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Ginger Snaps (2000)

http://www.mosaic-entertainment.co.uk

Dir: John Fawcett 

Brigitte (depressed Trent Reznor look-a-like Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) are your typical doom, gloom and death obsessed teen outsiders. They are alienated by their schoolmates (and like it that way) and spend most of their free time creating fake murder, suicide, death films and photos while contemplating how to end it all, “United against life as we know it”.

But things are changing.
Brigitte is deeper into loathing life in general because she feels alienated from society more due to the fact people find her far less attractive than her, one year older , Sister.
Ginger, despite the angst and anger she outwardly projects, is noticing the fact she is becoming attractive to boys, a fact she actually finds more and more appealing.
As menstruation (‘The Curse’) arrives in Ginger’s life another difference opens up between the Sisters, as Brigitte is now being physically left behind by her Sidling as well.

After a run-in at school with their ‘good girl’ nemesis Trina Sinclair (Danielle Hampton) Brigitte and Ginger decide to take a nightly revenge on her dog and blame it on the mysterious ‘Beast of Bailey Downs‘ that has been going around scoffing people’s pets.
But this night the ‘beast’ will taste Human meat…Ginger.
Ginger is severely bitten and mauled and the two girls flee for home with the creature hot on their heels.
The chase is short though as the ‘Beast’ is well and truly splattered by the van of local Marijuana dealer Sam (Kris Lemche), who notices that whatever he hit…wasn’t natural.

Back at their home Brigitte notices that Ginger’s wounds have almost healed and the next day hairs are sprouting from the scars. Brigitte tries to convince the angrily sceptical Ginger that she was bitten by a Werewolf, but to no avail.
And as Ginger becomes more confident, aggressive, seductive and…hungry…Brigitte turns to the unlikely aid of Sam to try and save her Sister…..

 

Breathing a welcome breath of fresh air into the near-dead carcass of the Werewolf film, Canadian movie “Ginger Snaps” is now classed (after an initially small scale and staggered worldwide release) as a high water mark for modern Horror and was embraced by hungry Horror fans because it provided intelligence, strong characters and subtext without skimping on good old fashioned bloodshed and shocks.

Despite the strong female standpoint that writer Karen Walton approaches the story from, the film never dips into anti-male rhetoric or tired ‘Earth Goddess’ flights of whimsical fancy. Walton carefully (and cleverly) crafts the plot so that it appeals to both sexes while still offering the often ignored female Horror fan much to get their teeth into, delivering a film with strong female themes, portrayed via strong female lead characters essayed by strong female lead performers.

The Werewolf aspect of the story is obviously a metaphor for the onset of puberty, but this is never put over in a pretentious manner, instead it’s delivered via playful but dark comedy sequences and via serious, achingly emotional scenes of the two Sisters slowly drifting away from each other.
Their dizzy, ever optimistic Mother (a wonderful turn by Mimi Rogers) is overjoyed to see her girls growing up and happily discusses the natural changes a girl goes through, including periods and cramps, at the dinner table and still gives the same hippie, trippy advice even when she is unknowingly discussing the far more unnatural changes that Ginger’s body is going through.
This link between natural changes and supernatural ones is brilliantly cemented in a funny sequence where the school Nurse explicitly tells the girls about menstrual bleeding and the appearance of hairs, little knowing the more and more confused Sisters have very different blood and hair worries.

The mirroring of the natural and the supernatural is not just shown physically though. The almost animalistic interest that Ginger now shows towards the opposite sex, and to sex itself, may well be the ‘beast’ in her but it’s also the very natural change as Ginger moves into womanhood and has desires and needs (not just physical, but emotional) that her Sister can no longer provide, and can never be part of. Ginger is indeed becoming a different person and Brigitte is being emotionally ripped up by a fact she can’t change and has, like the Werewolf curse, no control over.

The difference from normal cinematic Werewolf-lore in “Ginger Snaps” is that the metamorphosis takes place slowly, and once it’s complete would seem to be a permanent state. There is no changing back and forth from Wolf and Human, no going back to what once was…again a clever link to growing older and moving on.

Although there is humour here, like a great scene after their teacher has seen the Sister‘s ‘death film’ project that delivers much mirth and a lot of the dialogue (though there is far too much swearing for swearing’s sake with the phrase “You’re fucked” being the worst offender) being wonderfully barbed and wickedly comic, the serious events in the story are treated as just that. Serious, and with genuinely tragic and Human consequences. The deaths for example are never taken lightly or seen as fun and cool, we have a brief moment of black comedy involving a hidden corpse but that’s it. And this assurance that the film keeps serious the things that should be just that is another strength of the screenplay.

Performances by all are excellent, even down to the smallest support player. Perkin’s is a revelation as Brigitte making her a dark, damaged but likeable (and initially unlikely) heroine and she plays off brilliantly the more flashy turn by the genuinely sexy and provocative Isabelle (whose sexy, confident, almost predatory walk down the school corridor, and at the later Halloween party, are major highlights) who essays Ginger’s fall into hell brilliantly.
Lemche, as the smart, friendly dope dealer, also does an exceptional job in making what is at first very much a background character into a major part of the final act and you find yourself rooting for him as he and Brigitte take on Ginger in hope of saving her.
As mentioned, Rogers is wonderful as the slightly batty but loving Mother and it’s a shame that her character gets forgotten before the finale.

The music is also a big plus to the film. We have the obligatory ‘hip’ bands playing on it, but their music is either used in context (a party, a radio) or as very effective punctuation to a scene.
The title music, a mixture of electronic drum beats and haunting violin, brilliantly captures the mood of the film.

The gore is spares, but violent and exceptionally bloody. It’s never just there for cheap thrills and adds a big punch to the movie at strategic points.
The make-up FX are less successful though, with some of Ginger’s early facial make-up looking very latex-like up close and the werewolf itself a rather unsatisfying , large rat/Muppet hybrid coated in wisps of fur. It moves okay, but it’s far from the savage beast we were hoping for.

The finale features some unexpectedly nasty and cruel moments and delivers a very satisfying emotional conclusion, if not a satisfying story conclusion as much is left open.
The next sequel “Ginger Snaps: Unleashed” would answer many of the questions but still sadly leave some hanging and as such, although successful on some levels, the ending is somewhat of a letdown.

But that aside, “Ginger Snaps” provides a rousing, intelligent, thoughtful and delightfully performed Horror experience and is justly deserving of it’s enduring, cult status.

 

The R2 UK DVD from ‘Mosaic Entertainment’ may not provide the wealth of extras the Canadian release does (though to be fair, that was only ever designed for sale in Canada) but it’s vastly superior to the R1 American release from ‘Artisan’ that was completely bare bones and only offered a full screen, pan and scan presentation of the film.
‘Mosaic’ have provided a very nice, colourful, clear anamorphic transfer, a 5:1 mix that does the job and provides some good surround moments during the Werewolf attacks, a brief ‘making of…’ featurette, screen tests of Isabelle and Perkins, an FX short on making the Wolf, the Theatrical trailer and production notes. So it may not be the perfect release, but it’s still a nice release of a, on the whole, excellent movie

Purchase at: http://www.choicesukdirect.com/shop.asp