Ginger Snaps
January 30th 2007 00:26
Ginger Snaps (2000), a Canadian production, is up in the small pantheon of killer werewolf flicks. It’s a smaller league than vampire flicks, frustrating, but a reality. The lycanthrope is a beast that doesn’t seem to translate as enthusiastically up on silver screen, as the fetid-breathed undead.
Personally I really dig werewolves. There’s a sharp bite to their supernatural core. Sure, they don’t perhaps have the same slinky, suave sex-appeal, but for werewolves the sex is more carnal, more primal. As Ginger herself spits rather bitterly, “I thought I had a craving for sex, but it’s to tear everything to fucking pieces!”
The sisters are ridiculed at school, which only aggravates their general misanthropy (hello, lycanthropy!). They are inseparable and spend much of their free time staging their own highly elaborate death and suicide scenes (Harold and Maude, anyone?), which they photograph and archive. They even put together a slide show for class presentation which, of course, disgusts, but mostly confuses, their dorky male teacher.
No one seems to understand them. Puberty is playing havoc with their sensibilities. And that pretty bitch Trina Sinclair with her damn dog, she’s gonna get hers one day! Just you wait! But fate plays a bitch of a card when the two girls are attacked near the woods and Ginger is savagely mauled. They escape only to discover back at home that Ginger’s wounds are healing at an alarming rate. Uh-oh.
Director John Fawcett has elicited two superb performances from the two leads; Emily Perkins as “B” (Brigitte) and Katharine Isabelle as her afflicted older sister, Ginger. Mimi Rogers turns in a decent job as the slow-witted mom (funny to think she was first married to Tom Cruise, a werewolf in sheep’s clothing if ever there was one!)
Brigitte needs an antidote, a cure, urgently. Druggie Sam (Chris Lemche) seems the best option, as he knows a little about the properties of Monkshood, and can reduce the crushed petals into a hypodermic solution.
It seems most werewolf flicks are part comedy, not sure why that is, perhaps it has something to do with baying at the moon, an inhairant gnawing of the funny bone. Ginger Snaps has some great dialogue, mostly exchanges between the sisters (eg while they look for a suitable box of tampons Brigitte asks Ginger “Are you sure they’re just cramps?”, Ginger, doubled-over in pain sarcastically replies, “Just so you know, the words ‘just’ and ‘cramps’ do not go together.”), but amusingly - almost pointedly - there’s a very keen use of the word “fuck” too …
One of the more potent scenes from the movie (and very unsafe for the workplace!):
The special effects are pretty decent for this none-too-monstrous-budgeted film (especially in the mock suicide polaroids), however the werewolf design itself is a bit hokey - which frequently seems to be the case in these movies. Still, the editing does the best it can to keep the menace frighteningly alive and frothing at the mouth, and there are some genuinely unnerving scenes.
Ginger Snaps is a kind of twisted date flick; it pokes intelligent fun at our adolescent woes, teases our lust, plays around with supernatural thrills, while keeping the horror edge sharp and glistening in the fat moonlight. It’s hip without being self-conscious, and that’s a delicate balance to hold.
The movie was followed by two lesser sequels shot back-to-back, Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004) dealt with Brigitte’s further plight, while Ginger Snaps Back (2004) was a "period" piece (muah-ha-ha!) …
* images on this page were taken from the following wikipedia page:
Ginger Snaps (film)
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
You and I have already discussed our love for this under discussed delight...great choice of clip, though my favourite scene in the film is still the suicidal opening....I still laugh every time I watch this film, the comedy really works and the story proudly flies in the face of genre cliche.
Ginger Snaps and Dog Soldiers stand tall as the best post American Werewolf in London lythanthrope adventures......until Eric Reid's Bad Moon gets an aussie DVD release
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
canadian teenage werewolves, eh? Well, some of our girls are pretty hairy. After all, it's cold.
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
My big problem with werewolf movies is that they never do a particularly good job of the werewolf. I think Hollywood needs to work on that. Vampires are kind of sexy, but the werewolves usually look a bit cartoony.
Great review!
Comment by Sisi
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Unleashed is okay, but it's more self-conscious, since it's been set-up already, if you get my drift ...
When you watch Ginger Snaps it's interesting to note the actor playing Brigitte was five years older (23)than the actor playing Ginger, yet Brigitte is the younger character (15), and most definitely looks it ... she also wears a wig, kinda amusing ... Not sure why I mentioned that ...
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
One of the reasons might be that werewolves make greater demands on special effects.
Great review Bryn!
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile