Pontypool (2009)

TOPICS:

Posted By: brian@brianschell.com January 24, 2023

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s a story that builds nicely and a simple setting, mostly taking place within a few rooms of a building. And it’s really well done with a good script and skillful acting. Stephen McHattie in the lead is perfect for the role.

Synopsis

In the small town of Pontypool, Grant Mazzy encounters a strange woman on the road, but she wanders off into the snowstorm. Grant arrives at the radio station; he’s a DJ. Laurel-Ann, his technician, welcomes him to work. His producer, Sydney Briar, is there as well. The whole studio is located in the basement of a church.

There’s a big storm going on, so they switch to talking to a helicopter pilot about the weather. Grant and Sydney argue about him talking about pot growers. He just wants to make the listeners angry to build his audience.

Laurel-Ann hears over the police radio that there’s a developing hostage situation. Grant makes up a bunch of details about the sketchy story, which really annoys Sydney. Sydney admits that Ken, the helicopter reporter, is really just a guy in his car up on a hill playing sound effects.

The police ask them to drop the story. The “copter” guy calls in with more trouble– Dr. John Mendez’s office is surrounded by an unruly mob. Hundreds of people are clamoring. People are trampling one another, and the copter guy says it looks like people are dying. The military arrives in trucks and actual helicopters. Ken the copter guy goes silent.

Then Grant has to interview a bunch of awful singers dressed in brownface, and they sing. Meanwhile, Sydney and Laurel-Ann try to learn more about what’s happening outside. One of the singers starts repeating a sound over and over, and then they have to leave.

Ken doesn’t call back, but they find an eyewitness. When they go to the witness, there’s nothing on the line but screaming. They finally get through to a police officer who fills them in on “a herd of people” near the edge of the forest. Some people were said to be imitating windshield wipers, and a car has been buried under a “mountain of people.” It’s all very weird.

Then they get a call from a reporter with the BBC. He’s asking about the Canadian police putting up roadblocks in and out of town. Grant doesn’t know anything about that and tries to deny that the problems going on are terrorists or political. The BBC guy says it sure looks like an insurgency.

Ken finally calls in again. He’s in trouble– the rioting crowd came after him, and he’s barricaded himself in a silo. He’s hysterical at the terrible things he’s seen tonight. Ken talks about naked cannibals that act like dogs. He reports that people are eating each other like piranhas. Sydney wants Grant to stop the interview; she doesn’t want to hear Ken get killed on the air. They lose Ken. They are warned to avoid the English language. What?

Sydney gets a call that the whole town is now under quarantine. Ken comes back and plays audio of a morally wounded teenager calling for “Mommy,” and making sounds like a child.

Grant and Sydney argue about whether this whole thing is a hoax or not. They’re both having trouble believing any of this. He starts getting upset and demands to go outside and look around. He’s only out for a few seconds before people attack the very solid-looking doors.

Grant decides to read the obituaries to fill in the dead air, and it sounds like about half of them were murdered. There were a lot of deaths yesterday!

Laurel-Ann starts repeating the word, “Missing” uncontrollably. When the teapot starts whistling, she starts making the same monotone sound. All of a sudden, Dr. Mendez crawls in through a window and tells Sydney to stay away from Laurel-Ann. Mendez and Sydney hide in the sound booth with Grant. Laurel-Ann tries to get in, but Mendez says no, it’s dangerous.

Ken calls in, and he keeps using the words “Symbol, Simple, and Sample” in inappropriate places. He seems to be losing his sanity as they listen to him on the phone. Mendez says whatever it is is viral, but is carried in words and sounds. “Some words are infected, and it spreads out when the contaminated word is spoken.” It’s more about understanding a word rather than just hearing it.

Grant thinks this is all a little crazy. “Should we be talking about this? Should we be talking at all?” Could they actually destroy the world over this broadcast? Through all this, Laurel-Ann is beating her head into the unbreakable glass of the studio.

Laurel-Ann suddenly explodes in blood and puke as others break in from outside. They turn off the lights and hide under the desk as zombified people wander in and press their faces into the glass. They try to send a message, “Sydney Briar is alive.” The zombies outside latch onto the message and start to repeat it.

Mendez starts babbling in German that only the English language is infected. Since they’re in Canada, Grant and Sydney switch to talking in French.

The loudspeaker starts playing “Oh Canada” which gets the crazies all riled up. Dr. Mendez runs outside as a distraction to save the other two. Sydney and Grant hide in the storeroom, but she gets drunk and won’t stop talking.

Grant wants to figure out a way to stop understanding words. As he works through this, Sydney starts repeating the word “Kill.” He repeats the word in strange ways to confuse her, and it actually works. Grant decides that he’s found the cure and wants to save the world with one final broadcast.

They get back on the air and tell people that “Kill is kiss. Sample is Staple. Everything is something else. Happy is Handy.” Meanwhile, there are bombs falling outside, with explosions everywhere. The two of them spit out nonsense words back and forth until the bombs stop.

Then they hear a countdown and everything goes black.

Commentary

It’s very tense, and we see very little outside the studio. The acting here is everything, there’s only one set and four main characters. It’s a weird and unique situation, and it’s fun to learn what’s going on with Grant and the gang as the story unfolds. It’s never really explained why this is happening or what started it all.

It’s very original and very good!