Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

LakiM9 The story follows Steve Kady(Sisto) as a census taker who stumbles into a small town called 'Rockwell Falls', town where the population has stayed the same for over a 100 years. I was very pleased with this movie, although it is similar to, for example "The Wickerman" with Cage, this film does not have big budget, celebrities or special effects. Its' core is a unique story. Jeremy Sisto is good actor, He was having an okay role here, role of just an ordinary guy who came to a small town which has 436 habitants since 1860 or so. The plot actually is very predictable, what you can see even in the beginning of the movie, woman giving birth, then that scene is just inter-cut with a scene that sees a man killed in a car accident. Even when they accept Kady as "one of their" they have to kill another woman from the village to keep its' population exactly at 436.

Leofwine_draca ...and not in a good way. Instead, POPULATION 436 is difficult to sit through, purely because it's not very well made. The story comes across as a mix of a typical Stephen King small-town-hiding-dark-secret effort a la NEEDFUL THINGS, with a STEPFORD WIVES-style twist thrown into the mix. Given some of the imagination that's gone into the writing (and in particular the premise), this should have been a hell of a lot better than it's turned out.POPULATION 436 just doesn't have much to offer the viewer. The film has been miscast and Jeremy Sisto is extremely hard to like as the hero. The mysterious nature of the narrative sits at odds with the violent scenes which have been shoehorned into the plotting to spice up the film for horror fans. The characters are unlikeable and there's a definite lack of pace; this should have been more like CHILDREN OF THE CORN, with a sense of evil forces closing in and building excitement that way.Instead, the film offers exactly one predictable but affecting moment at the climax, while the rest of it feels like a wasted opportunity, a SyFy-level B-movie rather than a proper movie.

MBunge Rod Serling really ruined it for the makers of Population 436, and the folks who make a lot of these kind of sci-fi/fantasy scary movies. He set the bar for this sort of storytelling so high that most filmmakers can't reach it, and they end up making movies that are nothing but pale, lame and bloated imitations of Twilight Zone episodes.This film is the story of Steve Kady (Jeremy Sisto), who works for the U.S. Census Bureau. He's been sent to investigate an apparent discrepancy in the town of Rockwell Falls. It seems the town's population is always reported as 436, every year, year after year, decade after decade. After getting the cold shoulder from some locals on how to get to Rockwell Falls, Steve finally finds the town and promptly blows out two of his tires on a huge crater in the road. Deputy Bobby Caine (Fred Durst) shows up and somewhat reluctantly gives Steve a lift into town.It's almost immediately apparent to Steve (and anyone watching this movie) that there's something not-quite-right about Rockwell Falls, but he (and the audience) basically spins his wheels until the filmmakers finally get around to revealing the truth. They kill time by setting up a ham-handed love triangle between Steve, Deputy Caine and local girl Courtney (Charlotte Sullivan), Steve becoming concerned with a little girl named Amanda (Reva Timbers), and a lot of references to "the fever", "equilibrium" and "the union of the divine".After waiting long enough to stretch the story out to feature length, the filmmakers finally unveil the secret of Rockwell Falls, a secret you'll be able to figure out within the first 5 minutes of the movie if you think about it. It seems that God demands the town have only 436 residents. If a baby is born, someone has to die. If someone comes to town and stays overnight, someone has to die. And if anyone tries to leave, electroshock and lobotomies are used to stop them. Steve, Courtney and Amanda all want out, and the rest of the movie is about how and if they make it.This isn't a bad idea for a story, but Rod Serling had a bunch of these ideas and you can't help but notice that the folks who made Population 436 didn't do anything more with their idea in 92 minutes than Serling did in less than half an hour on The Twilight Zone. Writer Michael Kingston did nothing to work out or explore the practical, realistic implications of their idea. The problem with that is, they're not as good as Serling and they're trying to tell a story that's over 3 times longer than one of his shows. The result is a simplistic, shallow and predictable film where long stretches go by without anything happening.Director Michelle MacLaren does a professional but rudimentary job. Nothing looks that bad but her work closely resembles a student film with really good production values. Jeremy Sisto does an adequate job in a pretty generic role and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst doesn't completely embarrass himself with his acting, but no one else in the cast is at all noteworthy.One of the things I don't understand about this movie is why it's so restrained and relatively clean cut. It is rated R, but there's very little violence or gore and the only sex scene includes just a few, furtive glances at a nipple for nudity. Cut a couple of minutes out of this film and you could practically show it on the Disney Channel. If the movie were smarter and the filmmakers were better, that wouldn't matter. But the movie isn't at all smart, the filmmakers aren't that good and in those circumstances, it's generally a good idea to pack in as much killing, dismemberment and naked bodies as you can. If nothing else, there's always an audience for that stuff.Population 436 isn't an awful film. It's more than a little boring and is barely mediocre even at its best. If the filmmakers had realized that, they might have been able to juice it up enough to make it worth watching. They apparently thought they made a much better film than they actually did, so they ended up with something worse than they could have.

panospcm Population 436 shines most of the times. Jeremy Sisto delivers again. His performance is very convincing, (I also loved him in One Point O). He is a very likable guy, quite subtle in his reactions but certainly respectable. Also, the rest of the cast gets the job done.Plotwise, its a very though-provoking film, integrated with a not-so-casual ending. I wouldn't call it a twist but surely it canceled my low expectations and made my exhilaration about the movie greater. Not much in the thrilling aspect there. It offers a couple of moments where you may be scared or feel uncomfortable, but only if you are really sensitive :) Also, I wouldn't call it exactly a problem but the pacing sometimes goes slower that you'd expect. Most of it though it's entertaining and keeps you guessing for clues and twists.A strangely entertaining movie with an otherworldly passing wind.It will satisfy your lust to think, doubt and sympathize with the characters.Pop/436 certainly falls in the Drama/Mystery/Thriller genre. The only horror aspect this film could touch is, the fear someone might have for the unknown.If you liked Twin Peaks and/or the Twilight Zone then, this is no exception.Don't forget to keep an open mind for this one and you will be greatly rewarded. :-D