And Say the Zombie Responded?
21
baby noises is chilling. Soon after, it seems that Ken himself is starting to
experience a breakdown:
Grant: What’s going on Ken?
Ken: This is going to sound weird. I can’t stop thinking: do
you have a sample?
Grant: I’m sorry. A sample? A sample of what?
Ken: Just simple. I think a simple kind of sample. Uh. Uh.
This is what I was saying. I need to . . . I can’t stop thinking.
Sample. Some sample. Oh. Sample of, sample of what I’m
trying to say. Do you, do you?
Grant: Just try to stay calm, Ken.
Ken: A sample of what I’m trying to say. Uh. Grant?
Grant: Ken? Ken?
Ken: I’m just going to try to to try to uh .. .
Grant: Can you think?
Ken: I can I can I can’t . . .
Doctor (to Grant, in the studio): Stick to simple questions.
Simple.
Ken: Simple questions. Simple. Sample. Simple.
Later, in the church basement, Laurel-Ann soon starts to show
symptoms as well, repeating words and sliding into nonsense before eventually
trying to attack her friends and eat them. Her talking sounds like language. It has
the cadence of language. But it means nothing.
When Grant and Sydney are joined by a local doctor, he explains that
the problem is a virus. But it is a virus that is being spread by language. Certain
words in the English language have become “infected,” and when they enter a
person’s consciousness, their meaning breaks down. The victim begins repeating
the word in hopes of making it come to meaning once again. But soon, all
language has lost its meaning. As the insanity sets in, it is marked by one simple
desire: the desire to communicate. With this desire incapable of being fulfilled,
the drive finds a new outlet, a new way to manifest itself. The victim searches
out someone who is not infected and, unable to communicate and thus share a
world, tries to consume the mouth and tongue of that person. Literally.
As the movie comes to a close, the radio station receives a message in
French telling them to stop broadcasting and not to translate the message into
English. French, it seems, is still a safe language. Unfortunately, Grant is doing
a translation on air as he is receiving the message, and thus becomes even more
culpable in the spread of the virus. Eventually, with the entire town pressing
against the outside of the church and the military threatening to bomb all of
Pontypool, Sydney becomes infected. Terms of endearment—words such as
“honey” or “sweetheart”—have turned out to be the most dangerous, but Sydney
has stumbled on the word “kill” and cannot stop herself from repeating it. Grant,