Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool Poster and Trailer (Finally in High-Quality)
We talked about the trailer for Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool back on Episode 201 of the Film Junk Podcast, and at the time there still wasn’t a high-quality version of it online. This week a decent version has finally surfaced on the web, along with the official poster and full website for the film.
Pontypool is Canadian director Bruce McDonald’s first foray into horror genre, and if you know Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, The Tracey Fragments), you know that it’s going to be anything but predictable. On the surface it appears to be just another zombie movie, but the majority of the story focuses on a radio DJ who is reporting on the news of the viral outbreak as it happens, only to find that the virus spreads through words. Sounds like a strange and fascinating idea to me, although maybe not one that lends itself well to a visual medium. Pontypool hits theatres on March 6th (in Canada, at least), which puts it up against one of the biggest movies of the year in Watchmen. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Check out the trailer below and see what you think.
Comments (12)
This sounds a little like Gary Braunbeck’s “We Now Pause for Station Identification” (http://www.garybraunbeck.com/pause.html). They both have a DJ and zombies, but the outbreak spreading by works is a new idea, although Stephen King’s Cell was similar, with that tone or whatever it was that was spread over cellphones. But he didn’t really have zombies. This sounds like fun. I don’t have much experience with Canadian movies, except for Bob and Doug McKenzie, and Corner Gas (I’d love to see Brent Butt on the big screen). Was “Black Robe” a Canadian movie? I did see something on CBC latenight the other night that wasn’t too bad. It was called “Rub & Tug”, and Tara Spencer-Nairn from Corner Gas was in it. I kept expecting Greg to show up in it as a customer.
Posted by paulm on January 25th, 2009Pontypool is based on a book called Pontypool Changes Everything by Canadian writer Tony Burgess.
http://www.ecwpress.com/books/pontypool_changes_everything
I haven’t seen Black Robe but according to IMDB it’s funded in part by Telefilm Canada.
Posted by Sean on January 25th, 2009I don’t understand what anything in the movie has to do with not talking in order to stay alive. Is it a zombie flick? Is it a vampire flick? Is it a knock off of a Japanese horror flick? It does look good though.
Posted by Aaron on January 25th, 2009Well the virus spreads through words… so I guess by talking, you infect other people.
Posted by Sean on January 25th, 2009It’s a virus in the language. Look at how slang spreads through culture and talking amongst your friends. Now replace that with psychotic cannibal rage.
Although for a horror picture, this is often quite funny too. This was one of my favourite movies of 2008 after I caught it (twice!) at TIFF.
The Book, Pontypool Changes Everything, is VERY, VERY different from the movie, but it is a solid book if you are looking for something quite different and love a good turn of phrase. The book is more of a collection of short stories tied together via the outbreak.
Posted by kurt on January 25th, 2009Yawn! Just as silly as the trees killing people in “The Happening”.
Posted by Tomas on January 25th, 2009It’s all in the execution Tomas. This is one very entertaining film. (I’ll admit that I have a soft spot for THE HAPPENING too)..
Posted by kurt on January 25th, 2009The only proper killer tree film is Treevenge.
But I’m dying to see Pontypool.
Posted by swarez on January 25th, 2009For some reason I always envision a Myazaki film when I hear that title.
Treevenge is a real hoot. “It’s Christmas and I just want FUCK.”
Posted by kurt on January 25th, 2009Trees give good kill in both Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. The Guardian is another great ‘killer tree’ flick. Not really trees, but the foliage in The Ruins does a pretty good number on the tourists. I love the Creepshow bit featuring Steven King and the ‘meteor-shit’ essentially botany-gone-wild. Lastly, but not least, the trees kick some serious ass in The Two Towers.
Posted by kurt on January 25th, 2009“Pontypool” was definitely one of the better movies I saw at TIFF last year, so I’m pretty excited to see it again.
Posted by Liz on January 26th, 2009The only Bruce McDonald film I’ve seen thus far is The Tracey Fragments, which I thought was amazing. I’ll be interested to see this and find out how he handles a much more normal(?) storyline.
Posted by Alex on January 26th, 2009Leave a Reply