Language spreads the infection in the 2012 horror film Pontypool.
Pontypool adapts Tony Burgess’s novel Pontypool Changes Everything and takes place largely inside a small Ontario radio station during a mysterious outbreak. Radio host Grant Mazzy, producer Sydney Briar, and technician Laurel-Ann Drummond receive fragmented reports of violent incidents occurring around the town.
The film’s central idea is that the infection is carried through certain English words and phrases. Hearing and understanding the infected language can trigger the condition, so communication itself becomes dangerous. The characters attempt to disrupt the chain by changing how they speak and by avoiding particular words.
Bruce McDonald directed the film, which stars Stephen McHattie as Mazzy. Unlike many zombie movies, Pontypool does not depend on extensive outdoor action or a conventional scientific explanation. Its tension comes from sound, interpretation, broadcasting, and the uncertainty of reports arriving through the radio station.