Ponty Up Pictures [2009] 96′
country: Canada
director: Bruce McDonald
writer: Tony Burgess
cast: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle,
cast: Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak
Playing Minneapolis’ own Oak Street
Cinema September 24th through 26th,
part of the Late Night Horror Series.

Shock jock Grant Mazzy [McHattie], recently fired from a big-city radio show, is none too happy when he’s hired for the morning spot in the cold, dreary, and barely populated Pontypool, Ontario.  He’s just settled in on snowy Valentine’s Day morning when the calls start coming in…

Something is very wrong in Pontypool. A creeping madness seems to be afflicting the entire area, and hordes of violent and nonsensically babbling locals are soon causing all manner of havoc.  Mazzy stays on the air, dispensing what little information he has and trying to come to terms with what is going on beyond his studio’s walls, while slowly coming to realize that he may be a part of the problem.

The zombie sub-genre of horror has become little but tiresome since the beginning of the 80s, a problem compounded by the fact that everyone and their mother, upon discovering a video camera in their possession, seems to make a bee-line for it.  Even George Romero, king of the undead opus himself, seems to be treading water, producing another . . . OF THE DEAD every two or three years to sate the hunger of a devoted fanbase.  Still, there have been a few genuinely original takes on the subject in the past few years – Danny Boyle’s 28 DAYS LATER and Edgar Wright’s SHAUN OF THE DEAD, for instance.  I’m happy to say that with PONTYPOOL we can add another title to the list.

Scripted by Tony Burgess, based around ideas from his earlier novel ["Pontypool Changes Everything"], and directed by Bruce McDonald [THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS], PONTYPOOL is quite possibly the most original zombie film of the past thirty years.  The threat here is not of some mysterious contagion unwittinly loosed by a hush-hush government agency [seemingly the favorite scapegoat of the genre post-RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD], but something far more abstract.

The horror of PONTYPOOL springs from the most unlikely of places – from language itself.  The unease it illicits is not unlike the feeling one has in being just beyond the fringe of an agry mob, only the mob in this case wants to chew your face off.  The film takes place solely within the confines of Grant Mazzy’s basement radio station home, considerably limiting audience perspective and leaving the veracity of reports what’s going on outside [and the veracity of how we come to understand it] in question right through the closing frame.  For as long as it works, PONTYPOOL has the potential to deeply unsettle.

That’s not to say that it all works.  PONTYPOOL bogs down around the hour mark and never really gets going again until a few moments before the credits roll, and much of its atmosphere is diluted by the fact that when the zombies, off screen for 90% or more of the running time, finally appear they don’t look to be much of a threat.  Mazzy and his producer concoct a scheme to get rid of them within moments of their arrival, and it’s difficult to believe that our protagonists are ever in any real danger.  Then there’s the ending, a left-fielder that’s neither here nor there and bound to confound those movie-goers dedicated enough to stay through the credits scrawl.

None of this is enough to sink the picture, which remains refreshing throughout with Stephen McHattie delivering a tour de force performance as Grant Mazzy.  There are fine supporting turns from Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly and Hrant Alianak [as the hysterical and possibly demented Dr. Mendez], but it’s McHattie and his outstanding delivery of lengthy monologues that holds the picture together.  I’ve only ever previously seen McHattie in supporting roles, and it’s wonderful to see him give such a strong lead performance.

There’s a lot of pitch-black wit to Tony Burgess’ screenplay for PONTYPOOL [Mazzy's interview with the cast of a local musical bastardization of "Lawrence of Arabia" is hilarious] that keeps the picture entertaining even when it’s not [and sometimes even when it is] being scary, and the wacky premise will be enough to keep audiences thinking for a good long time after the credits roll.  Uneven in stretches, PONTYPOOL is still a fascinating horror thriller and one of the most satisfying I’ve seen in ages.  Highly recommended.

Those of you in and around Minneapolis can see
PONTYPOOL at the Oak Street Cinema from the 24th
through the 26th of this month.