Pontypool   Starring: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly and Hrant Alianak Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment RRP: £15.99 KAL8042 Certificate: 15 Available 25 January 2010

On his way to work, radio DJ Grant Mazzy is shocked when a frantic woman emerges from the fog pleading for help, only to immediately melt back into the mist. Once at the station - under the guidance of his producer and her assistant - he starts a phone-in questioning the point at which we should call the emergency services. However, sketchy reports begin to come in about unrest at a doctor's house in the nearby small town of Pontypool. Their fake 'eye in the sky reporter' sounds increasingly hysterical as huge crowds of people congregate and set upon each other. The doctor himself manages to make his way to the station, where the others learn that a virulent virus is literally being passed by word of mouth. Certain words of sentimentality carry a strain which is only deadly when spoken in English. Mazzy thinks he has a solution, but the crowds have reached the radio station...

Although I'm an avid follower of horror in all its fictional guises, I generally draw the line at zombie films, which are for the most part tedious and repetitive. Of course, there are exceptions such as 28 Days Later and a handful of others. But seldom do you come across one which attempts to do something different with the sub-genre. This is one such example. What appears to begin rather lethargically, soon turns into a pot-boiler of atmosphere and intrigue.

Pontypool is adapted from a bestselling book by Tony Burgess called Pontypool Changes Everything, but it comes as no surprise that it was also adapted for radio. The story is ideally suited for the audio media because, aside from the opening sequence, it is set entirely within the confines of the radio station in the basement of a church. The feeling is very claustrophobic but as the tension builds the station also becomes seen as a last sanctuary. The script cleverly implies everything though contact with the outside reporter and people phoning in. Even the BBC gets in on the act. Just as audio does, the film leaves not only the special effects to the imagination, but all progressing events too. We are subject only to the reactions of the three main characters, as a radio forum turns to suspicion of an elaborate hoax, and then inevitably to fear of the unknown.

The publicity blurb cites John Carpenter's The Fog as a reference. Er, no. It's not even in the same league, but nevertheless Pontypool is a good attempt at a psychological horror which compels you to hang on every word.

7

Ty Power