Ginger Snaps
Amazon.co.uk Review
Written by Karen Walton and directed by John Fawcett, Ginger Snaps combines horror and pubescent angst in a thoughtful portrayal of female teenage development both socially and physically. The Fitzgerald sisters are alienated to the point of discussing honouring the suicide pact they made when they were eight, and producing disturbing mock-up photographs of their violent deaths. Then the slightly older Ginger is bitten by a werewolf and starts developing hair in odd places and feeling more alive than she has ever felt–but it’s not entirely clear whether this is sexual maturity or monstrosity creeping up on her until she starts developing canines and a tail. The look and feel of the movie is a cross between Grimms’s Fairytales and Neil Jordan’s A Company of Wolves, while the influence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer runs through both script and cinematography–which means it occasionally looks like an extended episode of Buffy, minus the Vampire slayer herself. The performances of Emily Perkins as the nervy Goth Brigitte and of Katherine Isabelle as the extrovert charismatic Ginger are more or less faultless; we are taken to the heart of this claustrophobic relationship just as it starts to implode. Mimi Rogers as their ditzy mother and Kris Lemke as the stoner who tries to help Brigitte are almost equally excellent.
On the DVD: The DVD includes as special features some impressive screen tests by Perkins and Isabelle in which we see them evolving their final takes on the characters; we also get a mildly interesting documentary on the construction of the werewolf Ginger becomes and a featurette that has some snappy one-liners from the cast, as well as production notes and cast notes. The Dolby sound catches the nervy grungy world of the film, which is presented in 16:9 ratio.–Rox Kaveney
Beyond a doubt, my favourite werewolf movie, and a striking confirmation that ‘teenage’ horror can be graced by lean, character-led productions, good writing, and good acting, and not reduced to couch-potato indolence by Hollywood’s fast-food diet of big budget, star-studied, slash and gore, titillating trivia. Do you get the impression I’m serious about this one?
“Ginger Snaps” takes the concept of the werewolf – a myth we have lived with since prehistory – and transforms it into a chilly tale of modern adolescence. It, at once, affirms teenage fears and plays upon them. Emily Perkins (Brigitte) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger) are two teenage for whom puberty has been delayed, much to the consternation of their mother, who is constantly trying to feed them up on a healthy diet … and checking their laundry for evidence that they’ve finally become women.
The sisters inhabit a world in which the intellect is numbed; the most terrifying demand made of teenagers is that they fit in. Outcasts – they are hated by their status-seeking classmates – the girls remain the closest of friends, darkly dressed, fashion-rejecting Goths united by a death pact and a fascination with the macabre, and haunted by the boredom and sterility of existence in the suburb of Bailey Downs.
On the night of Ginger’s first period, the girls are attacked by a creature which has scented her blood. As they flee, it is knocked down and killed by a van. The girls escape … but from now on, there’s something not quite right with Ginger. Brigitte can see it, Brigitte works out what has happened, Brigitte sets out to save her sister, to find salvation not in religion, but in science and a drug remedy for the curse which has infected Ginger’s blood.
This is sophisticated horror. Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle are magnificent in the lead roles: there is a tangible chemistry between them. Perkins creates a dark angst and torment, steeling herself to throw off her timidity and protect her sister; Isabelle exudes arrogance and an erotic cool, makes a seamless transition from social reject to sultrypredator.
The real horror of teenage years, of course, is boys and what happens naturally. How do you cope with it? How do you cope without it? How do you cope with relationships? Can you fit in with everyone else and avoid rejection, or are you forced out, left a terrified loner desperately trying to find friends and a role? Screenwriter Karen Walton uses the werewolf as metaphor for this. Her script has wit, and a feminist bite. Most teenage horror gives menstruation a wide berth – perhaps only ‘Carrie’ explores the issue with any consequence.
It is obviously a Canadian movie. This is not a put down. Anything but. Canadian cinema can often be counted upon to come up with something much more sophisticated than the Hollywood studios could tolerate … or imagine. A low budget movie – Walton and director John Fawcett fought for years to get this made – it is yet proof that a good script and good acting are the vital ingredients in a memorable film.
This is a film about teenagers, but it is not a ‘teenage’ movie: I’m back to my harangue about so many teenage horror movies simply being devices for a load of scantily dressed celebrities and beautiful people to run around screaming, bleeding, and wise-cracking – it’s a marketing device to get teenage bums on seats and into the Malls to buy the spin-off produce.
