On Tuesday, Septemer 9, Canadian-made film Pontypool, a movie by director Bruce McDonald of The Tracey Fragments, (starring 2007 Oscar nominee Ellen Page from the movie Juno) screened at TIFF’s Vanguard, a program dedicated to groundbreaking films.

Based on the 1998 Tony Burgess' novel Pontypool Changes Everything, the movie is about a violence-causing virus that is spread through the English language; hence the film's tagline, "Shut Up Or Die".

It’s a gray Valentine's Day (can you say irony and foreboding?). Acerbic radio host Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) is off to work, fully expecting to argue with his producer Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) about what they should do that day. You see, Mazzy is a has-been, a onetime big city star who has somehow ended up in a tiny radio station, in a tiny church basement, in the tiny town of Pontypool.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, an upset woman narrowly avoids running into Mazzy. Next, the police and a bunch of ice fishers pull guns on each other. All fishers were apparently naked, missing limbs, and, oh yes, speaking gibberish. Then, there's a riot at Dr. Mendes’ (Hrant Alianak) office. Hmmm, we know something’s wrong in Pontypool now, don’t we?

Pontypool is the first feature film for executive producer Jasper Graham. With his father being a diplomat, Graham spent his UK childhood attending several schools before graduating to the National Theatre of Great Britain. Preferring the horror genre, he wrote a series of black comedies, before the script for Pontypool crossed his lap. Explains Graham: "There was much humor in the script. I loved all the characters' quirks, but there are still moments throughout the film of intense shock and horror."

Directed by acclaimed maverick Bruce McDonald, Pontypool could be called a zombie movie, but its elements tell another tale. Dr. Mendes thinks that the virus is airborne and not spread by the traditional means. The world that is Pontypool is about language, something far more disturbing than a traditional zombie movie.

And Mazzy is not a talk show blowhard. He is, instead, linguistically adept, we are led to believe, due to his big city background. What does this make Pontypool? Unfolding with much humor, it is an innovative film that makes your skin crawl.

Hailing from Kingston, Ontario, McDonald has worked extensively in television and has been a maverick on the Canadian film scene since his breakthrough feature Roadkill (1989) won the Toronto-City Award for best Canadian feature at the 1989 TIFF. Films include Highway 61 (1991), Dance Me Outside (1994), Hard Core Logo (1996), Picture Claire (2001), The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess (2004), The Tracey Fragments (2007), one of Canada's Top Ten films of 2007, and now Pontypool (2008).

McDonald originally condensed the script into a CBC radio play. Deciding to make it into a movie, he shot it in just three weeks, and did so chronologically to add tension while filming, with two new and innovative Sony RED high definition cameras, that are revered because of their speed. This means that the crew had to create a faster workflow system for the camera. This workflow, with the footage, enables filmmakers to compete in today's marketplace.

Pontypool’s “radio station” was filmed in an old Toronto church basement, soon to be made into condominium lofts. Once the violence-causing virus begins to spread through the town’s population, ex-army radio technician Laurel Ann Drummond (played refreshingly by actor Georgina Reilly) and her coworkers must decide whether to call for help or risk spreading the virus over the airwaves.

Actor Reilly added, "Laurel Ann is kind of quirky and laid-back. I've never been trapped in a radio station while there was a crazy virus going on, so that's definitely something you kind of have to work yourself into."

So, if the story’s virus can be spread over Pontypool’s airwaves, it could then spread to the world, right? Quipped McDonald, "It's organic, you're building on things, little accidents…You can actually weave those little things into the fabric of the narrative.”

Thanks to the combined efforts of Burgess’s tight tension-building script, McDonald's direction, and the strong performances of McHattie, Houle, and Reilly, Pontypool is a memorable avant-garde film.