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Highly effective horror film out of Canada hits DVD

There are plenty of horror films out there dealing with a widespread epidemic wiping out nearly everyone.  This could be due to a supernatural force, like vampires or zombies, or even some sort of contagion infecting humans like in 28 Days Later.  These survivalist films have the protagonists running for their lives through the city and country trying to find a safe place to escape their inevitable death.  In Bruce McDonald’s recent film Pontypool things are handled a very different, but very effective, way.  Fantastic performances and a growing sense of claustrophobic fear propel this film to another level.

Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) was a well known radio shock jock has been kicked off the air in the big city and forced to an AM station in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario, Canada. It’s Valentine’s Day and the harsh winter is getting to everyone.  On his way to the station for the morning show Grant has a run-in with some weird woman muttering to herself in the dark but before he can find out what she needs she disappears.  When he gets to the station he wants to talk about this strange encounter but his producer, Sydney (Lisa Houle), keeps warning against doing so.  Suddenly something more pressing comes through from some eyewitness accounts that large groups of people have gathered in mass outside a local doctor’s office and the mob turned violent, not against the doctor but against each other.  The reports keep coming in until their own traffic reporter calls in running from the crazed citizens who all seem to be muttering strange words. 

Many films have a similar plot, with the infected growing rapidly and the living dwindling, but Pontypool does one thing different.  Save for a couple of brief scenes the whole movie takes place inside the radio studio in the basement of a church.  We never see the upstairs of the church, except for the side entrance and stairwell, just the basement.  This setting only adds to the overall effectiveness of the film in many ways.  For one, even though the basement is rather spacious being forced inside while the unknown is happening outside is very claustrophobic.  It would be bad enough if it were only the fear of the unknown, but not being able to go outside makes the walls seem much closer together. 

The other big selling point of the film is the one location.  As the story unravels you only find out what those on the outside relay from calling into the station.  This choice leaves more of the fear and increasing horror up to the viewer’s imagination.  It even plays out much like the infamous Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds  The story progresses using only choppy audio from cell phones and all you see are the puzzled looks on the faces of the DJ, producer and intern. 

Special mention must be made of the acting.  Everyone in the small cast does a wonderful job of conveying the fear of the situation, but McHattie definitely takes the cake.  His role as the down-on-his-luck shock jock comes across perfect from his smug beginnings to his transition to trembling fear.  A tour de force performance indeed.

My only complaint is that some of the third act is a bit too convenient.  Nothing they do in the last bit ruins the increasing fear built from the beginning but it does pull you out of that world a bit.  The screenplay was written by Tony Burgess and based on his book Pontypool Changes Everything.  I really want to read the source material to see how much alike they are, but unfortunately they are out of stock with all of the online retailers I checked.  Sigh.

As for extras on the disc there are trailers, a commentary with McDonald and Burgess and three short films which have nothing to do with the film itself.  The best feature is the inclusion of the radio play version.  Originally aired on the CBC in Canada, and then on BBC radio, this just under an hour version is an audio only piece which takes place only with what you hear through the mics in the film.  A great feature, though it would have been nice to have an MP3 file for your iPod or to burn on CD for the car. 

This is an exceptional little film from Canada that was unfortunately forced straight to DVD, aside from a few festivals and a brief New York release.  Hopefully it finds its audience now because it deserves to be seen.

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