I'm also thinking about watching the first couple Rob Zombie movies (House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects).  If anyone is actually reading this blog, I'd love to hear any thoughts.