Steve Kady is a census taker and has been sent on special assignment to the small rural town of Rockwell Falls. For well over a hundred years this quaint little farm town has seen very little change, especially in the town’s population. It seems the population of Rockwell Falls has always been 436, always has been and always will if the locals have anything to say about it. As Kady gets welcomed in with open arms, he soon learns that once those arms get around you, they never let go. But the question is, is it for your own good, or for something much worse?

Population 436 is a straight to video release that runs in the same vein as The Village and Children of the Corn to some degree. It’s also a pretty entertaining little film that can be easily overlooked.

If you judge it by the box art or back description, it just looks and sounds like another clone straight to video horror release, but in fact the story is very good and the film has a few surprises and down right creepy vibe going for it. But the thing I liked the most about this film is how, much like Frailty, it keeps you guessing which side is right and which side is wrong and it gives many curveballs as it goes along to keep you off track.

The cast and acting of Population 436 is also well done. Jeremy Sisto plays the lead role of Steve Kady, but it was Fred Durst who really impressed me, yeah that’s right I said Fred “Keep On Rolling” Durst, of Limp Bizkit fame. Durst plays Deputy Caine, one of Rockwell Fall’s finest and the first to befriend the newcomer Kady. Durst doesn’t just get a cameo role, his character is a very vital part of the story and he’s really not that bad an actor, It’s easy to trash him, but he really does a sound performance. Plus anytime he pops up on screen you can bust out an angst ridden rap of some kind.

You most definitely get an immediate sense of something isn’t right with this town from the get go and there is a midway through the film that proves that, but by the end there is just enough of a supernatural sense of awe going on that you may kind of want to move to Rockwell Falls yourself. To prove this after you watch the film, make sure to watch the alternate ending to see what I mean.

All and all I really liked this flick and if it had a few plot brush ups and a slightly bigger budget, it probably would have had a decent run in theaters, if it would have had some smart advertising behind it, but hey I guess that’s what HorrorWatch is here to do.

6 of 10