User reviews

I was very surprised that this movie did not get a better rating compared to some similar titles that were very disappointing. Population 436 is a low budget but to its benefit as it doesn't play the usual visual and audio special effects. Actually, you don't even pay attention as it doesn't require a high-budget that would have ruined it anyway (i.e. The Wickerman - 2006).This movie has a good cast, good acting a very subtle creepiness. You will follow the main character inside a weird, cult society as with The Tenant, Rosemary's Baby, The Wickerman...If you like the genre you will like Population 436. Give it a try.

POPULATION 436 is pretty OK! It's not super original. I definitely figured out it's a Shirley Jackson style thing right at the very beginning, but it was still fun to watch this version of an old tale unfold.

The movie is professionally done, the "Stepfordesque" performances are creditable, and its simplicity allows the filmmakers to create a quality product with a minimal budget. Without the need for CGI or elaborate special effects, it achieves excellence in fundamental production values. Poorly done effects would have marred what is otherwise rather polished within its constraints.

Any review between 4 and 7 is realistic. Harsher criticism or higher praise are unwarranted.

Population 436 is a welcome change in the direct-to-DVD market. It's actually a good movie. Jeremy Sisto stars as census taker who stumbles into a town where the population has stayed the same for over a 100 years. To say anything else would be to ruin the movie. Let's just say it has a few elements from The Lottery but still remains its own movie. There are excellent twists and turns along the way and the ending is brilliant. There are two endings on the DVD, but the ending they chose for the film was the finale that I wanted to see. It's the perfect ending. And Sisto was the perfect choice for the lead. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite rising stars and he does a lot of genre work. The supporting players are all top-notch. Charlotte Sullivan is perfect, Peter Outerbridge has always been underrated, and Fred Durst can actually act. He's quite good, and that's a big surprise. If you are tired of wading through the trash that covers the walls of your local video store, pick up Population 436. It's a welcome breath of fresh air.

Everyone is a little off in this tiny town where the population never changes. It's a fresh premise and the movie is mostly entertaining. It has a decent cast and they turn out good performances. It's nothing special though. It suffers from low budget production and carries a cheesy dramatic aura with it (something I'll call Lifetimey.) Overall, it's worth a watch, but don't expect a cinematic masterpiece.

This is obviously a movie made with a very low budget and low other resources. The movie however manges well with its limited resources and its good for what it is, although obviously its hardly a genre classic or anything else too remarkable.

The movie begins well but for the viewers it becomes obvious too early on into the movie what the story is all about and where the movie is heading to. It doesn't ever make the movie good as a mystery-movie but its atmosphere and other things compensate for this.

As other reviewers have pointed out already, the movie has a great creepy kind of "The Twilight Zone" atmosphere, despite that the movie itself not being scary at all. I am however convinced of it that if this was an actual "The Twilight Zone"-episode, it would be considered one of the best ever. The atmosphere and the professional feeling of the movie make the movie work out, even though it all is nothing too remarkable or original.

The movie has a good visual style and due to the fast directing (which was I think probably due to the limited shooting time) the movie flows well. It's cinematography is good and it provides the movie with a couple of pretty pictures. The movie also tries to be creative at times and also provide it with a couple of scare moments but this mostly does not work out.

The movie its concept is interesting and I guess that it even had more potential in it, than used in the actual movie now. All of the elements now used feel rather formulaic and predictable. The movie perhaps also feels a bit like a poor man's "The Village".

Jeremy Sisto is a good 'big' leading man for a this kind of movie, though I expected more from him honestly. The supporting cast does a good job although this movie of course hardly features any of the best performances.

Worth a watch, if you're into the genre.

6/10

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Well, I was kind of hoping for a thriller with this movie, but around half way through you'll see the ending coming if you've watched at least half a dozen thrillers. And I have seen MORE than half a dozen so it was pretty predictable.

Can't say this was too much of a thriller, Michelle Maxwell MacLaren doesn't come anywhere near M.Night Syamalan and his thrillers and suspenses. The other thing that backed me off was the background score. Its always the same weird music which you'd get sick of 15 minutes into the movie. The theme is well... nice.

The story is unique, that I guarantee you, but kinda seemed lame to me. I mean a town with Population at 436 through a 100 years? You can always guess how the climax is going to be! Oh yes, there are a large number of plot holes too.

