Synopsis: Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) is a radio disc jockey. He used to be a big time shock jock in a large market, but got fired and ended up in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario, on a local radio station. On his way to work the early show, in a driving snow storm, Mazzy is on the phone with his agent, when he stops at a red light. A woman without a coat knocks on his car window. As he speaks to her, she repeats back everything he says, then disappears into the darkness.
The rest of the movie takes place in the claustrophobic radio station. Mazzy gets on the air with his Mazzy in the Morning show, with the help of station manager Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) and production assistant Laurel-Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly). Sydney is not a fan of Mazzy’s leftover shock jock antics, and they spar a bit. Mazzy believes that making listeners angry is the best way to build an audience. Syd wants him to do school closings.
A story comes in from traffic guy Ken Loney. A violent horde of people is attacking the offices of Dr. Mendez. The attackers all keep repeating the same phrases. Loney gets cut off while reporting, and Syd and Laurel-Ann try to confirm his story. A group of repeating attack people? Is Loney part of an elaborate joke?
Maybe not! Loney calls in to the station again, and says he has hidden in a grain silo on the outskirts of town, while he watches a group of people attacking a couple in a car. A local kid runs to attack Loney, becoming terribly injured in the process. The kid keeps mumbling something. Loney wants to know what he’s saying. Mazzy thinks that is not a great idea. As Loney leans over to hear, the station’s transmission is interrupted. A French recording says people should stay indoors and not speak English, especially terms of endearment.
What now?
Loney calls back in, with the injured kid speaking. “Mommy,” he says in a baby voice. Grant flips out a bit, decides he has had enough, and goes to the front door to see what’s going on. Bad idea. A group of people can be heard repeating Sydney’s words, and running to attack the station. Laurel-Ann bars the door.
Mazzy gets back on the air, running obituaries of all the people who have died in Pontypool that day, lots of them, dead and killing one another. What is going on in this small snowy town?
Laurel-Ann begins having issues, repeating the word “missing” in different contexts in a confused way. “Mr. Mazzy is missing. Missing Mr. Mazzy.” Then, she echoes the sound of the whistling tea kettle, disturbing Sydney. A man crawls in through the station window. Guess what? It’s none other than Dr. Mendez, whose office was attacked.
Mendez, Syd and Mazzy lock themselves in the soundproof radio booth, and Laurel-Ann goes from bad to worse, slamming herself against the booth windows, getting bloodied up in the process. She may also be chewing off her own lips. Whoa.
Mendez explains on air that a virus has infected the English language somehow, causing certain words to infect certain people. Laurel-Ann is infected and hunting others to infect. Loney calls in again to report on the mayhem in town, and also falls ill, repeating the word “sample.”
Things pretty much go to hell from there. Laurel-Ann implodes, the mumbling infected language zombies try to get into the station, temporarily distracted by a looped recording, and Syd and Mazzy speak French.
Mendez crawls through the window back into the snow, yelling so the language zombies will follow him. Sydney is infected, caught on the word “kill,” until Mazzy is able to cure her. He then returns to the booth to attempt to cure anyone still listening, with Sydney assisting. A bullhorn voice from outside tells him to stop broadcasting, and then begins counting down from ten. At the end of the countdown, Syd and Mazzy kiss, and we assume the building is razed.
A series of radio broadcasters talk over the credits, hinting that the virus has spread beyond Pontypool. After the credits, there is a black and white scene of Mazzy and Sydney, where they discuss, in cryptic terms, escaping, while the scene saturates with color. It kind of looks like they’re in Asia. What does it mean? I honestly don’t know.
Review: Pontypool is brilliant. Confusing, unclear and brilliant. It may be my second favorite zombie movie ever, after Night of the Living Dead, the granddaddy of all zombie movies. Why? you may ask. Because language carries the disease. Language. Shut up or die. I love that idea. People are infected by hearing language. It’s no accident that Mazzy was a shock jock. How many times has someone read some sensational crap online and believed every word? How many times has misinformation been reported as news, and people completely believe it because “the news is always right and true”? How much information that has been spun and spun and spun again do we hear and read and see every single day? And it has to be true, right? I read it online, heard it on a news station, read it in a magazine.
Language is the infection. Brilliant.
The movie was made for 1.5 million dollars, and it looks like it. But that works in its favor, with the claustrophobic movie set and the limited cast adding to the tension. The viewer is stuck along with these people on a tiny, grimy ship that is going down fast. Also, McHattie does a fantastic job as Mazzy.
I first saw this movie around Halloween of last year, and have watched it countless times since. I can also heartily recommend the book, Pontypool Changes Everything. There has been talk of prequels and sequels and remakes. I hope to see more.
Not your average zombie movie. Smart. Funny. Weird. And I have no idea what the add on scene at the very end means.
WUB rating: Four and a half out of five WUBS. I can’t quite give it five, because there are so many unresolved loose ends.
Kill is kiss.
See you in my Netflix queue!
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