According to film lore, countless things can turn normal people into homicidal, cannibalistic zombies. Whether it's bizarre viruses from outer space (Dawn of the Dead), ancient books (Army of Darkness), pod creatures (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), enraged monkeys (28 Days Later) or ancient burial grounds (Pet Sematary), there's no shortage of means to turn otherwise law abiding citizens into shambling creatures muttering, "Brainsss . . . brainsss."
Now, with his new film Pontypool, Canadian director Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Degrassi: The Next Generation) IDs a new cause of zombieism . . . the English language?
Based on Tony Burgess' book Pontypool Changes Everything (who also adapted it for the silver screen), language, and the characters' understanding thereof, becomes a vector for the disease. It's a clever concept, but its reach exceeds its grasp.
Bruce McDonald Directs Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle in Pontypool
Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) is a down-on-his-luck talk radio DJ in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario. Coming in to work, he starts hearing about people repeating bizarre phrases who start committing violent acts. Sitting in his sound booth with only his station manager (Lisa Houle) and producer (Georgina Reilly) for company, Mazzy starts uncovering a mystery: something in the English language is spreading a virus that turns the people around them into mindless automatons hunting human flesh.
Pontypool could have made a phenomenal radio play: it has many of the same realistic elements that made Orson Welles' War of the Worlds a frightening experience back in the 1930's.
McDonald demonstrates that he knows how to work the horror genre, with its combination of quick shocks and the increasing build-up of tension as the protagonists realize that the person next to them could try to bite their nose off within the next 60 seconds.
Pontypool takes its time getting to the point, and it feels like it's not terribly sure what that point is supposed to be. Is the movie trying to say something about language and understanding of how our brains decode random sounds? Or is it just a really cool concept for a horror flick?
Of course, when it comes to the horror genre, logic and consistency will quite often take a back seat to a great vomiting-blood shot. But it's nice to have some reason why a character would start to projectile-puke at the camera.
The movie's ambitions are never quite clear, even when the inevitable scientist character (Hrant Alianak) shows up with some exposition. How does the disease work? What's the internal logic? One gets the feeling that the filmmakers don't know how to answer these questions, which means they have a problem communicating it to the audience.
In addition, several elements are set up like Chekhov's Gun, but never get used. For instance: one character is identified at least 3 times as having returned from Afghanistan but the film never does anything with that piece of information, no matter how often it's flung at the viewer.
The Final Analysis
Pontypool is not a bad little horror flick with some intriguing concepts, but it could have been a lot stronger with a few revisions, and a few more brainstorms about how its story elements come about.
Pontypool is not a bad horror flick but it's not a great one either. It gets a 6/10.
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