Pontypool (2008)
Starring Stephen McHattie & Lisa Houle
Directed by Bruce McDonald
Written by Tony Burgess

 

Mazzy, who hosts "Mazzy in the Morning", seems amped up, wired on frustration and ready to spew his thoughts out through the airwaves. He wants to shake up the listeners, rock the boat a little and maybe even piss off a few people in the process. This take no prisoners approach comes to the dismay of his producer Sydney (Lisa Houle) who simply wants to keep his "Mazzy-ness" at a respectable level 5 as opposed to the level 10 she is witnessing.

Looking at Mazzy you know he is going to be somewhat of a rebel because he possesses the stereotypical accoutrements of a rebel. He wears a black cowboy hat, he swears, and he pours booze into his morning coffee. His road weary face is like a map, every line and crevice representing a life event that just didn't go as planned. The destination? The town of lost dreams and failed relationships. It just oozes from his pores. His smooth as silk voice suffers the slight twinge of a years-long addiction to Marlboros. Mazzy wants more than to just be a "bad boy" though. He wants to be heard and luckily, for the town of PONTYPOOL, he actually has something to say.

Producer Sydney is a buzzkill of sorts and desperately wants Mazzy to keep it on topic. A safe topic. The woman who pounded on his window that morning begs him to ask his viewers the question, "When do you call 911?".  The real entertainment during the show though is what the radio audience isn't privy to. Lightning quick dialog about small town people, pot and global warming is a bit off putting at first but listening to Sydney feed words into Mazzy's headset, things in which the listening audience can't hear, is mesmerizing.

PONTYPOOL keeps things minimalist, only adding pretty call screener Laurel Ann (Georgina Reilly) as the third main character and Ken, who is never seen, but is heard coming from the station's "Sunshine Chopper", giving weather, road and school closure reports. The chopper is actually Ken sitting up on a hill in his crappy car, complete with audio effects of an actual helicopter but the radio crew chooses to let the residents think it's real and maybe to let Ken have his fantasy that he is performing an invaluable service. The light actor count keeps things tense and personal. It almost feels as if PONTYPOOL could easily have been a play. In fact, if David Mamet put his GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS spin on a play about zombies and radio hosts trapped in a radio station, it would be PONTYPOOL.  

The news day gets turned on its ear when information about a hostage situation reaches the station. Details are sketchy at best but this is when the movie has that moment of change, the moment when you just know trouble is brewing. What starts as two men holding up and robbing a van of people turns into a riot at the office of hometown physician Dr. Mendez.  Ken comes back on air from his "chopper" high above the town to report that hundreds of people are rioting and people seem to be dying. Ken is frantic. The line goes dead.

As the story develops eyewitnesses call in but they only scream and make incoherent sounds. Someone calling in claiming to be a constable (it's a Canadian film) reports that the mob are heard chanting one phrase over and over: "A herd of people". Sydney takes the position that a practical joke is being played on them but they soon learn that isn't the case when they are advised by authorities to stay where they are and not go outside.

The BBC affiliate calls in to interview Mazzy and ask why all the roads going in and out of Pontypool are blocked off. Mazzy does his best to act as if he knew this was happening. The thought from the BBC seems to be that a terrorist group has taken over the town. It must be a political or organized insurgence of some kind. Ken comes back on the line, shattering that idea, to say he is witnessing people turning into cannibals. Carrying people in their mouths and biting into them like a school of piranhas. He then sees them coming for him in an effort to "ruin the rest of his natural life". The line is cut into and they hear a man speaking in French. They quickly translate the man's words and realize he is advising people to avoid family members or anyone they may use terms of endearment with. Huh? Also, he instructs to avoid the English message and don't translate the message they are hearing to anyone...Oops.

Suddenly the bad boy of radio is hard pressed for snappy comebacks. He cannot wrap his head around what is happening. In fact, he freaks out and wants to leave the station.  IS it really happening? The reaction from the characters feels very real. In these situations you wouldn't magically find a stockpile of guns in the basement and automatically know how to use them and you most certainly wouldn't have your wits about you. Yes, PONYTPOOL gets weird and leaves you initially scratching your head but the characters are right there with you and that makes it believable. Most people would need confirmation at this point, to see it with their own eyes, so they could process it. Unfortunately, a reflective walk in the crisp winter air isn’t in Mazzy's future. There are zombies at the door.

The town is essentially killing each other, none of which is seen, only described by Mazzy as he hits the airwaves announcing to whomever may be listening that certain residents in their cozy little town have taken to eating each other alive. There are people dying in each other's arms, adults killing babies and men killing their entire families. This in-your-face human angle is effective. What is also effective is not showing it. Sometimes what you don’t see, what you imagine in your mind, is ten times worse than anything that could happen in front of you.

A final call comes in from Ken and he begins chanting about U-boats. He also begins repeatedly asking for a sample, just some kind of sample. It seems Ken is changing and won't be coming back to do anymore weather reports. As Sydney has said everyday for the past 13 years and now, for the last time, "It's time to say goodbye to the man in the sunshine chopper."

Things become complicated when Dr. Mendez, who seemingly has escaped his office, sneaks into the radio station and with him brings an insane theory as to what is happening. Are words the crux of the problem? Could wrong words send a person into a zombie-like cannibalistic state? Mazzy is a man of many words so the possibility of this sends him into a tizzy. Another snag? Laurel Ann has become infected and begins to slam herself against the glass of the control booth Sydney, Mazzy and The Doctor have locked themselves into. Things do get slightly gory at this point but gorehounds will be a bit disappointed with the lack of carnage. Though, once enveloped into the story it isn't needed or even missed.

Through the thought-provoking and head-scratching mind trip, director Bruce McDonald and writer Tony Burgess manage to inject some black and quirky humor into the mix. While Laurel Ann violently throws herself against the glass, Mazzy remembers aloud that he forgot to give her the Valentine's Day card he had purchased for her. Sydney then takes the time to thank Mazzy for hers and apologizes for not thanking him sooner. Also, after the scene where they can hear Ken dying, Sydney begins to cry and announces she is crying only because she had known him for over 10 years and that "Ken was a pedophile. Well, not really but I wouldn't let my kids near him anyway".

PONTYPOOL leaves you to wonder and speculate long after the final credits have rolled and it most certainly is an acquired taste. The movie is smart in not leaving everything out there for you. Did Mazzy himself cause the whole thing to happen with his words that morning? Don't look for the movie to tell you. Sometimes developing a reason as to "why" events are happening spoil a movie and the treat it is for a viewer to transcend their thoughts about a movie past what the filmmaker decides to show them. PONTYPOOL does give us a theory, but making it such an original theory is what sets it apart from your average "zombie movie". It isn't toxic waste or pollution; it is US, our words. What we choose to say and put out there has an effect on each and every one of us. Words are powerful so, be careful.

In one of the final scenes in PONTYPOOL, Sydney says, "Kill", an infected word. Mazzy helps her change the word from "Kill" to "Kiss" and plants one on her. It is a sweet scene and it seems to help her. Instead of words, guns and violence do we need to just hug and kiss it out? Could love possibly be the answer?

Who knows, but it's a lovely thought and a nice start.