SXSW Film Preview: Pontypool

We love, love, love director Bruce McDonald. With cult hits like Roadkill, Highway 61, Hard Core Logo and Twitch City (one of our favorite TV shows ever!), McDonald has made a name for himself as one of Canada's most inventive, daring and unusual indie filmmakers. And though he's spent much of this decade working in television, he's still making some top-notch feature films as well.

Pontypool (adapted from the novel "Pontypool Changes Everything" by Tony Burgess) is a quasi-zombie flick set in a rural Ontario town, where a strange virus is causing outbursts of violent behavior among the locals. The film follows washed-up radio jock Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie, who's also currently starring in Watchmen) and a small crew of employees at the local radio station as they ride out the crisis—and a major snowstorm—in their tiny basement studio. And as time wears on, the group discovers that the disease may actually be spreading through speech itself (hence the subtitle, "Shut Up Or Die").

If McDonald's horror flicks are half as good as his cerebral dramas, Pontypool could well be one of the best Midnight flicks at South By this year. One thing's for certain: you can expect more than the usual zombie movie tropes and boring jump scares.

Pontypool had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It will screen at SXSW as part of the "Fantastic Fest Presents" midnight series on Saturday March 14th and Sunday March 15th at the Alamo South Lamar. Check the SxSW film schedule for more information.