“Ginger Snaps” is a genuinely well-written and well-performed story. It works because it is character-led, because it addresses real human fears and worries seriously: you don’t have to be a 15 year old to enjoy it. This is sophisticated, intelligent cinema. If there is a criticism, it is of the last 10-15 minutes of the production where it becomes an overtly ‘horror’ movie. Not that this seriously detracts from the overall enjoyment and impact of the film. It remains an honest, askew vision of teenage angst, adolescent sexuality, and human fears, and is also a sincere exploration of love, loyalty, and sisterhood.
The wit is savage, as razor-edged as a wolf’s fangs. With puberty comes a superfluity of blood and hair growth. “Ginger Snaps” is a black comedy which uses the theme of transformation as something which happens to everyone – although this is a decidedly female perspective, we are left in no doubt that boys face puberty with as little knowledge and as much fear, despite the bravado. Adolescence is fraught with problems of relationships – finding friends, losing friends, facing the dangers that you might offend someone, do the wrong thing, wear the wrong thing, be isolated and excluded. For those who do feel left out, life is one long night of rejection, with nothing to do but howl at the moon and hope someone, someday will understand you and love you. Now that is real horror! For Fawcett and Walton the source of all human horror lies within the human body and human mind.
I say my only criticism is the last few minutes, when the monster appears? I’m still not entirely convinced this isn’t a deliberate decision by Walton and Fawcett. This film has a very solid grounding in reality, having an almost documentary feel in places. If the real horror is within us, maybe creating a brief sense of unreality only drives the fears in deeper and makes the movie just a little bit scarier? In retrospect, the ending did leave me with a sense of disjunction which possibly heightened the film’s emotional impact. Judge for yourself – I still rate this the best, the very best of the werewolf genre.
Rating: 5 / 5
At the end of “Phases,” the second season episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” where Willow discovers that her boyfriend Oz has become a werewolf. He thinks this is a major complication, but Willow replies: “Well, I like you. You’re nice, and you’re funny, and you don’t smoke, and okay, werewolf but that’s not all the time. I mean, three days out of the month I’M not much fun to be around either.”
The relationship between lycanthropy and menstruation is explored for pretty much everything it is worth in “Ginger Snaps,” a macabre hybrid of the horror and coming-of-age genres. The screenplay by Karen Walton has lots of bite, in both directions, and even when the ending goes all horror show, director John Fawcett manages to not lose the focus on all the levels this film is operating on. This might not be a great horror film, but it is certainly a memorable combination of gags and gagging.
The story is about too sisters who are bored to tears in their suburbian Ontario track development. Ginger Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle) is 16 and Brigitte (Emily), called “B,” is 15, and for fun they stage and photograph tableaus of their own deaths. Their mother (Mimi Rogers) is concerned, not because of their fascination with death or their goth wardrobe but because neither girl has had her first period. The girls are social outcasts, which only strengthens the bond between them and it clear that all they can really count on in this world are each other, which is good. Because they are going to need that bond big time when the fur begins to fly.
That is because on the night of the full moon Ginger gets her first period and is attacked by a werewolf. Now she is growing hair and other interesting things, not to mention more and more irritable (the tagline for the film is, of course, “They Don’t Call It The Curse For Nothing”). We are not sure how this story is going to play out except for one thing: Trina Sinclair (Danielle Hampton) is going down for her treatment of the Fitzgerald sisters (one teen queen should never take on two goth sisters, especially in any support involving sticks and hitting). The story also involves Sam (Kris Lemche), the good boy who is trying to help “B” find a cure for Ginger’s problem and Jason McCardy (Jesse Moss) the bad boy who is introduced by Ginger to a whole new level of badness. Then there is mom, who provides her own twist as she starts to put the pieces (literally) together.
“Ginger Snaps” works best when it is exploiting the horrors of puberty through the lycanthropy metaphor and when the bond of sisterhood comes into play. It is not until we get to see a werewolf up close and personal that we realize how low-budget this film really is, but that is a small price to play for being witty and showing some flair (even if the title is a rather lame joke).
