Snippitts of Illusions

Pontypool

The power of words is tremendous. Words have incited revolutions in religions, governments and society in general, the printed word is still one of the greatest mediums ever and there's a certain solace in listening to a competent speaker talk. But what if words could infect. Literally. Cause thousands of people to become sick in their minds like a virus causes people to become sick in their bodies? What if certain words had the power to make people kill when they were understood correctly  What if people become little more than zombies when they were fully infected with these words?

Pontypool isn't your average zombie film. It's more about the claustrophobia of being couped up in an oppressive enviroment while meanwhile the world around you falls apart. It spins a new idea with zombie horror, but like I said it only barely qualifies. Does it work? Well Pontypool succeeds with intent but almost fails with delivery. I say almost because there's definitely a mood struck with this film and it carries through to the end despite have some fumbling moments with the dialogue. It's definitely not perfect but the atmosphere becomes near pitch perfect by the middle of the film and what more could really ask for?

But I'm getting to the conclusion before I talk about the meat of the movie. Pontypool is about a radio shock dj, Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie), turned radio broadcaster for a small town called Pontypool  He's only just got this job as a radio broadcaster having lost his job at a bigger station in a bigger place. The film opens with Mazzy driving through a blizzard to work. He pulls over to get his bearings while the snow bears down around him. While pulled over a young woman without winter gear on slaps his window, when he rolls it down to ask what she needs she begins repeating his words and seems confused and distressed. He debates calling 911, but decides against it and continues on to work. The radio station is in the basement of an old church and it's here we meet the other two primary characters of the film, Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) the station manager and Laurel-Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly). He starts his radio show off by giving short updates and getting a weather report from the "man in the sky" Ken Loney (Rick Roberts, voice only). Then starts into a rant about drug dealers. He's cut off by Sydney who tells him that the small town doesn't go for that sort of discourse and to keep it to things like school closures.

Mazzy reluctantly goes along with it until a news story comes in about a hostage situation. While it seems intense it's soon revealed that the hostage takers were two drunk fisherman who were pulling their shack off the ice (or are they?) Mazzy continues with the show, revealing how miserable he really is to be stuck where he is during the winter months. Sydney Briar feigns sympathy and encourages him to just stick with the topics the towns folk want to see. This first act of the film works against itself. Why it sets up the character of Mazzy particularly well Sydney Briar falls flat and Laurel-Ann is simply uninteresting, the only thing being revealed about her is that she served with the military in Afghanistan. The dialogue is rough here. It's not that it's really poorly written, but instead it comes across as an early draft of the script. The actors are competent  but not excellent, though McHattie does stand out above the rest.

Shortly after the exchange between Briar and Mazzy a report comes in from Ken Lonney of a riot down town near the office of a Dr. Mendez. He reports that people are flooding into the building and then, apparently destroy it from the inside. After this he notes two military helicopters flying over. (Ken is revealed just before this scene to be in an old pick up truck, not a helicopter). Then he get's cut off, trying frantically to leave the scene.

With no official news of what's going on and no other eye-witnesses to the events, the stations precedes with it's planned program. They interview a family who dresses like fantasy versions of Arabs (complete with tacky face-paint) who's group is named Lawrence and the Arabians,  and they sing a song. After the song ends one of the girls looks distressed and begins to repeat her words over and over again, much like the woman in the beginning of the film. The family is ushered out and Sydney and Laurel-Ann confirm to Mazzie that they have eye-witnesses on the phone. They put the first on and he begins repeating the same phrase over and over again. Cutting him off they've managed to contact a police officer and he speaks for a few moments before becoming drowned out by background noise. Shortly after this Ken calls them again.

Ken has managed to hide in an old grain silo. He describes mobs of people wandering the country side and pulling people out of their cars apparently eating and dismembering them. He panics and after a loud crash he reveals that one of them has broke through the silo and appears to be missing his arms. He says the man is whispering something over and over again but is cut off by a loud transmission. In French a warning is given to not use terms of endearment, anything to do with conflict and to completely avoid the English language, and moreover not to translate this to English.

Shortly after the transmission Ken calls back, revealing the young mans last words to be the sound of a baby's voice repeating "Mommy" over and over again. The transmission is cut off again and Mazzy has a melt down and attempts to flee the station. He get's outside but is forced back in by a mob.

This sequence, and nearly the entire film itself, very little is shown to us. What is revealed is done solely through the dialogue. We never see one of the infected through this sequence, and we the audience are never entirely sure what's real and what isn't, we only have the character's words for it. I must admit that I was annoyed at this to begin with. There's an old adage in story-telling to show not tell, and I felt the writer and director (Tony Burgess and Bruce McDonald respectively) were cheating us a bit by not giving us more of a hint. Then as the film carried on the tension built, and built and built. There's a certain paranoia in the air by the time Mazzy tries to leave the station, and it's only carried to new heights by the sequence of obituaries that detail the death and carnage leaping from one person to another all the while showing them in a black and white montage peacefully and patiently standing in front of the camera, waiting for a photo-op. And while it certainly heavily implied that he actually gave those obits, there's a little bit of doubt, it's nearly a dream sequence and it actually breaks up the action nicely for the third act.

The third act starts with Laurel-Ann becoming infected by whatever it is that is infecting people. Dr. Mendez also appears at this time, entering the station and apparently uninfected, having escaped the mobs by crawling through the woods. He takes Sydney into the booth with Mazzy and shuts the door. He explains that Laurel-Ann has become infected and is hunting for them, and will soon begin stalking them all but they should be safe in the booth as it's sound-proof. Laurel-Ann begins to throw herself against the glass of the booth over and over again. She becomes more agitated through out this sequence which involves one last phone call from Ken who has also succumbed to the virus. Dr. Mendez explains that a virus has become part of language itself and that once people are able to hear and understand certain words they become infected. Their next move is to kill or infect somebody else and then kill themselves (murder suicide is the most common way people die). At this point Laurel-Ann vomits blood on the glass of the booth and the mob breaks down the door to the radio station and pours inside. (This is the only real moment of gore in the film)

In an effort to conceal themselves from the mob Sydney, Mazzy and Dr. Mendez turn out all the lights and mics and grab notebooks to write messages to each other. They formulate a plan to lure the mob back outside by recording the message "Sydney Briar is still alive" and playing it on the station loud speaker outside. Shortly after this the Dr. becomes infected and in an effort to stop himself he switches back and forth between different languages. Mazzy and Sydney flee the booth and move to the kitchen area but are attacked by one of the girls from the earlier interview on the way.

They kill the girl and begin searching for weapons and food when the power shuts off, cutting off the recording. Back up generators soon kick in but the mob returns having nothing to keep them occupied outside any more. Mazzy and Briar flee into a pantry, with the Dr (who is still trying to overcome his own infection). The mob begins pounding on the door but the Doc slips out the window and lures them away with the message from the recording. After hours in the pantry of writing on the walls and in the notebooks Sydney, drunk, begins to stress over killing the girl from earlier. She begins to repeat the word "kill" over and over. Mazzy, knowing that Sydney is becoming infected begins to tell her that "kill means kiss" not what she thinks. He gets her to repeat it several times and she seems to come out of it. Convinced that he's found a way to stop the virus he goes back on the air. Soon a voice in French comes on the telling people that Mazzy himself is infected and that the broadcast needs to be shut down. It then counts down backwards from 10 to 0 and the screen goes black and the movie ends.

The film works. Hell I even like the idea of words transmitting some sort of infection like a virus. I will admit that the premise seemed absurd at first blush, but the movie actually does it's job of building up the idea. The film itself almost feels like a play. It could be a play with some minor rewrites and I think that would be brilliant. Apparently the screenwriter Tony Burgess and the director Bruce McDonald also wrote it as a radio play as well. There're a limited amount of characters, which in a film like this works quite well. There's no need for more. All of them are trapped in one location, and there's a claustrophobic feeling during the entire film that is not pressing but still present and manages to create a sense of foreboding that gently slides into doom. While the film doesn't show us much, and as I noted above has a tendency to tell what's happening rather than show it does display good use of the rule of three. (Who would have thought that a pseudo-zombie horror flick could be used to demonstrate story-telling techniques). First we hear about the rioting, then the infected, then finally we see the what's going on when Laurel-Ann becomes infected and the mob shows up.

The acting is sufficient. Not great but a little better than average for a horror movie. That being said McHattie's Mazzy is interesting. The character is compelling and there's a desperation there that I think many people can identify with. Credit for this solely lies on the shoulders of Stephen McHattie. The script itself is rough in spots, and definitely could have used some rewrites. I blame the script, more than the actress, for making Sydney Briar unlikable  That being said the filmmakers manage to take what seems to be an absurd idea and make it compelling, if not quite terrorizing and that's great. This movie is listed as a zombie film, and I suppose that is true in the broader sense, but it definitely doesn't fall into a lot of the zombie movie cliches and thank god for that! It's definitely worth checking out and there's very little gore in the film so even non-horror fans can sample it. Just remember, the premise seems absurd but unlike another horror movies with an absurd premise (The Happening I'm looking at you) this one is actually compelling.

3 beards out of 5.

Labels: Movie Reviews

posted by F.G. Shaw @ 11:37 PM