Decent performances though. Jeremy Sisto, through whose eyes we see the movie give a good enough performance. The camera angles throughout the film were average and impressed me only in the 'chase'. ;) OK, now this movie might be rated R, but the "brief sexuality and violence" lasts only a couple of sec. It should be PG-13.

Predicability and average plot with huge plot holes cause its downfalls. Decent performances uplifts it a bit. Overall though it doesn't fall into MUST-WATCH-OR-ALL-HELL-WILL-BREAK-LOSE, its worth a rental... maybe.... if you're too much of a movie buff.

I give it 5/10. Bite me.

While traveling to Rockwell Falls in an assignment of the US Census Bureau, the surveyor from Chicago Steve Kady (Jeremy Sisto) has two flat tires nearby the small town. The local Deputy Bobby Caine (Fred Durst) brings him to the town and the Mayor Grateman (Frank Adamson) lodges him in a farm, where the gorgeous Courtney Lovett (Charlotte Sullivan) lives with her mother. Steve finds that Rockwell Falls, considered by the locals as the most perfect place on Earth, has the same population since 1860 and sooner he discloses the meaning and the dark secret of their creed of solidarity and steadfastness.

"Population 436" is a good horror B-movie, with an intriguing dark story that in some moments recall the original "The Stepford Wives" and a great mystery. I personally liked the surprising and unpredictable conclusion, and hated the alternative commercial ending in the Extras of the DVD. If the viewer sees this low-budget movie with a lower expectation, he or she may have a worthwhile surprise. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "População 436" ("Population 436")

Decent thriller with enough eery suspense to keep you entertained. Went lower with the rating because I have chased storms all over North Dakota and it doesn't look anything like it's depicted in the movie. It might be geographic bias but I say figure it oot.

Do you ever watch a movie and are pleasantly surprised?? Doesn't happen often for me....but Pop/436 did the trick! A decent thriller with an unique plot, Pop/436 tells a story of a small town that through over 100 years has kept a constant population. The story is adequate, but a good background score and another excellent performance by Jeremy Sisto (who was excellent in Paranoia 1.0) is able to keep the audience interested for the 90 min runtime.

Don't expect anything extraordinary from this movie, but in a day and age where over budget movie miss the mark time and time again, Pop/436 is a rare treat which is worth a view.

Population 436 is yet another piece of evidence for the theory that suspense film writers think that everyone who goes to a movie theatre is stupid.

It starts off with a strange idea; there's a town that always has the exact same population (436, obviously), year after year and year. Most people in the audience would have figured out why this is within the first few minutes of the movie. I mean, there are only two or three possible explanations and the movie makes it painfully obvious which one is correct.

That would be fine, except that the writers apparently thought that we wouldn't realize what was happening until they told us outright. You can see how they struggled to keep everything suspenseful and mysterious, and it's almost sad to know that they went to so much trouble when the movie revealed its greatest secret in the first five minutes. Don't think that the clumsily deployed mystery is the only thing bad about Population 436. It features many of the other staples (well, clichés) of the horror/suspense genre: freaky religious cults, ominous gas stations (of DOOM!) and enough weird inconsistencies to be almost terrifying if the movie wasn't so risible.

Personally, I wouldn't spend any money going to see this movie. Encyclopedia Brown is more clever and suspenseful, and you get him at the library for free.

I think this movie could have been better but it's hard to say exactly how. The acting was less than stupendous but I can't find too much to criticize. I was never bored and the ending (including alternate) was unpredictable. I didn't find it too scary except for one scene that caught me off guard; a pivotal point in the movie.

Two CGI flaws stood out in scenes where it was probably used to cut costs. Keep an eye on the moving Jeep and study the town in aerial views. The latter may require a high resolution TV or projector. A few plot holes were adequately explained by paranoia but it's difficult to be that isolated in the lower 48 now.

Under different circumstances Rockwell Falls could indeed be "the most perfect place on Earth," meaning a picturesque town that isn't destined to get overrun. There are safe and sane ways to stop population growth and I think the whole world should encourage that. Whether or not you agree, I can recommend this film as more than light entertainment.

Jeremy Sisto plays a census bureau guy, sent to Rockwell Falls (named after the guy who sings "Somebody's Watching Me") to see why they've had the same population for 100 years in a row. But the people of the town have other plans for Jeremy.

