Now that John McCain is safely off of the front pages, we can collectively reclaim the adjective “maverick” for those who really deserve the term – like Bruce McDonald.

The acclaimed independent filmmaker, whose work includes the 1996 punk rock road movie Hard Core Logo and last year’s Gemini-winning The Tracey Fragments, continues his eclectic methods with Pontypool, a film the 49-year-old playfully calls a “chick-friendly horror movie.”

Named after the Ontario city where the story takes place, Pontypool has been described around the web as a zombie picture; McDonald begs to differ, although he says there are similarities.

Speaking by phone from a busy restaurant in Edmonton, McDonald likened his film to more of a “Hitchcockian suspense thriller” than the standard George Romero-style gore-fest.

“It’s a scary movie – it’s a funny movie in three or four places and it has a great, great screen kiss,” McDonald said, adding it’s nothing like the current wave of torture-based horror films like Hostel and Saw.

Pontypool is set mainly inside a radio station. Stephen McHattie plays a talk-radio disc jockey who receives reports of the mayhem that is taking over his small city. Instead of the usual chemical virus leak that birth most zombie movie plots, Pontypool pontificates on what might happen if a virus were spread through the English language.

Given the divisional rhetoric of so many talk radio programs today, it’s not hard to link a social commentary to Tony Burgess’ script. McDonald explained that in the film, the first words to negatively infect people are, ironically, terms of endearment like “sweetheart” and “honey.”

“You may want to chew the mouth off of the person beside you” if you’re one of the unfortunate folks within earshot of those words, McDonald said of the characters in his film.

We can now conclude that “chick-friendly” is a subjective term.

The film was shot in a church basement in Toronto’s Junction District for “a million and change,” McDonald said.

“A $20 million dollar paycheque would be nice, [but] there is an unexpected freedom [from] the restrictions of a small budget.”

These freedoms include getting to work when and where he wants. McDonald will soon be holed up in our city filming a block of shows for the Winnipeg-based TV series Less Than Kind.

When asked what advice he has for aspiring filmmakers, his answer was simple.

“Astonish us [and] never underestimate kissing.”

Published in Volume 63, Number 22 of The Uniter (March 5, 2009)