Screenings index

Pontypool

dir. Bruce McDonald / Canada 2008 / 95’

subtitles: Polish and English

Cinema of Canada All That She Wants, Before Tomorrow, Carcasses, Edison & Leo, Fig Trees, Imitations of Life, Life without Death, Lost Song, Polytechnique, Pontypool, Stardom, The Corporation, The Fast Runner, The Necessities of Life, The Tracey’s Fragments, 97 Percent True, Barber Gull Rub, Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight, Manuelle Labor Section index

Cast

Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak, Rick Roberts

Film description

As grizzled, utterly jaded small-town radio talk show host Grant Mazzy settles in for another show, he begins to receive strange and disturbing reports of murder and mayhem in the Pontypool town. McDonald's latest film is a deceptively simple variation on the zombie film genre. Shot almost entirely within the besieged radio station's studio, the action of this film revolves around the fascinating notion that language itself - the very currency of the radio medium - is causing the spread of the deadly virus to people listening to Mazzy. As the zombies and the disease come ever closer to Mazzy's studio, the film's tag line Shut up or die grows ever more compelling. Tautly constructed and superbly acted, Pontypool is not only a highly entertaining addition to a popular cinematic genre, but also an intelligent and searching investigation of the role and effects of mass media in our lives. Located somewhere between George Romero and David Cronenberg, Pontypool is an impressive achievement.

Tom McSorley