Pontypool

Saw Pontypool, a very original zombie film. Like something straight out of Borges or Shintaro Kago, the zombie-pathogen here is not viral or supernatural, but transmitted via audio. A phrase or word is imbued with meaning which, when unpacked by our minds, renders the listener incoherent and violent. I love this idea. There's so much retreading and recycling in the films I see. It's been pointed out by smarter people than I that monsters are always essentially human. There's never been an undead element, a blood-sucking wavelength, a were-wind. The monster of this film manifests as the tired old zombie, it's true, but the concept so amazing I can't bring myself to add spoiler tags. Awesome, well done idea.

The film opens with a discussion of momentous events rippling forward and backward in time. Seemingly a threat of empty repetition and pointless symbolism, like a cheap knockoff of a P T Anderson film. Instead we get a fairly by-the-numbers survival horror (and light on the horror to boot. Except for one early jump-scare, it's more high-concept then visceral.) The film is set at a radio station, a temple of the spoken word. The film progresses ominously and sleepily. We hear of some kind of disaster (spurred by the word appearing on a poster, we later discover) and conflicting reports come in, the radio staff accuse each other of playing a joke. The usual. Under the high concept, actually, unfortunately, is a fairly straightforward film.

There's some gestures at interesting themes. In addition to the radio-station setting, the film is also set in Quebec, a province with deep tensions surrounding language. It seems to be stealing slightly from Infinite Jest, the book which contains a fascinating Quebecois film. The characters reverse-engineer some clevernesses of the writers as well. The film's ending leaves it feeling fairly bleak, and there's a post-credits coda that I didn't know what to make of at all. The two central characters are found in a Japanese restaurant talking about where there life should go from here. It feels like stylistic empty posturing, like something from a Zack Snyder film.

An interesting film, mostly for its interesting concept. It reminds me of the sci-fi films of the 70s, with their low-key exploration of a large concept, but goosed with horror trappings, to keep the audience interested. It's not a great film. High concept can only get you so far and when the film delves into character or philosophy it seems to default to cliched short-hand and sophomoric noodling. It's good enough to entertain me though and a lot better than the paint-by-numbers zombie film I was expecting.