One of my favourite spins on the over-saturated zombie sub-genre of the past several years is the film Pontypool. Set in a radio station in Pontypool, Ontario, the town has been overrun by strange occurrences. Most of the action takes place off screen as the three person crew of the radio station slowly unravel the mystery. Sound is critical in telling the story of Pontypool.
One of the best parts of the film comes when an unexpected french communication accosts the crew. The subsequent translation reveals the dangers of the spoken word, particularly the English language. Confused yet? Well this is certainly not your grandparent’s zombie flick!
The scene is established as a panicked caller phones into the radio station but is largely unintelligible. The announcer, Grant Mazzy, sits patiently trying to understand. The caller’s voice is distant(shown on a laptop’s screen as an erratic sine wave) and the high and low frequencies have been removed so it sounds like we’re listening to him through an actual mobile phone. More though, his voice has a little reverb, hinting he’s hiding in a cramped room. Grant Mazzy responds in his deep and bassy voice as he’s concerned for his caller. The high fidelity of Mazzy’s voice alone is impressive here but its also warm and soothing. You can really understand the casting decision as Stephen McHattie(Grant Mazzy) could certainly be a real life radio personality. What an impressive voice! This scene works so well as the viewer, constrained to the radio station, is forced to imagine the danger the caller is in.
A loud, piercing distorted sound is then heard, providing an alien and otherworldly element. This non-linear sound provokes an emotional response from the viewer and onscreen characters. Mazzy cringes, the producer Sydney and technician Laurel-Ann react violently by ripping their headphones off. The noise is unnatural and unexpected in the confines of the radio station.
When a french voice is somehow transmitted with accompanying static and beeps(and confused looks), its unexpected. The voice is booming, it sounds like the volume has been turned up far too high and is being seriously clipped by the maximum frequency range that can be heard through a radio broadcast. Its hollow and lacks most of the mid-tones of a natural voice. The Foley sounds of keyboard keys and headphones being dropped are helpful as they bring us into the spatial environment of the radio station’s control room. Only the technician Laurel-Ann seems to understand what is being said by the Frenchman.
Reacting to the transmission, the exchange between Sydney and Mazzy is striking as the tonal quality changes quite dramatically. As Sydney asks(rather impolitely) what she just heard, you can hear the characteristics of the control room as her brightly tempered voice is reflected throughout. Its a large room! Well, at least larger than Mazzy’s studio. In the control room, Mazzy’s voice is amplified as its routed through speakers. This is then effectively reversed when Mazzy’s naturally large sounding voice is heard without amplification in the small studio room and Sydney’s voice is played through speakers. Sydney’s voice through control room speakers comes off being far less impressive than the announcer's as it doesn't have the dynamic range of Grant Mazzy’s natural voice. Hearing one room’s rich spatial characteristics then another's immediately after definitely brings us closer to each of the characters.
When we hear the technician Laurel-Ann begin to translate the french transmission, we can still hear Mazzy rambling on in the background. His voice is distant and low in quality as it lacks bass and the higher frequencies of those of Laurel-Ann. When Mazzy leads into the reading of the translation, we witness it from the control room with Sydney and Laurell-Ann. Mazzy’s voice heard through the speaker again is without range. We then flick back across to the studio room with Mazzy. The viewer hears the non-diegetic combination of what sounds like a very low muffled xylophone drumming and a slow high pitched twanging of a violin string. The high pitch sound sets your teeth on edge when accompanied with the thought provoking dialogue provided by Grant Mazzy. A distorted bass note gives a further kick before the announcer gets to the punchline of the translation. A highly effective and powerful moment.
A digital radio alert tone brings us from the announcer’s discourse and the somber music. The alert is flat and has no dimension in the studio and acts as a bridge between the previous act and the next. Multiple ambient sounds and dialogue can then be heard in the background behind Sydney as she talks to Mazzy. Quite a difference to the last two minutes of film which had zero background chatter. This contrast and the ever changing atmospheric nature of the sound further draws the viewer into the story of the radio station and its crew, alone and confused one fateful night, in Pontypool.
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