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Shut Up or Die
First off, you need a brain in the ol' coconut for this one. When I say Pontypool is a rare, smart horror movie, I don't mean the slick, smarmy, snarky kind of smart most people will claim a horror movie is. We're not talking the Wes Craven kinda smart here. The kind of smart here in this film is book smart. Transcendentalist smart. Smart like you really need to think about what it means to be human smart. Smart as in you got BAs in something besides sports smart, guys. This is the "zombie" flick for the english majors, the linguists, the thinkers, and people less than deep need not apply.
Sound like you? Then, my friend, welcome to Pontypool, a small canadian town that has a problem. Violent crime has skyrocketed suddenly and for no reason whatsoever. The only link as that people are wandering around in trances, repeating a single word over and over. Grant Mazzy, radio shock jock, and his at-odds station manager Sydney Briar, soon are surrounded by what looks to be some sort of zombie outbreak as people around them succumb to this unnamed, unidentified virus that sweeps through, strikes its victims with uncontrolled word-repetition, and then sends them into a violent mad fury, killing all in sight.
Walks, Eats, Looks Like a Zombie?
Sounds like your typical zombie film? Not quite. See, while the word and genre these days has taken radical and wildly different paths from its origin, zombie isn't the word you can call victimsof this "virus" (virus being a word that is as close to what is the cause without being exact). Zombies usually are dead people, or to be technical in the strictest sense, should be. Zombie eat flesh presumably to sustain their now rotting bodies. Occasionally, because of genre megastar Resident Evil, zombies are created by viruses or even maybe extra-terrestrial science. Or science in general.
Instead of some biological nightmare, or supernatural cause, the murdering madness is triggered by words. Yes, the very means of communication between people is the trigger that can set off all these people into meaningless violence. Its not even the same word; different words will set off different people. Like a real virus, you can't predict who it will strike, and why it may strike one person but not the other. The stark and frightening truth of the "virus" is that it can strike anyone, anywhere, and with almost no warning, spreading through the one channel that is uncontrollable by any means except silence.
Why call it a virus? Because simply there is nothing else to call it. There is no patient zero that can definitively pointed to as the source, and in the madness and mania of the spiraling situation, there are no answers, nor are there explanations. In a violent apocalypse, such things are secondary, even tertiary to survival. That, my friends, is true fear, and true horror.
Where Words Fail
Verbal viruses? Most people scoff and cut the film loose. "Too unbelievable", "too stupid", "too implausible". My only reply is at what point do you draw that line between plausible and implausible in the escapist "reality" of entertainment? Slippery slope, my friends. But forget people like that. Perhaps they aren't smart enough to let go, and to really understand the real horror of the film: taking away the ability to communicate.
On one side, you think: if you can't speak to one another, how can you hope to convey the problem and find solutions? Good luck with "small talk charades" when it comes to making "vaccines" or "quarantining". You don't know when you'll hit a trigger word for someone and send them spiraling into madness, or if they will do the same to you.
Tony Burgess, whom wrote the novel the movie is based on (Pontypool Changes Everything), explains the stages of the virus in 3 parts: the first is being fixated onto a single word and you become disconnected. You need to hear the word and understand its meaning (and it seems, the virus only strikes the english language) before this occurs.
The second stage is the inability to express oneself once the virus takes hold, and the word repetition sinks in. The victim becomes unable to say what is on their mind, sometimes culminating in echolalia or incoherent babbling. The final stage is such despair at being no longer able to communicate that they attack uninfected, or mutilate the only concrete source of their pain: the mouth.
When one thinks of it, you can't help but feel the fear and terror of a victim of the virus. Its hard to feel bad for zombies, and most will refuse to. Its a sad reality of movie "villains" but its there. But a "conversationalist" (what the director calls the victims) is still inside of the shell, trapped, and slowly losing what makes them human in the first place. Of all things that separates man from beast, the ability to communicate through language must be one of the most valuable human trait. More than feeling frightened of them, you have an underlying sympathy. After all, there's no telling when you might become one. And if you don't...its a sad thing.
Mazzy, in his last desperate attempt to prevent the destruction and wanton killing of Pontypool's victims, goes on the air, trying to articulate the "cure" he thinks he's found, berating with pathos to the military response of senseless (just as senseless as the violence perpetrated by the infected) murdering. Predictably, the military's response is something other than a nice chat, but in that one heart-wrenching moment, as Mazzy calls them cowards that are killing out of fear (a sentiment echoed in Laika masterpiece ParaNorman), you get a glimpse of that sympathy as well as optimism. This isn't the end of the world; its just the end of the day.
On the Air
But my personally favorite part of the movie is Mazzy. Stephen McHattie is probably the best choice for the rugged radio announcer. His voice, that pure undiluted honey that is "the radio voice", is part of the appeal of his character, next to his gruff and no-nonsense attitude. It was love at first ear for me. XD Later in the movie, Sydney and he speak in french. Its obvious its not a native language, but I can tell you, it was glorious. Call me a francophile, but I'll just blame it on Daft Punk and Madeon. Also, he wears a cowboy hat. Hells yeahs. :3 If anything, one should watch the movie for Mazzy, and the slickass way he wears those headphones under his chin.
Everything Changes
Pontypool is nothing like the usual murderous mob movie with its not zombies. It is, as they say, a smart thriller, and deeper if you allow yourself to go. Its a frightening place , but its a great place if you're brave enough. Its a "zombie" movie that stands as truly a tragedy, and as a wild ride. Its not for everyone, but for the ones it is for, its a perfect gift. Highly Recommended.
By Dio (10/24/12)
Images from wikipedia, imdb, film deviant, reelybored.wordpress.com. Novel and film adaptation written by Tony Burgess.
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