8th October 2018 | 31 Days of “Alternative” Horror: Pontypool
Pontypool is a film set in a radio broadcast studio situated in the basement of a local church. The basement is decked out with its very own sound proof booth where our main character, shock jock Grant Mazzy broadcasts his now regular morning show. The show itself is all that he can do since being given the chop from some of the more major radio shows that, at a guess, couldn’t contain or control his larger than life personality and discordant political viewpoint. He’s a rogue and he knows it. The story begins as our shock jock drives into work; he encounters what appears to be a crazed, irate woman roaming about on the snow ridden road. Moving past this he arrives at the radio studio and immediately starts to try and work through what he’d experienced with his small team.
If you begin watching this movie cold, you’re probably wondering: is this a zombie film? Are we going to see zombies? What is the trigger for this whole event? Well, the news comes in and soon enough the three main characters are embroiled in a War of the Worlds style setup with broadcasts of the chaos building around them in the form of hostage situations and random acts of violence out in the streets. As the titled township, Pontypool, is experiencing blizzards, the whole town seems to be going into the chaos without any clear visibility as to what’s going on. In a way, we are all locked-down within our own metaphorical radio station, with nothing more than the words of others to guide us.
The craziness becomes epidemic, and soon we all realise that nowhere else is safe. Grant and his team are soon joined by a Doctor who found his way into the studio through a window. This allowed him to bring exposition as well as a new dynamic to the situation as it spirals further out of their control. Together they figure out the reason for the epidemic craziness, and the cause of the threat.
I’m not going to give that away here, but the poster subtitle “shut up or die” has been chosen for a reason.
All I can really say is that things go wrong when certain buzz words are activated. This turns into hysteria and soon people are able to mimic other people’s voices, phrases, expressions and sentiments almost involuntarily. That is indeed the last stage of this virus: where people go so mad that they try to “consume” humans by feasting on their mouths.
The film is one of those low budget independent movies that works under the premise that everything that could be inherently costly to film won’t be seen here — much like in Orson Well’s War of the World radio broadcast where you were sold on a catastrophe based on sound alone. This is a smartly executed, tightly edited, well produced film that never gets boring. You are with it the whole way. To film in the one location, create and build the tension while keeping it from becoming stale is a challenge, and for all intent and purpose, it delivers.
I would also like to mention that this movie was also produced as a radio dramatization which is well worth listening to if you get the chance. For both the movie and the radio dramatization, it goes to show how the imagination is still something that is readily available to all of us. What we see in our own minds can be as terrifying as we choose it to be.
Written by: Stephen Radford
website: stephenradford.com
Next: 9th October: Darr @ the Mall
