ZombieWiki
Zombie Wiki / All zombies / Film
Illustration of Conversationalists
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 208 of 446

Conversationalists

FilmInfected, still alive2000 to 2009

Pontypool takes place in a small-town Ontario radio station while a language-borne infection spreads outside. Its director insisted the victims are not zombies but conversationalists. The approach was inspired by Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast.1

Battle it
First appeared
2008
Released 2008
Source work
Pontypool (2008)
Bruce McDonald (writer Tony Burgess)
Made in
Canada
What causes it
Other
A virus that infects certain words of the English language and passes to the people who use them.
How you become one
Using an infected word.
Weak spots
  • not speaking English
  • stripping a word of its meaning

When did it first appear?

Ancient world
Middle Ages
1500 to 1899
1900 to 1967
1968 to 1999
2000 to 2009
2010 to today
2008

Released 2008

field notes

What the sources say

1

Stage one: the victim gets stuck repeating a word, often a term of endearment1

2

Stage two: speech becomes scrambled; stage three: the victim tries to chew through another person's mouth1

3

Speaking French or Armenian protects, because only English is infected1

4

Telling a victim that kill now means kiss makes her symptoms subside1

5

News broadcasts about the quarantine spread the infection further1

6

Based on Tony Burgess's 1995 novel Pontypool Changes Everything and also produced as a radio play1

Sources

  1. Pontypool (film) - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].

Same era: 2000 to 2009

T-virus zombies (Resident Evil films)Resident Evil (2002)The Infected (Rage Virus)28 Days Later (2002)Zombies of Shaun of the DeadShaun of the Dead (2004)DarkseekersI Am Legend (2007)Running zombies of Dawn of the Dead (2004)Dawn of the Dead (2004)The infected of [REC]REC (2007)