Okay, I’m just going to throw it out there and admit that I didn’t get “Pontypool.” Maybe I’m losing my touch or maybe this is one of the most incomprehensible messes I’ve seen in years, but “Pontypool” makes no sense. It’s abrupt, awkwardly paced, and often times doesn’t even know what to do with the formula it’s set up. We’re supposed to be watching a movie about what I can assume are zombies that have turned in to the walking dead (?) due to a sudden infection that’s carried through the English language. Did you understand that? Because I sure as hell didn’t!
Not for lack of trying but “Pontypool” sets itself up to be this horror post apocalyptic thriller that never fully resolves itself and allows for gore that is never explained. Do the infected really hunt the normal citizens? Why? Why is the English language infected causing the whole structure of civilization to collapse, and to that end why isn’t this happening anywhere else? Why do the infected commute to the local radio station? Why do some of the infected contract a need to spill blood and gauge victims’ eye out while others are just harmless rambling morons without the ability to stop talking let alone stalk and kill?
I don’t know, maybe I just don’t understand this movie (so feel free to explain it to me), but then after perusing online reviews other folks don’t seem to know what was happening either. “Pontypool” gets off to a good start with radio frequencies symbolizing the dreadful things to come while we hear beat by beat the world coming to an end over the radio, but then it’s really nothing but endless dribble, meandering plot lines and a never truly clear answer to what was happening in Pontypool. While I love ambiguity as much as the next guy, it should not be a complete shut out from the central premise and point of the story.
Furthermore we’re never told what it is about the English language that’s infecting people nor do we understand why it’s infecting people and to what degree, we just know that there’s a decent amount of gore followed by endless babbling that never really manages to fully realize its own concept. Is it a zombie movie or is it an apocalyptic movie? Is it a thriller or a drama? Why do so many questions go unanswered pretending to be sly ambiguity when really it’s just a nonsensical mess with no real grasp on the premise? These questions will go unfulfilled, but I challenge people to give me some grasp of understanding what the hell this was supposed to be. “Pontypool” loses what easily could have been a great story.