PONTYPOOL

Grant Mazzy, a shock radio DJ with a big mouth, gets into trouble with his provocative broadcasts. He’s banned from the big city air waves and forced to find a job at a small town radio station. Not at all happy with his exile, Mazzy works out his frustrations on his show. Nothing ever seems to happen in Pontypool. Then, on a cold winter day, all kinds of strange rumours begin seeping in : people, unintelligibly mumbling and wandering in the streets, a hostage crisis with a deadly ending, the storming of the local doctor’s office… All the time the authorities remain silent. Locked up in the radio station and besieged by the inhabitants, Mazzy and his two colleagues desperately try to find out what the hell is happening outside. In 1992 we presented Highway 61 at the BIFFF, a darkly funny and fantastic road movie from Canadian iconoclast Bruce McDonald. 18 years later, he’s back with one of the most original “zombie”-movies in recent history. The multi-awarded Pontypool is an exemplary example of how to build up tension and terror with an audience. Just like cynical DJ Mazzy, Stephen McHatty ( 300, Watchmen, The Fountain ) in the performance of a lifetime, we can only guess to what is happening outside the station. McDonald keeps feeding our imagination with a meticulous diet of mystifying pieces of information and nails us to our seats from start to finish !