Title: Pontypool
Year: 2009
Country of Origin: Canada
Director: Bruce McDonald
Story: "Mrs. French's cat is missing. The signs are posted all over town. "Have you seen Honey?" We've all seen the posters, but nobody has seen Honey the cat. Nobody. Until last Thursday morning, when Miss Colette Piscine swerved her car to miss Honey the cat as she drove across a bridge. Well this bridge, now slightly damaged, is a bit of a local treasure and even has its own fancy name; Pont de Flaque. Now Collette, that sounds like Culotte. That's Panty in French. And Piscine means Pool. Panty pool. Flaque also means pool in French, so Colete Piscine, in French Panty Pool, drives over the Pont de Flaque, the Pont de Pool if you will, to avoid hitting Mrs. French's cat that has been missing in Pontypool. Pontypool. Pontypool. Panty pool. Pont de Flaque. What does it mean?"
Review: One of my favorite books is a book called Snow Crash and that book is the primary inspiration for this film. Now this might seem weird, but this horror film has an interesting premise; the people of Pontypool are going crazy due to a linguistic virus. That's right a virus that spreads through words, not just any words...but some words carry the infection. The concept might come off a tad pretentious, but it's delivered with enough finesse that you can forgive it. Oh, and the reason for bringing up Snow Crash is because that book also has a linguistic virus.
There aren't any big named actors here and the film has a small budget, which is apparent in the film primary setting. A large bulk of the film is shot in a sound both. You see our protagonist is a Radio host and a bit of a shock jock...this is of course a perfect set up for this film. The star of the is a man by the name of Stephen McHattie, a man who you don't know...but you've seen him before. He is a character actor and does a stellar job here, coming off as a mixture of Hugh Laurie's house and a Christopher Lloyd like character.
Now the film has a few flaws and due to the films setting...there isn't much action. Sure there is a few gory scenes here and there, but that's not the primary focus of the film. It's one of the few "smart" horror films to come out in quite sometime and is definitely worth a viewing.
[8/10]
