Susan Granger’s review of “Pontypool” (IFC Films)
What makes a horror picture work is what’s not seen on the screen because our imagination is far more powerful than any image a director could conjure up. More than any other genre, the horror picture depends on scaring the audience by manipulating their emotions. The subtlest and most terrifying moments are achieved through suggestion and sensitive editing, rather than shocking close-ups and gory brutality.
Blending elements of “Talk Radio” with “28 Days,” Canadian novelist Tony Burgess and filmmaker Bruce McDonald (“Hard Core Logo,” “The Tracey Fragments”) have created a psychological thriller set in the remote Ontario town of Pontypool. Banished from the Big City airwaves, acerbic shock-jock Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHarrie) is like a backwoods Don Imus, broadcasting every morning on CLSY radio from the basement of a local church with his producer Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) and young assistant, Laurel Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly), just back from serving in Afghanistan.
What begins as another snowy day in mid-February soon turns deadly. Interrupting the school bus cancellations, folksy notices about a missing cat and traffic bulletins from a reporter in the “sunshine chopper” are strange sightings of marauding hoards of ravenous, zombie-like people, babbling incoherently while invading the offices of Dr. Mendez (Hrant Alianak), along with a bizarre warning from an unidentified, French-speaking listener about virus that’s infected the English language. But nothing about a riot is coming in on the news wires, so is something weird really happening or is a hoax, like Orson Welles’ infamous “War of the Worlds,” perhaps the result of Quebecois separatist terror groups? Must obnoxious Grant Mazzy shut up or die?
Best known for his appearances in “300” and “The Watchmen,” gravelly-voiced veteran character actor Stephen McHattie propels the plot, charismatically conveying how something mysterious and violent is happening. Where the claustrophobic concept ultimately falters, however, is when linguistic inconsistency and the confusing, outlandish ‘explanation’ shatter the believability. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Pontypool” is a scary 6, not your usual zombie picture.
