Pontypool

PONTYPOOL

A 2008 film that has many vocal fans and supporters on the message boards of The Internet Movie Database, Pontypool is a zombie film of sorts that takes place almost entirely within a small-town radio station while something anomalous occurs in the community.  The tale follows a morning-shift disc jockey (Grant Mazzy) and his producer (Sydney Briar) and an assistant (Laurel-Ann) as they go about what begins as a routine day getting local news and traffic reports on the air.  Soon eyewitnesses begin contacting the station to report some sort of mob event outside the office of one Dr. Mendez.  A correspondent for the station gives a harrowing account of seeing the mob pulling two people out of a vehicle – and then biting them.  Dr. Mendez himself shows up at the station, realizes that Laurel-Ann is “infected,” and ushers Sydney into the soundproof broadcasting booth with Mazzy.  He explains that Laurel-Ann is now “hunting,” and indeed she slams herself into the booth’s windows repeatedly in an apparent effort to get at those inside.  Mendez says something about how the infection spreads through language, and thus they should probably stop talking.  Zombies swarm into the station.  Mazzy distracts them by looping an audio recording on a speaker over the station’s front door.  When it begins to appear that Sydney may be infected, Mazzy somehow cures her by repeating “kill is kiss” over and over (thus short-circuiting the language-based infection).  The story ends with apparent military intervention and what may or may not be the destruction of the radio station.

Pontypool begins quite well.  The actor playing Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) has a marvelous voice and was totally believable as a disc jockey, and the early scenes establishing the group dynamics between Mazzy and his producer and the assistant had me hooked.  Somewhere around the middle (and more so toward the end), the story lost me.  The narrative grows confusing as Dr. Mendez presents what should be clear exposition about the nature of the zombie infection.  The zombies never seem like an actual threat to Mazzy and his producer (except for one moment when an infected child lunges forward after the two leave the safety of the booth).  I also wanted more sense of narrative resolution: what sparked the outbreak?  Was Dr. Mendez involved in causing the initial infections?  What happens in the world outside the radio station?  None of these questions are answered.  Pontypool is an interesting attempt at a unique zombie story in a confined setting, but it left me more frustrated than scared and awed.