Pontypool (film)

Pontypool
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Bruce McDonald
Written by	Tony Burgess
Starring	Stephen McHattie Lisa Houle Georgina Reilly Hrant Alianak Rick Roberts Boyd Banks Tony Burgess Rachel Burns
Production company	Shadow Shows Entertainment Corporation
Distributed by	Maple Pictures
Release date	March 6, 2009
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English

Pontypool is a 2009 Canadian horror film directed by Bruce McDonald and adapted by Tony Burgess from Burgess' novel Pontypool Changes Everything.

Plot

In the small town of Pontypool, Ontario, former shock jock turned radio announcer Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) encounters a woman lightly clothed on a heavy snow-filled morning, who startles him when he makes a stop in his car. When he calls out to her, she disappears into the darkness, repeating his words ominously and visibly disturbing him. When he arrives for his shift at the radio station he is accompanied by technical assistant Laurel-Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly) and station manager Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle).

As the morning proceeds, Grant's tactics for his radio announcements garners ire from Sydney as Laurel-Ann tries to settle their differences. They get a report from their weather and traffic helicopter reporter Ken Loney (actually a man on a hill with sound effects like a helicopter) about a possible riot at the office of Doctor Mendez in Pontypool. What he describes is a scene of chaos and carnage, immediately grabbing Grant's attention and puzzling the women as their live wire has not gotten any word of this. After he is unexpectedly cut off, the group tries to confirm any of this, but they are not able to find much as their witnesses are disconnected before they even make it to the airwaves. Ken calls back amid the chaos and manages to get one of the "infected" survivors to speak into the phone, the sound is completely inhuman, and the call is again cut off, this time by a garbled language that Laurel-Ann is able to translate. The translation coming in was garbled telling them not to use terms of affection, phrases that conflict, or the English language. Grant tries to force his way to leave the station after they are called in quarantine from the activities outside, not believing this is happening when a horde of people attempt to attack them and they block themselves in. Meanwhile, Laurel-Ann begins expressing irratic behavior, getting stuck on the word "miss" repeating it over, and over again, then she imitates the sound of a teapot, ceaselessly singing its tune when Dr. Mendez (Hrant Alianak) enters the studio and they block themselves off from her.

He explains his theory that somehow a virus has found its way into human language, infecting certain words spoken. As he explains this, Laurel-Ann begins a series of increasingly violent slams against the sound booth's window, chewing off her own lip and splattering blood with each attack. Ken calls in again and Grant puts what he describes on the radio shortly before Ken also succumbs to this strange attack on the language. Soon Dr. Mendez also begins to feel the effects to the word "breathe" and the horde has broken in, attacking the sound booth as well. They record a diversion to lead the mob away, and Mendez surmises that it is only the English language that was affected before Grant and Sydney leave him alone in the booth. They are nearly killed when the recording fails and the mob returns, but Mendez successfully lures them away again. Having given up and in guilt over killing a little girl who had been infected, Sydney begins to succumb to the word "kill" but thinking back to the warnings they had received Grant successfully confuses the language, repeating "Kill is kiss" over and over again until the signs of illness wear off. Armed with knowledge on how to stop this, the pair go on the air, spouting several non-contradicting and confusing phrases to try and help their infected listeners, ignoring warnings from the authorities who are trying to get them off the air. As they count down from ten, Sydney joins Grant in the booth and they kiss. As the countdown finishes, the screen goes dark, leading the audience to believe they had died in the attack.

The scenes follow indicate that the infection quarantine failed as reports of people afflicted by the language virus start to rise, including the announcer of a news station whose words are heard over the credits. When that ends, the scene shifts to a radically different view a stylized black and white version of Grant and Sydney in what looks like a far-eastern atmosphere, hinting to the audience they did survive their ordeal

Cast

• Stephen McHattie – Grant Mazzy
• Lisa Houle – Sydney Briar
• Georgina Reilly – Laurel-Ann Drummond
• Hrant Alianak – Dr. Mendez
• Rick Roberts – Ken Loney
• Boyd Banks – Jay (Osama)
• Tony Burgess – Tony (Lawrence)
• Rachel Burns – Colin (Daud)

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Production

Pontypool is based on Tony Burgess' novel Pontypool Changes Everything. Burgess adapted the material for the screen himself. According to McDonald, the writer hashed out a script in 48 hours. Orson Welles' infamous radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds inspired the approach that they decided to take. It was simultaneously produced as a motion picture and a radio play.

Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario and on location in Pontypool itself.

At Rue Morgue's 2008 Festival of Fear expo, director Bruce McDonald stressed the victims of the virus detailed in the film were not zombies and called them "conversationalists". He described the stages of the disease:

There are three stages to this virus. The first stage is you might begin to repeat a word. Something gets stuck. And usually it's words that are terms of endearment like sweetheart or honey. The second stage is your language becomes scrambled and you can't express yourself properly. The third stage you become so distraught at your condition that the only way out of the situation you feel, as an infected person, is to try and chew your way through the mouth of another person.

Release

The cinema release was on March 6, 2009. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 25 January 2010.

Reception

Pontypool received generally positive reviews from critics and an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

OneMetal's DVD reviewer, Graham Gough, praised Stephen McHattie's performance claiming that "his marvellous monologues sparkle with a wit and delivery rarely seen in low budget horror, and he clearly revels in portraying a character who’s simultaneously on the edge and completely at ease with himself. Most of all, he’s so goddamn cool". The review concluded that "Pontypool isn’t just for zombie or horror fans. Intelligent, ambitious and with plenty to say, it operates successfully as a thriller, horror and political satire", and that "It’ll be interesting to see where they go with the sequel, Pontypool Changes. One can but hope that McDonald and writer Burgess have more intellectually challenging tales to tell from the embittered town of Pontypool, Ontario."

Awards and Nominations

• Chlotrudis Awards - Best Adapted Screenplay

2010 Genie Nominee - Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay

Special Screening

Rue Morgue and ChiZine Publications held a special screening of Pontypool on Friday, December 3 at 9pm at The Toronto Underground Cinema. After the screening, it featured a Q&A with Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle and Tony Burgess.

External links

• Pontypool Official Site
• Pontypool at IMDb
• Pontypool at Bloody Disgusting Horror
• Interview with Bruce McDonald about Pontypool at ion magazine
• Interview with Bruce McDonald and Actors at FEARnet
• Summary at Shocktilyoudrop.com
• Pontypool at Movies You May Have Missed (with response from Tony Burgess)