Written by Karen Walton
Directed by John Fawcett
Starring Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche and Mimi Rogers
Canada, 2001
When I worked at a video distributor in the early 2000s, GINGER SNAPS was legendary as the perfect example of a (basically) direct-to-video movie that became a huge hit on rental shelves, even though it had no publicity behind it and barely played in theaters. Maybe it was the box art. Maybe it was just the right place at the right time. Whatever it was, GINGER SNAPS was the B-movie all B-movies wanted to be in those final, slim-pickin’ days of home video rental.
Then TWILIGHT came along. As a result, I always assumed GINGER SNAPS was sort of a proto TWILIGHT – it was popular with, and about, teenage girls, and was about werewolves. I figured I was in for sort of a mash up of THE CRAFT and TWILIGHT, and I was wrong.
Turns out it’s about a girl named Ginger who snaps! So it’s not just a clever title. Ginger turns into a werewolf, bit by bit, and begins to enjoy her newly found murderous ways, as her more reserved sister is forced to come to terms with the fact that she’s going to have to stop all this from happening. And so, we march ever on to the final battle royale between sisters – the werewolf hunter, and the werewolf.
Even though this flick came out at a time when terrible CGI was a hallmark of DTV B flicks, GINGER SNAPS stays away from that, opting for pretty convincing makeup effects and practical creature work, making the most out of a pretty impressive werewolf puppet towards the end of the film, shooting around it in creative and clever ways to cover up its limitations.
Of course, the real story here is how the whole flick is an allegory for the traumatic adolescence of teen girls, but that goes without saying, right?
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