15. A Horror Film in Which Language is the Weapon

Why did it take so long for me to watch this? A zombie — kinda — movie set inside one room, radio talk show host Grant Mazzy’s (Stephen McHattie) studio — Pontypool is filled with imagination and utter strangeness, as a virus uses language against people and can only be defeated by wordplay.

I love the interplay between Grant and Laurel-Ann (Georgina Reilly), his producer, as well as the oddness of Dr. Mendez (Hrant Alianak), the expert who is trying to discover why people are suddenly losing their minds and how words can transmit the virus.

Bruce McDonald (Kids In the Hall), who directed this, explains the disease like this: “There are three stages to this virus. The first stage is when you might begin to repeat a word. Something gets stuck. And usually it’s words that are terms of endearment, like sweetheart or honey. The second stage is when your language becomes scrambled, and you can’t express yourself properly. The third stage, you become so distraught at your condition that the only way out of the situation you feel, as an infected person, is to try and chew your way through the mouth of another person.”

This uses its budget effectively, often relying more on sound than visuals to tell the story. And I love the ending, which pushes this universe into surrealism, as Grant and Lisa take on the identities of Johnny Deadeyes and Lisa the Killer, a concept eventually followed up in the movie Dreamland.

This is the kind of film that gets in my head and frightens me long after, because it feels just strange enough that it could happen.