It's a good thing a cold, dreary day in mid-April isn't conducive to thunderstorm activity, because the mere sight of Hugh Dillon dressed as a preacher could be enough to provoke a blast of lightning from the heavens.

The hard-livin', hard-rockin' and distinctly un-preacherly Headstones frontman is in Edmonton shooting Ginger Snaps - The Prequel, the third movie in the trilogy of tales about werewolf-cursed sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins). The film is set to wrap in three weeks, though no release date has been set.

Directed by Grant Harvey, the prequel is set in 1815 in an isolated fort that's being overrun by strange wolf-like beasties. Dillon is Rev. Gilbert, a man of God who, ironically, finds his faith strengthened when the outpost's residents discover these are no ordinary mad dogs.

"He's definitely a soldier of God," the mutton-chopped Dillon said yesterday, taking a drag on a cigarette between takes at Fort Edmonton Park.

"He's so f------ righteous it's unbelievable. It's not just like he's a man of God and there might be a little doubt. Now he knows there's a God, because there's the devil."

The devil that Dillon gestures at is a giant red-brown werewolf corpse - the work of Los Angeles-based special effects guru Howard Berger - lying in the fort's inner courtyard, apparently having being brought down in a hail of arrows and gunfire.

In this scene, Gilbert and the rest of the fort's residents discover the wolf isn't just some mutated animal, but rather one of their own. With no one to turn to for help and no place to escape to safety, this is bad news indeed.

But while the rifle-toting, Bible-thumping Rev. Gilbert might be quietly quivering in his brogans, Dillon is having the time of his life.

"It's great stuff," he said. "I get to say things like, 'And he who is cast down into the fire is upon us, and his name is legion, for he is many!'

"There's a lot of things I dig about it. I get to shoot a period piece, and my character is not saying (bad word), (really bad word), and (exceptionally bad word) all the time. In fact this is the first film I've done where there's no profanity."

While Dillon has absolutely no plans to give up the Headstones, acting is a growing part of his career. His first major screen role was playing punk rocker Joe Dick in Bruce McDonald's mockumentary Hard Core Logo, which was released on video in the U.S. by Quentin Tarantino's distribution company and just re-released last week on DVD in a special "hard core" edition.

Dillon even auditioned for the character of Ray Nicolette in Quentin Tarantino's 1997 Jackie Brown.

And although the role eventually went to Michael Keaton, Tarantino ended up being so impressed with Dillon that he picked up Hard Core Logo for distribution.

Making movies "is like music," said Dillon, who just finished shooting an indie film in New York called Down to the Bone, due to be shown at next year's Sundance Film Festival. "You're working with other people, and you're trying to make something that's telling a story.

"I'm a storyteller myself, I'm a songwriter, foremost. But acting is something that just fits. It's easy to do both."

The Headstones are scheduled to headline an indie music festival in the central Alberta town of Donalda in June, although Dillon, to be frank, didn't even know about it. But he blames his current state of ignorance on the Apocalypse Now-like experience of making movies.

"I'm kind of Col. Kurtz," he said. "When I go up the river, I don't f-----' call home."