PONTYPOOL

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’m not in touch with Canadian cinema the way I should be. For this reason, brilliance like PONTYPOOL gets past me like a slow wobbling lob-in from the red line.

Already on DVD in Canada, and hitting DVD shelves Stateside later this month, PONTYPOOL is a thriller from director Bruce McDonald (HARD CORE LOGO, THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS). It tells the tale of a small town radio station – the sort of station so small that it’s traffic chopper reporter sits in his Dodge Dart on a hilltop and uses sound effects. One blustery winter morning, DJ Grant Mazzy starts getting reports of riots and random acts of violence in this sleepy town. As the story unfolds, we slowly learn that these acts of violence all stem from a virus. Specifically, a virus triggered by the English language.

Like 28 DAYS LATER, the movie plays on zombie-like acts of violence coming from normal people who become infected. Where PONTYPOOL really gets to screw with us, is the Welles-ian way so much of the violence is off-screen. The terror comes from broken news feeds, haphazard telephone calls, and ominous sounds coming from outside the radio station doors.

The movie plays really well on DVD, and is a clinic on economic direction and writing. It knows that being uninformed can be one of the most terrifying things of all. Go looking for it on dvd…and be careful what you say after you’ve seen it.

Note: The crux of the story is that the infection is triggered by certain words in the English language being spoken aloud. What does that say about the fact that I’ve been using a still-image from this film for my podcast-promoting blog posts?