Ginger Snaps

Dir: John Fawcett (The Boys Club, "The Border", "The Bridge")
Cast: Katharine Isabelle, Emily Perkins, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton
Canada, 2000

Seen: Re-visited June 22, 2010 and originally seen on TMN

Reason to Watch & Review: For The Wolfathon *

I love Ginger Snaps. I loved it when I first saw it and loved it all the more re-visiting it for The Wolfathon. The idea is brilliant, overlaying female puberty and sexuality in a werewolf film. Lunar cycles, body changes, transformation... it's freaking brilliant idea and results is a hilarious, dark horror film.

The central characters of the film are the Fitzgerald sisters, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins), macabre teens stuck in suburbia who swear oaths and vulgarities while going through the every day motions of teen life with school, parents and boys. I love that the film features sisters, and this one really does show the sibling bond and how far they will go to help each other. Sure, it's in a completely dark and twisted sense - but the sentiment is still there. How they incorporate the changes of puberty is done so well, from awkward 'your body is changing' conversations to frustration, pain, coping and empowerment, it's all there with full colourful commentary throughout.

In terms of being a werewolf film, it certainly draws on and is aware of the lore and gives it this new twist thematically but still hits all the right marks. In terms of effects and gore, it's present in bucket loads. This film does not hold back, you've got blood, guts and bites all over the place. The effects overall are pretty impressive too, not just how they look but the creative choices and how they are featured throughout the film.

The premise of Ginger Snaps is so brilliant, it's a surprize that no one had done it before. But, I'm glad because then we would have ended up with something else and I love the film that it is: smart, gutsy, gory and totally female focused from start to finish. I wish we had more films like this out there.

Warnings: Gore. Lots of gore.

Shannon's Overall View:
I loved it
I own it
I highly recommend it

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© Shannon Ridler, 2010

* The Wolfathon is a marathon exploring werewolf films in anticipation of the 2010 release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse