I love watching a weird movie occasionally, and Pontypool is one of the weirdest ones I’ve watched in a while. Its being a zombie movie makes it especially more weird, as it’s likely not what you were expecting. However, this is what makes Pontypool so charming and unique. The part where the radio hosts get to witness the start of what appears to be a zombie outbreak via just radio calls and breaking news updates is not something I believe I’ve seen before, and it was strangely thrilling and horrifying at the same time. Because the viewers are going through the same experience as the radio station hosts—in which we only have an audio feed to understand what is happening outside—we have to similarly use our imagination, and sometimes, that can be more horrifying than seeing the real thing itself. For this part alone, Pontypool can be considered a must-watch for any zombie fans.

So the movie starts off slow, like very slow to build up the oncoming dread. We learn that Grant Mazzy, a struggling radio host whose “tough, take no prisoners” approach got him canned at his last gig, has fortunately found himself hired at a new station covering the small town of Pontypool in Ontario, Canada. It doesn’t take until about the 30-minute mark before Grant and his two co-hosts begin receiving news that a riot has broken out near a doctor’s office. The situation then goes from weird, bad, to extremely messed up pretty quickly. So now here is where I was a bit disappointed, but only regarding my expectations. I honestly thought that the majority of the movie, in keeping up with the theme, would incorporate outside callers into the radio station describing horrifying scenes of the zombie outbreak. Like what I mentioned earlier, it would then be up to the movie viewers and the radio station hosts themselves to paint the picture in their minds based on these phone calls. Unfortunately, somehow it seems that outside callers aren’t able to reach the radio station, and so we only get to rely on their “helicopter” reporter, Ken, to give them updates on the situation outside.

So let’s get this out of the way: there are some really bad and cringeworthy scenes by both Grant and Sydney, played by Stephen McHattie and Lisa Houle, respectively. I felt it was somewhat on purpose for just shits and giggles? I say that because the acting for the most part is quite normal, if not below average, but then you have these weird scenes where it’s just so different! Anyway, on to the plot. I really liked the idea of how a person gets infected with the virus and especially how one can seemingly prevent it from happening to themselves. The idea of how not to understand something can be a pretty crazy mind fuck. But I’ve noticed some inconsistencies. While it was discovered that usually using terms of endearment can produce a trigger word, why did she seemingly get infected with using the word “kill”? This is when Grant forces her to believe that the word and meaning of kill is to kiss. The word kill is hardly a term of endearment. Next, if the infected are attracted to sound, then how and why did they continue to gather outside the sound booth when they were holed up inside not making a single noise and had to only communicate with each other via writing on a notebook?

As for the ending, it was clear to me that Grant and Sydney did not die in the military attack prior to cutting to the credits. It’s also clear that the quarantine of Pontypool did not work during the monologue played in the credits. If you stuck till the very end of the credits, there is a quick scene that is extremely bizarre and includes both characters. I’ve come to the conclusion that the seemingly nonsensical things they were talking about were by design. Because the outbreak in Pontypool likely spread worldwide, the one way to protect themselves from becoming victims, as demonstrated towards the end of the movie, is to scramble their own brains and not have anything make sense, at least from something like a roleplaying perspective, literally. It would seem they were in a post-apocalyptic world, somewhere probably in Asia due to Sydney’s attire. I believe the below explanation on Stack Exchange fits the theory best for me:

My theory is it’s a direct epilogue.

Assuming the virus is widespread or at least still a threat, Sydney and Grant survive in what could be called “the language apocalypse” by maintaining a kind of improvisational roleplay. This allows them to express ideas in a freeflow that inhibits deeper understanding and prevents them from infecting each other.

However, the efficacy of this roleplay is limited, as show in the shift from black and white to color (fantasy to reality; safety to danger). The fake conversation bleeds into a real one the longer it stays on topic (“let’s get out of here” is on topic but followed by abstract, noir-ish improvisation… until it gains too much context, becomes “understandable” and dangerous?), represented by color bleeding into the scene.

That conversation itself is a threat by being coherent, but could be precipitated by a realization that they’re in an infected zone where roleplay won’t cut it. Or it could be playful banter about getting the cheque and going home that gets too real and ends up compromising them.

Either way, the scene congeals into understandable communication and ends with the big taboo: a term of endearment uttered twice (“baby–” “shhh!!”). The film established several times that terms of endearment are carriers for the virus. Grant slips up saying it once and by now we’re in full color. When Sydney says it he shushes her. This tells me the virus is still a present threat. Hence the roleplay.

Pontypool had a lot of potential due to an original idea in the zombie genre. I really wish this theme were explored just a bit more, not just in this specific movie but by other future movies as well. It really is just a different kind of horror from the usual zombie chases.