Pontypool

Although sometimes I dismiss horror movies or romantic comedies as unoriginal and sticking to formula, sometimes I find one that is fresh and new. This one, Pontypool, poses a new form of horror--words.


In a little Canadian town, a talk radio host Grant (Stephen McHattie) broadcasts on Valentine's Day. While on the way to work he was accosted by a woman who seemed to ask for help but disappeared into the dark. The traffic reporter for the station reports on a mob attacking a doctor's office. Grant, his producer Sydney (Lisa Houle) and assistant Laurel Ann (Georgina Reilly) keep tabs on this story. Traffic guy continues to report on this during the morning, and since we only get his reports audibly, he describes odd behavior and grisly killings among the crowd, so bad that he himself has to hide in a grain silo. Suddenly the airwaves are appropriated by someone speaking in French. Grant's team translates the message and he reads it to his audience, which warns everyone not to speak in English, not use endearments, speak only to children, and above all, NOT translate the message--too late becuase Grant has already done this last thing.

As the strange day continues, they get more reports of odd behavior, zombielike citizens repeating the same words, people being attacked and bitten by others. Laurel Ann begins to act weird too, and Grant and Sydney hole themselves up in the more secure broadcast booth. The doctor who was being attacked crawls through a window and joins them, saying that he has seen early signs of this behavior for a few weeks. He, Grant and Sydney, through discussion and trial and error, discover that the English language somehow has become a virus, with certain words affecting the brain, and turning people into feeding zombies. The trio talk to each other in pidgin French to figure a way out.

While this concept is a little hard to describe accurately and believably, I think the film does a good job doing it. Physically though I don't see how this can happen to the human brain, but it probably is the most inventive horror idea I've seen in a long time. The zombie goriness got a little too typically bloody. From other reviews I've read that it is somewhat satirical in attacking the English language, but not knowing how political this is in Canada I don't have much reference (I know Quebec wanted to secede from Canada for this and other reasons).

McHattie with his wrinkled, aging face is good as the blasé radio host who feels a little too big for his market, often trying to add something more shocking to his broadcasts. Houle's character has more things to worry about, in addition to holding things together at the station, she also has to manage her home life via phone--calmin her children's fear of divorce even though the craziness is escalating. There were times when the panic was showing on her face but she tried to remain calm on the phone. This fear brings Grant to her side more sympathetically later in the story, where before he was constantly trying to push her buttons. The doctor (Hrant Alianak) acted too absent-minded and academic for a small town like this, and his understanding of the medical situation seemed too easily gotten at with little intrinsic evidence. The assistant had some backstory in that she was previously in the military, if she had a larger presence in the movie this could have played out more.

Most of the action takes place at the station so it is like a little stage play or box closing in, elevating the claustrophobic danger they are facing.


The film ends with Grant and Sydney's fate a little ambiguous. There is supposed to be two more films coming about Pontypool which I'm interested in checking out.