Population 436 (2006)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

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.

I was entertained. I do not know much about the actors. I was looking forward to it since it gave a mystery movie vibe and yeah I love old fashioned mysteries. There are not many horror elements. And whatever horror elements are there, the impact is less but it works as a old fashioned mystery novel type movie. The setting is impressive. The main girl looks like Megan fox, sort of a turnoff because she looked like somebody who didn't really fit in with the movie. Probably someone less model-like would have fit the role. A girl who has the next door look, for example. And I don't think her acting is anything to rave about anyway. The main guy is OK. But my favourite actor was actually Fred Durst! Who knew LOL! He does the job pretty well. I actually didn't recognize him but I thought "I have seen this guy somewhere", I couldn't place him. One thing I did like about this film is how it ignored one cliché, that of the friend character.Like in certain films, the Fred durst character turns out to be a two face sort of a character where he turns out to be negative because of his experiences. But in this movie he still appears a guy who has not lost his innocence and who still cares about his friend despite everything the main guy did. The main guy was a jerk IMO. But yeah overall the movie has borrowed from many sources and sticks to the predictable script. But I still thought it was a good effort and it delivers when it comes to the suspense part. 7/10

I must say that reading the plot synopsis, I had high expectations from Population 436. The main gist and idea of the story sounded original and promising, plus I've never had the chance to see Fred Durst act outside Limp Bizkit's music videos.Unfortunately, the film didn't follow through. The main idea was the only thing original about it, everything else was cliché to the point of boredom. The turning of events was predictable and seemed uninspired, the characters were replicas of other characters from other such films (like The Village), and even what some might call "the twist" was obvious and without any surprises. As Horror fans, when we're able to anticipate the next move, it means the film isn't that good, that's my personal opinion.As for the acting? Charlotte Sullivan was beautiful, and that was the only thing that shined above others. The rest were regular actors with regular acting, Fred Durst was nothing special, and neither was the cinematography. I personally feel that this film really didn't live up to the potential it had, which is unfortunate.All in all? The film was fun to watch, the characters were relatable and the story managed to get you emotionally involved. But not in any way better than thousands of films I could have watched instead. So I guess this film is recommended to those who haven't yet had much experience with the Horror genre, or that aren't looking for anything special but rather just something to kill 85 minutes.

We've seen similar films before. Single person traveling alone ends up in small community where news travels fast of the new stranger. Townfolk watching in a conspirational manner. Everyone acting as though their town is the very best place to live. This film is a variation of that theme so it feels somewhat familiar. The acting is good and even though we may be able to figure out what is going to happen this is an effective little film. It's just enough tension to keep you interested and rooting for the hero. It is a bit disturbing to think about what is happening with some of the locals but not too gruesome or horrible. I would say the weakest part is probably the editing or how some scenes end rather abruptly.