I started watching this movie as one of my "luck of the draw" picks, not expecting much after the never-ending influx of poor crud I get to see all the time. But this film was good, actually good, and most shockingly: it was good because of Fred Durst, the frontman for rap-rock group Limp Bizkit.

Durst plays the town police officer, and does such a fine job of being cordial and friendly in one scene and emotional in another. Who knew he had it in him to be anything besides violent or obnoxious? Not to downplay Sisto's part, but Durst really stole the show with this one.

"Population 436" offers a blend of paranoia, numerology, isolation, entrapment and a little bit of romance. You won't get any gore, and you're not going to see nude vixens running around. But you will get a unique story. Sure, you have to ignore the obvious (like why the town is so isolated in 2006) but that's not as difficult as you might think because this film makes you want to believe.

Just watch it. Watch what lengths the town will go to in order to keep its population set firmly at 436. Somewhat bizarre, but completely believable.

Steve, a census-taker (Jeremy Sisto, Six Feet Under and Law & Order) is sent to Rockwell Falls on an assignment, a small isolated town of 436 who harbor a dark secret which they'd rather not let the outside world know about. Unfortunately, Steve has to spend some time there as his tires have a flat. Instantly he's taken by the charms of the lovely Courtney Lovett, he enjoys his stay until he stumbles on the aforementioned 'dark secret'

It's hard to critique this film as it's moderately well acted and the story is moderately involving enough that I didn't instantly regret watching it. It's just that the 'isolated town with a dark secret' type film has been done many many times before and there's absolutely nothing new that this film adds to the sub-genre (aside from a horrendous ending that doesn't jar well with anything else in the film in the least, the movie will bring a strong sense of deja-vu for anyone who's seen any of this type of film) Kudos to Fred Durst for not completely and utterly stinking the film up, but that's all the accolades that I can give the film.

My Grade: C-

Sisto is a census worker that visits a town that will do anything to keep their number at 436. It's a little made for tv feel - but the action at the harvest festival is a good shock.

Being a huge fan of Jeremy Sisto, I had to check out Population 436. This was very good. It sort of plays like a twilight zone episode. Nice little town, what the hell is wrong with the people? Being a big horror fan, I was very pleased with this movie. Jeremy Sisto is such a great actor, He was really good here, just a simple everyman confronted with growing malevolence and secrecy. A surprisingly restrained Fred Durst also gives a nice performance as the deputy. Actually his presence almost kept me from getting this, don't worry, he's actually good here.

Simply put these townspeople are really sick. I highly recommend seeing it on DVD as this includes a very interesting alternate ending. I actually thought this was good enough for theaters, I guess the lack of gratuitous violence kept it out. It's a thinking persons horror flick. With the terror more implied than shown. Very good. In fact to return to the always brilliant Sisto, I don't really think he's been in anything poor, OK Hideaway (96) comes close, but this is another feather in his cap. Lets hope NBC's "Kidnapped" is a hit so we can see more of this fine young actor.

Recently caught this on Amazon Prime and forgot how much I loved this movie. This was very well done and put together. A unique storyline, well, a few Village of the Damned type scenes, but overall a unique plot. Not gruesome at all, instead very eerie in a Midsomar kind of way where you are trying to figure out why the townspeople are acting strange and where is this going? The acting is actually very solid and I loved seeing Durst get punked throughout the film. Overall I strongly recommend seeing this. I'd give it a 7.25/10. Definitely a quality addition to the genre.

Until the last few minutes, this was a decent TV movie with a bit of depth. It borrowed from some worthy stories (Wicker Man, Stepford Wives, Body Snatchers and others) and developed a good narrative.

The tale explored the horrors of cults and religions. It exposed the demented actions of such groups and the ignorant hysteria that they both create and thrive on. This whole metaphor worked effectively and impressively ... until the end. I'm afraid that the ending saw all that good work flushed away for the sake of a very predictable twilight-zone conclusion. I could've even enjoyed the silly ending if it hadn't completely undermined the entire thrust of the film.

I clicked on this movie because if we are being honest I'm currently extremely depressed and just wanted to watch a horror movie. This is a fun thriller, with a good story. Some of the actors, specifically a little girl, are horrible actors and not good. It's a good movie to pass the time and at least enjoyable to watch one time.