The “Ginger Snaps” DVD version is totally stripped down. You get the movie and the trailer. There are chapter stops but no list of scenes and no alternative languages. However, you do get most of the neat music that plays over the end credits while you look at your two options.
“Ginger Snaps” was enough of a cult hit to take the next step to horror movie trilogy. This involves both a sequel, “Ginger Snaps: Unleashed” (aka “Ginger Snaps: The Sequel” and “Ginger Snaps 2″) and a prequel, “Ginger Snaps Back” (aka “Ginger Snaps 3,” “Ginger Snaps III: The Beginning,” and “Ginger Snaps: The Prequel,” which finds Brigette and Ginger in 19th Century Canada having more werewolf fun.
Rating: 4 / 5
With the recent spate of ‘Scream’ clones, this film comes as a breath of fresh air – highly original and truly scary without the tongue in cheek note of it’s current horror competitors.
The film is about 2 inseparable sisters who are considered ‘freaks’ by their classmates due to their preoccuptaion with death and are suffocated by their overbearing mother – their relationship changes when one of them – Ginger – gets bitten by a werewolf and we head into the territory of folklore and myth.
The young cast are exceptional, I particularly like Emily Perkins as Brigitte and Kris Lemche as Sam. And the special effects, whilst a little hit and miss, more often than not convince.
For anyone who enjoyed American Werewolf in London and The Howling – this is a must-see!
Rating: 5 / 5
I first got the chance to watch this film in Media Studies and I must admit I approached it with much trepidation. My first thoughts were that it would be typical of the teen horror genre but Ginger Snaps is definately not! It combines the much-used ‘teen slasher’ genre with the age old monster movie to create a hybrid that keeps the suspense and interest flowing throughout!
The lesser known lead actors are perfectly cast in their roles as two misfit teen sisters with a fasicination for blood and death. You’ll definately be on the edge of your seat as the film comes to it climatic, and shall we say, unexpected ending. Ginger Snaps is a rework of a formula that has provided us with entertainment for years and it’s definately a rework that works. It didn’t do too well in the US but I urge anyone considering to buy this film to give it chance, you won’t be disappointed!
Rating: 4 / 5
I began watching ‘Ginger Snaps’ because I’d been intrigued by the DVD cover over the years (sounded like an OK premise), and there it was on TV one night, so why not give it a go.
Imagine my surprise, those of you who aren’t werewolf movie fans, when it started shaping up to be one of the most brilliant movies about adolescence I’d ever seen. Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) are two eccentric and somewhat Gothic teenage sisters in some awful town in Canada whose hobby is to stage fake deaths of themselves. One night, two things happen to Ginger; she starts menstruating, and she’s attacked in the presence of her sister by some kind of terrifying beast. (Not a lot of difference, some would say.) This whole metaphor (sexuality-as-lycanthropy) is then pursued with stunningly grim wit for the first seventy-odd minutes of the movie. The girls’ parents (Mimi Rogers, excellent, and some guy I don’t know, equally good but barely in it) are oblivious of the fact that their elder daughter is growing a tail and developing a fondness for eviscerating the neighbourhood dogs. And while Ginger is coming to terms with her new life as a werewolf, she’s also suddenly interested in boys, and not in hanging out with her somewhat dorky younger sister. Brigitte has to start growing up quickly, if only in order to curb the alarming bloodlust of her increasingly vulpoid sibling.
So, up until then, it’s completely brilliant. Then, in the last twenty minutes, it all (IMHO) falls apart. Instead of following the logic established so beautifully early on, it becomes about running away from a person in a rubber wolf costume. The wit, style and invention drops off, and Plot rules with its characteristically leaden hand. It’s a damn shame, because the performances of Perkins, Isabelle and Lemke in particular are excellent, and Karen Walton’s script (for that first two-thirds, anyway) is top-class. IMDB reports that Walton is currently adapting for film one of the best Canadian novels of recent years, Michael Turner’s ‘The Pornographer’s Poem’, so I’ll be looking out for that.
I gather that they went on to make a sequel and a prequel. It could probably go on forever. I’d watch them, too, if only because of the charm of the main characters, two of the most touchingly foul-mouthed misfits ever to sulk their way into this viewer’s heart. I wish this film had been around when I was a teenager. I would have understood a lot more about girls, if nothing else. I just wish it had been less of a werewolf movie.
Rating: 3 / 5