FILM OF THE WEEK & PODCAST: Pontypool (Bruce McDonald, Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle)

Pontypool
Directed by Bruce McDonald
2008, 95 Minutes, Canada

Canadian cult filmmaker Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, The Tracey Fragments, and my personal favorite, Highway 61) tackles Tony Burgess' novel "Pontypool Changes Everything," a minimalist but slyly entertaining take on the zombie movie—if, of course, you removed the zombies and added the most terrifying semiotics lesson in horror history. From the official website:

Shock jock Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) has, once again, been kicked-off the Big City airwaves and now the only job he can get is the early morning show at CLSY Radio in the small town of Pontypool, which broadcasts from the basement of the small town's only church.

What begins as another boring day of school bus cancellations, due to yet another massive snow storm, quickly turns deadly. Bizarre reports start piling in of people developing strange speech patterns and evoking horrendous acts of violence. But there's nothing coming in on the news wires. So is this really happening?

Before long, Grant and the small staff at CLSY find themselves trapped in the radio station as they discover that this insane behavior taking over the town is being caused by a deadly virus being spread through the English language itself.

Do they stay on the air in the hopes of being rescued or, are they in fact providing the virus with its ultimate leap over the airwaves and into the world?

At the IFC offices, I sat down on the other side of a conference table from McDonald, McHattie and co-star Lisa Houle—who plays McHattie's producer in the film, and his wife in real life. Noting that our setup felt like a job interview, I tried to choose my words carefully (appropriate, given the film's subject) as we discussed language, what scares them, the Korean choir they had to contend with, and whether New York has earthquakes—not including what we may have experienced halfway through the interview.

To listen to the podcast, click here.

Pontypool opens today in limited release, and is available on-demand via IFC's Festival Direct. For more info, visit the official site.

Posted by ahillis at May 29, 2009 6:36 PM