HELLIONS: Bruce McDonald Director Profile

Canadian cult film fans are familiar with Toronto director Bruce McDonald. If you attended the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, you might recall Pontypool, which mutates the zombie genre in the most fascinating and frightening ways.

McDonald is back at the Festival with Hellions, described as a "deliciously creepy tale about a pregnant teen whose home is besieged by a ghastly crew of trick-or-treaters." Sort of like À l'intérieur but set on Halloween instead of Christmas. Maybe. (You'll have to see it to find out, mwahahaha!)

Roadkill: Hand over the cowboy hat and no one gets hurt.

With more than 60 directorial credits to his name, McDonald defines "eclectic." He first appeared in the consciousness of both film and music fans with his 1989 movie Roadkill. It started as a tour documentary, but due to the increasingly unhinged environment surrounding the band A Neon Rome, it soon transformed into a fictionalized portrait of the madness of rock and roll. With a cast including Nash the Slash, Joey Ramone, and Don McKellar (another Canadian film icon), Roadkill is a bona fide cult classic. (And yes, McDonald admits that he did spend that $25,000 prize money on a big chunk of hash.)

Hard Core Logo: Hugh Dillon, rocking a cowboy hat.

But that wasn't it for Bruce McDonald. In 1996 he directed another music movie, this one about the dissolution of a fictional punk band called Hard Core Logo, hence the title of the film. With unforgettable characters like Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon) and Billy Tallent (Callum Keith Rennie), Hard Core Logo would inspire more than band names. It is considered one of the greatest Canadian movies ever made, not to mention one of the greatest movies about punk rock.

McDonald on the set of Pontypool wearing his trademark hat.

Not content to just direct fiction films, McDonald has also worked on several documentaries and many different TV series, including Twitch City (with Don McKellar and Callum Keith Rennie), Lexx, Queer As Folk, and the forever-beloved Degrassi: The Next Generation. And of course, 2008's Pontypool (did we mention we love this movie yet?).

Although Hellions is only McDonald's second horror film at TIFF, he did direct the blacker than black comedy The Husband, which screened at the Festival back in 2013. If that name doesn't ring a bell, it's the one about the man who's forced to care for his infant son alone when his wife is sent to prison for cheating on him with a minor. Yep, THAT movie.

McDonald has long praised Roman Polanski's The Tenant and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining as his favorite horror movies, saying that "people losing their minds" is "what I'm afraid of rather than monsters."

If that also terrifies you, you'll likely go mad for Hellions.

Of course, McDonald has also mentioned another thing that scares him:

"At the festival there's a certain kind of character that's around. It's this desperate, wide-eyed, glassy, I've had a script for 12 years that I've been working on kind of crazy. To me that's a bit scary and disturbing. You're not sure what's going on there."

HELLIONS Screening Times:
Thu. Sept 17, 9:30PM ELGIN/WINTER GARDEN
Fri. Sept 18 4:00PM, SCOTIABANK 4

HELLIONS: Retro Review of Bruce McDonald's PONTYPOOL

Notice the cowboy hat!

This year, Bruce McDonald's Hellions is screening as part of Vanguard, so we thought we'd take a look back at his last Vanguard entry, Pontypool.

Let's face it: with few exceptions, everyone is sick of zombies. That's not to say that zombie movies and TV shows are dead in the water (with zombie sharks), but it does mean that artists are going to have to do better than the standard ripoffs of "I'm coming to get you, Barbara."

Enter Tony Burgess and Bruce McDonald. Based on Tony Burgess's book, Pontypool Changes Everything, the McDonald-directed film Pontypool - which screened at the Festival in 2008 - is a breath of fresh air in a cemetery full of empty, stinking graves.

Pontypool is special because it's set in one location, the basement of a church that houses radio station CSLY. In that regard, it's more of a siege movie (think Assault on Precinct 13 or this year's Midnight Madness fave Green Room), than a straightforward zombie flick. Watching it reminded me of listening to radio plays as a kid (in library class, mind you; I'm not THAT old!), specifically "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "Bluebeard." This makes Pontypool a bit metacritical and self-referential, but it also makes it scary as hell.

No one really knows what is going on in Pontypool, and hearing the panicked voices of those trapped in precarious situations outside of CSLY - they increase in hysteria as the day continues - creates a heightened state of fear. Of course, Pontypool is also set on Valentine's Day, which means it's during the thick of Ontario winter. There's something to be said about the creepy factor of cold weather. Movies have been using this setting for years to great effect: Black Christmas, The Thing, 30 Days Of Night. We only see snippets of the snow in Pontypool, but we sense it constantly throughout the movie and that makes it more claustrophobic.

Pontypool opens with DJ Grant Mazzy, who serves as the crux of the action in the film. He's the one who discusses the developing situation on the air, he's the one who inspires admiration and frustration, and he's also the one who provides what he thinks is a solution to the crisis. Portrayed by Stephen McHattie, who McDonald has called his most favorite actor, it's the role of a lifetime. McHattie's voice is perfectly suited to being a radio DJ, but it's his weathered face and take-no-shit performance as Mazzy that make Pontypool the rare film that transforms a character actor into a genuine leading man.

There's no twist in Pontypool, although it does present a remarkable, brilliant variation on the tropes of virus and infection, one that is far more relevant to modern society than the idea of mindless consumers munching on human flesh. It's one of the most unique takes on the zombie genre and thus, required viewing for all horror aficionados.

HELLIONS Screening Times:
Thu. Sept 17, 9:30PM ELGIN/WINTER GARDEN
Fri. Sept 18 4:00PM, SCOTIABANK 4