Pontypool, the Canadian town...not the Welsh one, is a small scale, low budget variation on the zombie movie. Effectively a four man play, it depicts the workers of a local radio station who come to realise that the residents of their town are succumbing to a 'virus' which turns them into zombie-like madmen. Then the zombies attack the radio station.
The twist here is that the deadly virus is spread by language, not by air or touch. This allows for plenty of subtext into how language is dangerous, how it can be used to turn the innocent into killers, and how words meanings can be changed...for better or for worse...to achieve certain goals. It asks whether communication, to achieve peace, is in a governmments best intrests. It also questions the limits the media should have when reporting/sensationalising horrific real life events.
Stephen McHattie (Hollis Mason in Watchmen) is great as Grant, the prickly wannabe shock-jock who continues to report the disaster, as it happens. Lisa Houle and Georgina Reilly back him up. Be warned this isn't a full blown gore fest but a smart, talky meditation on the nature of langage, wrapped up as a supernatural siege movie.
I'd say spread the word abou this one...but I won't be held responsible for the consequences....
1 comment:
This was a pretty cool little film with a neat idea.
The subtext and themes explored about communication and how language affects behaviour were interesting. It's noticable that it is only the English language that is 'infected'. Perhaps a comment on recent Anglo/American activities around the world? And curious that they start speaking French to avoid bloody confrontation. Hmmm. But then again it is Canadian so maybe it's more a comment on their own split Anglo/French heritage and language.
Still, a good film and nice to see an original idea explored in the context of a horror siege drama.
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