PONTYPOOL: The Hughes Verdict

Pontypool (2008)
Directed by: Bruce McDonald
Written by: Tony Burgess
Starring: Georgina Reilly, Lisa Houle, Stephen McHattie

 The Hughes Verdict

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2tjxefjRLs[/youtube]

 
The Zombie genre has become a big thing again over the last few years.  Thanks to Shaun of the Dead which in reflection is the noughties answer to Scream in that it took a dead genre and made it fresh and then watched on as everyone else tried the same idea.

Pontypool is nowhere near the same style has Shaun, neither is it funny either.  This is a serious attempt of doing something different and for most of the part, the writers achieve their aim even though you get a tiny bitter aftertaste towards the end.

Its a winter nights in Feburary and once a big town radio jock Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie  ) is getting ready for his shift for a local radion that broadcasts for a small town called Pontypool.  It seems just another typical night, a boring time awaits that frustrates Grant who clearly thinks he is too big a fish judging by his carefree attitude.  Its this approach that frustrates his producer Sydney (Lisa Houle) and the watching Tech Support Laurel (Geogrina Reilly).  True enough the night starts in the same old routine, the usual News Reports, followed by the weather and the on going battle between the two!  But then things start to change, all thanks to Ken, the stations weatherman who reports seeing a gang of people attacking an office of a doctor.  Things get stranger when Ken announces that he can see these people attacking other people and that they are making strange noises that he can not make out.  Its a start of a long night that will see the three stuck in the station facing their worst nightmare, but most of all, facing what seems an impossible escape.

First I have to say that the words originality and a “plot never seen before!” that have been tagged to this film is wrong!  This mirrors the last half hour of Signs in which all the action is outside while we the viewer are left with our imagination.  Instead of Aliens though, we have Zombies, and instead of that concept lasting twenty minutes its extended to a full 93 minutes.  Its not a criticism of the film, but it did not carry that breath of freshness that I was expecting.

What Pontypool is though is a radio play made into a film.  Apart from a brief three minutes at the beginning, the film is set entirely in the Radio station and the movie is carried by the three actors on show! Its this effect that makes the film have a wonderful claustrophobic setting and tension builds quite easily in between the early parts when nothing really happens.  Its the first half that Pontypool is the strongest.  Its when the film is at the peak of greatness and shows how just words can be greatly used for horror than any blood and guts scene.  The interplay between Grant and Ken across the airwaves is pure imagination gold as Ken tells us the horrors he is watching.  Its these moments that make Pontypool stand out from other horrors and makes it quite an intelligent piece of film making.   Full credit to three actors who manage to pull off the sense of dread as all we have as a viewer is the words from Ken and the expressions of horror on their faces.

As events outside unfold, the tension in the station rises and just as we seem to be hitting a stride, the film starts to crumble and the second half fails to build on what the first managed to create.  Maybe that is due to the plot vice of why this is happening.  There is no bite or blood that carries the virus but something else.  Its quite a unique idea, something that is NEW to the genre and a new way that should be applauded  Its just many viewers will either not understand what the heck is happening especially the way its introduced by the Doctor that enters the fold.  Its not quite a Matrix moment in which you need an IQ of over 140 for it to make sense, but it does make you shake your head at first at the idea as it is a bit out there…..  Many other viewers though will find it daft and quite idiotic and its that stage that a film trying to be so different may lose some of the audience.

This is a Zombie film, but its not!  That statement will only make sense after watching, there is only a few scenes of gore but what of them is done to great effect.  What Pontypool manages to be is a thinking horror that will nowhere near please the easy horror crowd and is ambitious as it is bold.  The climax may be the films let down as it does away with tension and becomes more of a two character piece, but for the first half alone, it is worth a watch.  Its an horror about the power of word! and that is the only thing I am going to give away and if that does not make sense, then by only watching will you understand the power of the English Language!!!!

BE WARNED NOT TO KNOCK IT OFF BEFORE THE CREDITS END, AS THERE IS AN ADDED ON BIT WHICH IS JUST AS STRANGE AND WEIRD TO WHAT WHEN ON BEFORE!!!!

 OVERALL: A great little horror that plays on the Zombie genre with new angles.  The second half fails to match the quite brilliant first hour so we end up with a mixed film brimming with intelligence but just fails on the execution.

Rating:

[pt-filmtitle]Pontypool[/pt-filmtitle]