Pontypool

Pontypool is a Canadian horror and science fiction film set in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario, where Grant Mazzy, a former national radio personality, works as the host of a local morning show. His studio sits in the basement of an old church, staffed by station manager Sydney Briar and producer Laurel-Ann Drummond. As a winter storm settles over the town, reports begin arriving at the station describing riots, confusion and something spreading through the community that turns ordinary residents into a violent, deranged mob. Unsure exactly what is happening and unable to verify the conflicting accounts, Mazzy and his colleagues stay behind their microphones, barricading themselves in the studio while trying to warn listeners and make sense of how the affliction is passing from person to person.

Bruce McDonald directed the film, working from a screenplay by Tony Burgess. It followed his earlier features Hard Core Logo and Picture Claire and came before My Babysitter's a Vampire, Weirdos and Dreamland. Stephen McHattie leads the cast as Mazzy, with Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak, Rick Roberts and Daniel Fathers in supporting roles. The production was made for about 2 million dollars.

Released in March 2009, the film has earned a rating of 6.5 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 38,000 votes and a matching 6.5 on TMDB from around 730 votes, while critics gave it 6.8 out of 10 across 84 reviews. Those figures place the critics' score slightly above the audience scores, suggesting reviewers responded to it at least as favourably as the wider public.