TORONTO — Gabbi Kosmidis still feels shivers from watching the intensely gory 2006 horror thriller “Silent Hill” as a child.
“It was an insane film for an 11-year-old to watch,” says the Toronto-based voice actor, now 30.
“I loved it, but I still, to this day, have nightmares from it.”
She’s now channeling that early brush with the macabre into her role in “Night of the Zoopocalypse,” a Canadian animated horror comedy loosely based on a short story by “Hellraiser” creator Clive Barker.
Hitting theatres Friday, the 92-minute film follows a group of animals battling for survival after a meteor strike unleashes a virus that turns their fellow zoo dwellers into zombies.
Kosmidis voices Gracie, a plucky young wolf who spends all night trying to stop the spread, teaming up with a group of unaffected animals, including a crotchety mountain lion played by “Stranger Things” star David Harbour, and a cheeky ostrich, played by Kids in the Hall alum Scott Thompson.
Kosmidis believes the PG-rated movie can act as a gateway to ghastly fare for horror-curious kids.
“I wish I had this film when I was growing up, to be honest, because I watched much scarier movies than I probably should have,” she says on a virtual call with Thompson.
“I mean, nobody's old enough to see ‘Silent Hill,’" quips Thompson, who says he grew up on horror comedies like 1948’s “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.”
“Zoopocalypse” was inspired by Barker’s unpublished short story “Zoombies,” about a child trapped in a zoo during a zombie outbreak. Barker brought the concept to Canadian production company Copperheart Entertainment, who then approached Toronto storyboard artist Ricardo Curtis with an idea to turn it into an “animated family film.”
Curtis called up his longtime collaborator Rodrigo Perez-Castro, an animation vet and horror buff, to help him direct.
“Clive gave us full freedom to basically do what we wanted to do, which is the most amazing thing to hear when you're a director working with someone's property. We showed it to him and he loved it,” says Curtis.
There are Barker-esque horror tropes laced throughout the Canada/France/Belgium co-production, including a gooey alien chrysalis and the merging of zombie-animal flesh. But Perez-Castro says that while Barker’s story was human-centered, “we thought it was more interesting to make it an allegory of the human condition through animals.”
The duo was inspired by zombie films like 1968’s “Night of the Living Dead,” which some interpreted as a social commentary on racial segregation in the United States at the time it was released.
“We were making the movie during the pandemic as we were all in our own bubbles, just like animals are in their own enclosures, and we were all fighting ideologically and not getting along,” recalls Perez-Castro.
“We thought, ‘Let's just reflect that through animals.' They’re obviously different species and they have to work together to overcome this really weird night that they have to face.”
Curtis says they steered clear of making any statements about the ethics of zoos themselves, which the creators and actors have mixed feelings about.
“I don't love picking animals out of their natural habitat and putting them into an enclosure. I don't necessarily agree,” says Kosmidis.
“However, in terms of the animals that are almost extinct or need more protection, zoos can actually provide that for them.”
But Thompson counters: “Maybe the spotted salamander of Tanganyika is not meant to continue. Maybe you shouldn't force the last two to have sex.”
The comedian envisions a future where zoos no longer house animals — instead, they'll be filled with humans, kept on display by aliens.
“When the aliens do arrive, I'm going to be so friendly, because I want to be in that zoo,” says Thompson.
“I want to be in that zoo, too, actually! I would love to be in an alien zoo,” Kosmidis agrees.
Thompson cracks that his career has been the perfect training ground for life in alien captivity.
“I mean, we're actors, so we're this close to being zoo animals,” he says, imagining a director shouting commands.
"‘Dance, hedgehog! Dance for your supper!'”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2025.
Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press
