Follow The Dead, 2020

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day and March being ‘Irish-American Heritage month,’ we go to Ireland for this movie’s write-up!

In a small rural village in Offaly, Ireland, locals are hearing reports and seeing viral videos of attacks and instances of violence coming out of Dublin, the nation’s capital. As local authorities attempt to reach Dublin and recieve no response from their inquiries, suspicions and unease begin to escalate.

We meet Robbie. A mild-mannered 30-something year-old plodder who left his police officer wife in Dublin to take care of his family. His family currently consists of his Internet-influencer wannabe sister, Liv, and two layabout, wisecracking cousins, Chi and Jay. The four millenials share a house together.

With tensions rising regarding the news, (or lack thereof,) from the city, a community meeting is held to decide on a course of action. Unfortunately, no one is sure what is happening and speculations include terrorists and/or a cultural revolution, (and, well, a zombie outbreak, although this seems the least considered possibility.) 

The residents are divided. The village leaders are asking for cooperation with the gardai, (Irish police force,) in preparation for what may come, But others, dissatisfied by the economy and their own standings, are hopeful that this is the revolution they’ve been awaiting. These ones call to stand alone… together.

Divisions intensify. The opposing idealogical factions clash, threats of violence and infighting incidents increase in frequency, and eveyone is too busy to notice that actual zombies have arrived.

The setting and dynamics of the living takes up the entire first 2/3s of the film, with zombies appearing, (not counting those viral videos,)  not until the final act. This can make some feel that the movie is slow paced, but the building of tension works well and how people react to said invisible perceived threats plays a large role in the movie.

Once the dead finally do show up, they seem to adhere to the ‘Rules of Romero’ fairly strictly. Shambolic, flesheaters that need head trauma to stop them. Although no attention was called to the transmission of the virus, trasmission did occur somehow. My biggest complaint about the undead is the relative scarcity of them. An increased Zs screen time would not have gone amiss. 

The living characters are interesting and well-developed with enough humorous elements to have ‘Follow The Dead’ misclassified as a ZomCom, (‘zombie comedy’ for those outside the know.) In truth, the humor is just the funny/witty banter and reactions found in family group dynamics like this. There isn’t any silly wackiness about the situation itself, just responses from certain characters.

Overall, there isn’t anything too original here, just an outbreak and the fear and paranoia it brings. That paranoia and the divisions it causes does create a secondary, internal threat that distracts from the undead.

Acting is decent, pacing is good, (aside from the the long, slow build-up,) and film quality and special effects are on par with any. In short, I enjoyed this. But as per usual, I held it up to my Zombie Movie Rubric to give it a grade outside of my bias, and Follow The Dead earned itself a 2.5 out of a possible 4.0. The gives it a recommendation, not just as a zombie movie, but a nice nod to Ol’ Saint Patrick himself.

And of course, YouTube has a trailer to persuade or dissuade you you one way or another! Here ☞ FOLLOW THE DEAD.

Pontypool, 2008

  Grant Mazzie is a rebellious, big city, ‘shock jock’ radio DJ, who after getting fired from his previous gig, finds himself working the small town of Pontypool, Ontario, doing an AM talk radio program. His show consists of him riffing on his passing thoughts,  and taking phone calls from listeners - you know, the standard radio talk format.

He is joined by his producer, an assistant, an occasional guest on the show, and call-in traffic reports from “Ken Loney in the Sunshine Chopper,” (the ‘Sunshine Chopper’ being a Dodge Dart with sound effects.) And the whole show, (indeed, almost the entire movie!) is set in the basement studio of an old church.

During one fairly mundane, deep winter midmorning show, Eye-in-the-Sky reporter Ken calls in to report a disturbance of a riot of hundreds of people outside of a doctor’s office. Grant advises him to stay safe and the show resumes. 

Similar calls come in. And as reports of incidents of violence become more frequent, a pattern starts to emerge. Eventually, Dr. Mendez, whose office was being stormed, arrives and logic sorts out the origins. The dwindling radio crew must form a plan.

Let it be said, Stephen McHattie as Grant Mazzie really carries this film! His gravitas and world-weary demeanor play perfectly for the leader of this small group, and his struggle to understand the illness and come up with a way to survive it is convincing and fun to watch. All of the characters have real personalities and backstories and are quite beleivably portrayed.

The setting, a church basement, serves not only as a secure stronghold, but also provides seclusion from the world due to its lack of windows, and as the infected draw closer, both outside and in, gives the film a real sense of claustrophobia.

The zombies here are of the ‘rage-fueled infected’ kind: mindless, fast-moving and homicidal, but that is where the similarities end. The transmission of the virus is unlike any from other films of this genre - and really drops a WTF moment. 

Pontypool resides firmly in the true horror category, not the 'action-horror,' subgenre offspring of Dawn of the Dead, and so many subsequent entries to the zombie field. No guns or headstomping or copious amount of gore, just suspense, desperation, and scares.

One scene has traffic reporter, Ken, describing events unfolding around him in real time that is right up there with Quint's U.S.S. Indianapolis story... Well, maybe not. But, still, it is a great scene.

The movie isn’t without flaws, though. The source of the virus may be a bit too improbable for some to absorb. Others may find the lack of frantic action too boring. But as a scary movie in the Zombie Outbreak category, Pontypool really delivered for me. And apparently, I was not alone in this. I used my ‘Zombie Movie Rubric’ to scale this a bit more objectively and the ZMR scored it at a damned respectable 3.25 out of a possible 4.0. This translates as “definitely recommended viewing.”

But Good news! You need not take my word for it. YouTube has a trailer for it, (because YouTube has everything!) 

See it here ➜  PONTYPOOL