1. Pontypool (2009)
New ideas and memorable characters are not something one usually expects in a zombie film, but Bruce MacDonald gives us an abundance of both in this adaptation of Tony Burgess creepy novel Pontypool Changes Everything. MacDonald and Burgess imagine the end of the world as an internal deterioration that begins in the mind and tears its way outward, spiraling into the kind of devastation that is physically eating its way through this small Canadian town. Beginning with the stellar Stephen McHattie as Grant Massey, an Imus-esque shock jock, and working all the way down through the supporting cast, the film creates a microcosm of crumbling human society within the confines of a radio station. Pontypool isnt just an effective piece of fright, but also an honest to goodness original idea that combines science fiction with linguistic theory and old-school paranoia. The effect of stranding all of the characters in a church basement where they have command of the radio airwaves reminded me of Orson Welles 1938 Mercury Theater recording of War of the Worlds. Then, like now, we are given an entertainment that achieves all of its tension and hysteria from the hushed, panicked tones of human speech crossing a gulf of darkness to reach our ears. Like Welles, who wanted to scare people, make them think, and allow them to breathe relief and chuckle at their own nervous fear, McDonald and company send their distressing message and mind-bending theories out there into the cultural atmosphere and waits to see who they will infect. This is the zombie apocalypse as you have never seen or heard it before.