I have had this on my to watch list for a long time now. Fingers crossed that this is a good one.
Some dude just first some guy on the phone while in his car. It’s snowing out. Some good looking chick just knocked on his passenger window but disappeared. This guy’s name is Grant Mazzy, and he goes to an AM Radio station. There’s a cute girl at the station. Her name is Laurel-Ann. I will call her Laurel. Grant has a sweet figurine of one of the Ramones I believe. Grant is like a shock jock. The producer and also is on the show, and her name is Sydney Briar. Ken is our weather guy in the “Sunshine copter” reporting on this big snowstorm. Hahaha, Grant just says whatever the fuck he wants much to Sydney’s chagrin. In the beginning, there was something about Honey The Cat, and we see a poster for it. I assume the cat is important, so I am mentioning now. I think it is Valentine’s Day as well, or soon to be.
There is breaking news about a hostage situation, and it involves an ice fishing hut. Grant is pretty new to this place it appears. Haha, Syd reveals that Ken is not in a chopper, he just has a great hill viewpoint. Ken just called in with a big story. A large group of people have gathered outside of a doctor’s office who has been under investigation for writing unnecessary prescriptions. The building is exploding with people, people are getting killed and trampled. Ken is freaking out and the military is on its way. We are hearing gunshots. We lose Ken on the phone. It is less than 5 kilometers away from where they are. This group called Lawrence and the Arabians just showed up, and Grant has to interview them and let them sing a song, and Grant is pissy. HAHAHA. Grant is just a dick and was so disrespectful, but he’s right, to just cut away from the story for this is insane. Grant is getting a call while they are singing, and this group is absurd to look up. One of the kids is freaking out and that was creepy.
Back to some eyewitnesses. This ought to be fascinating. We have a call from Steve and we hear screaming, it sounds crazy. Syd is worried that this may be fake. It’s been reported that 75 people are dead. They have a constable on the phone. Apparently there was some crazy talk coming out of these people’s mouths, just like the singing girl. Now there is a big herd of people and they were imitating the sound of windshield wipers. Somebody is calling from the BBC news network and asking Grant questions. Pontypool is in Ontario, Canada just in case you were wondering. This was on TV.
They got a call from Ken. Ken says that he’s not safe where he is. They came after him. This guy is screaming about being scared. He says their eyes look weird and they are walking weird. 2 people are getting pulled out of a van. They are biting the people. They are eating. Ken is getting chased. Syd is trying to get Grant to wrap this up so they don’t have a death while on air. There is somebody close to Ken, and he is whispering something and Ken goes to get closer. Somebody cut into their signal, and there was some French warning. This is crazy. The message is saying to not be close to family members, and not to translate the message. Uh oh. Pontypool is under quarantine. Ken is with some teenage boy who is fucked up and is making some weird noise, like a child inside him screaming.
Grant is hearing weird shit in his booth. Grant wants to just leave, he’s having a hard time with this. Grant goes outside, and people start coming and they are hearing voices that are theirs, but they aren’t saying anything. This is incredibly unique. This is just fucking with everybody’s had. First Grant, then Sydney, now Laurel. Now a dude comes in, it’s the doctor from the original story, Dr. Mendez. Laurel is like stuck and staring off into nothing. He tells Sydney not to talk to her or else she will follow their voices. They go in the sound booth with Grant. I’m intrigued. He says that Laurel is sick and she is hunting them, and she is trying to get in, but if she doesn’t hear them, she may lose focus of them. What the fudge?
Laurel is trying to break in. He says that she needs a victim, and doesn’t have one. Ken just called in and he’s in a silo. The person with him has died. There was a crowd outside saying to look for U Boats. Ken sounds like he’s sick as well. Aww, Syd says that it’s time to say goodbye to Ken. Laurel is bleeding from her mouth. They are worried about her being able to read words. The doctor says that this may have something to do with language. Fucking hell, I can’t really explain this theory, but it has something to do with certain trigger words infecting people. SO the question is whether to stay on the radio. Syd gets a call from her kids, and Laurel looks like hell now. She is back to trying. Laurel just got a big shock. It is Syd’s kid’s BDay and it is Valentine’s day. Laurel just puked a ton of blood and whatnot and may have just died. People are breaking in and this is just weird.
So now they have resorted to writing note stop avoid talking. They have a loudspeaker outside, so they can possibly get them out of there. Send out an SOS. He keeps saying “Sydney Briar is alive” and they looped it and the people are taking note. The doctor is so pumped. The doctor is saying some fucked up shit, and the doctor appears to be infected. So Grant and Sydney will now only speak in French with the thought that the English is the issue. One of the Arabians are in there and attacks Sydney. They kill it. She wants him to kill the doctor, and he says that since she killed the kid, she may as well kill the doctor. They argue about who killed the kid. It was funny. Then the Canadian anthem plays. Now Syd and Grant are in a room and try shutting the door but the doctor squeezes in. Then he opens a window and leaves. They have the door roped closed.
Sydney is writing a note on the wall that she killed a girl, and she is getting drunk. Grant is playing the BBC guy, he is looking for specific words to help and Syd won’t shut the fuck up. Maybe by repeating the word, you kill it. Syd is infected with the word kill, so he has to convince her that kill means something else, so he repeats that kill is kiss. This is the cure. These 2 are married in real life. So he wants to broadcast something live. People are just killing each other outside. Grant gets on air, does this long-winded spiel, there’s a countdown in French, and the credits roll.
End film
OK, so don’t take this the wrong way, but if you aren’t into films that are talky, and require a modicum of intelligence to fully digest, then this isn’t the film for you. It’s a film discussing how we interpret language, and they turned it into a horror flick of sorts. I admit the 3rd act wasn’t as good as the first 2. I get the point that they were trying to make, or at least I think I do. Honey The Cat was key to this whole damn thing if you think about it. I could see myself watching this again down the road, but I don’t know who I would recommend this to. I would want somebody who wants a different take on an infection like apocalypse film that is incredibly unique. It is charming at parts, and the 3 leads were all good at their roles, but Grant really was great.
Final rating: 6.0
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