blessphemyPontypool… The word may conjure up thoughts of the small town in the south of Wales, and subsequently decidedly not-horrifying images of rolling hills, pastoral landscapes and sheep, but it also happens to the title of one of the most bewitching horrors of the last decade, one which is effectively unique in the genre.
Borrowing from Orson Welles’ infamous War Of The Worlds radio broadcast and limiting our insight into the film’s universe to a small-town radio station, Pontypool is a film which, like Berberian Sound Studio, places the use of sound in the spotlight. We learn something is very wrong in the town the same time as the four characters we spend the film with, with phone calls and radio segments providing plot progression and some genuine high tension. It’s a time-tested but oft-ignored tactic of horror films to hide your monsters and threats out of the camera’s sight, this allowing the audience’s imaginations to whip up a frenzy, and that’s exactly what Pontypool does so well. We never get more than a brief glimpse of the town descending into chaos, leaving us in the same place as the characters, equally as anxious and ignorant, terrified and confused.
Some may scoff at the big reveal towards the film’s climax, and it’s quite an odd one, but it only aids Pontypool’s crescendo of fear and tension, and is just another element which makes this such a singular piece of horror.
(via hitsvilleuk)