Ginger Snaps

Ah... it does my heart good to see that the first decent werewolf movie since "An American Werewolf in London" came from independent roots. The fact that it came from Canada is even more refreshing. Do horror movies have to be made outside the US to be intelligent? Look at the current trend of remaking all the Japanese and Korean horror movies. Look at Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" from the UK. Look also at the immensely talented Guillermo Del Toro and the fact that his best movies (Cronos and Devil's Backbone) are both essentially foreign films. Maybe there's a trend there. Maybe Americans don't know how to make original horror movies anymore. I certainly hope not. But regardless, this is a worthy contribution to the werewolf genre, and fits nicely with "American Werewolf in London" and "The Howling" - despite the rather shoddy FX by hackmasters KNB, the story managed to rise above its budgetary constraints. Definitely worth a watch for fans of werewolf films who are looking for something a little better than "Bad Moon" or "Silver Bullet".

A fun little Canadian werewolf/coming of age tale about a pair of quirky teen girls with a fascination for the macabre. Good Werewolf movies are hard to come by these days, and while this isn't perfect its definitely good fun. It manages to include a good dose of Werewolf lore and tropes while also being a fairly original film with its own characters and themes. It brings something new to the table and thats a good start for me.

I grow weary of horror films. I really do. I don't tend to enjoy the majority of serial killer slasher flicks because they're not my piece of cake. One, they don't scare me. Two, the quality of the films has greatly decreased since John Carpenter's "Halloween," and the result is a bunch of recycled slasher hits and their uncountable many sequels, all just replays of the last one. Three, the entire formula is getting old.

There are bands of teenagers and cult followers who love horror films. I am not one of those (un)lucky individuals. I respect well-made modern horror films, but I yearn for the olden days when horror implied something a little more than just blood-'n-guts-type serial killer movies with unbeatable foes battling virgins and non-virgins in ridiculous situations.

Yes, real horror films are truly hard to find nowadays, which is why "Ginger Snaps" -- a modestly-scaled Canadian werewolf movie -- succeeds as more than just another crude bit-by-a-werewolf-soon-you're-a-killer-man-beast movie. (Pardon the random and haphazard string of words.)

Werewolf movies are as old as the days. Over the years, with unflattering productions such as "Wolf" (1994), the legend and actual horror of werewolfs has decreased and the images of the beasts have turned into some sort of cute, cuddly dog figures.

"Ginger Snaps" is one of the darkest werewolf films made, and one of the most realistic, too. It's a story about a teenage girl who acquires the mythical hairraising powers of the species after being attacked and mauled in Canadian woods.

Ginger (Katharine Isabelle, who starred in this year's "Freddy vs. Jason") is a happy 16-year-old with a low social life status. Her 15-year-old sister, Brigitte (Emily Perkins), is the same way. But one night in the woods outside their home, both girls are attacked by a vicious beast, and soon Ginger starts going through some changes. First it's minor stuff, like hair sprouting in weird places. Then it's strange stuff, like growing a tail.

Soon she's the "cool girl" at school, hanging out with the right crowds and so on. Her sister is put off by Ginger's new image, and is uneasy with the new, cruel, cool Ginger, who no longer hangs out with her sister.

But the changes start to become too apparent, and she begins to gradually evolve into a hairy beast, which threatens not only Brigitte's life, but also those around her, especially after Ginger's blood craving starts to take over her senses.

The key to this film, I think, is its modest tone. It was a low-budget Canadian werewolf movie -- nothing more -- and it has an ingenuity about it. It's original, to a certain extent, even though the actual premise of werewolves has been used to death over the years.

This is a fun movie because of its unique view of werewolves. It brings the legend of the mythical beasts closer to reality -- it offers a perspective of what it may truly be like to acquire the abilities of the beast in today's age. Sure, the overall premise may be ridiculous, as werewolves are works of fiction, but if you ever want to know what it may be like -- just for fun -- then check this one out for a good thrill.

4/5 stars.

• John Ulmer

Ginger Snaps is one of the best revisionist horror movies I've seen - if you liked "Ravenous" you'll enjoy this. Contrary to a previous reviewer's remarks, the film is not heartlessly "cool" - no chilly hipster would be capable of the compassion this film shows to its outcast, unbeautiful characters. Like all the best horror films, the true subject of fear is very real - the earthquake effect of sexual maturity on teenagers, girls in this case, and the disruption of sibling relationships by differing levels of sexual maturity. It also speaks to a genuine post-Columbine concern. When youth culture admires alienation, morbid affectation and misanthropy, how can genuine psychosis be distinguished from acting out? The highest praise goes to Isabelle and Perkins, whose characterisation is superb. Mimi Rogers as the mother who raises denial to an art form is also excellent.

On the downside, the last twenty percent of the film declines into cliched stalk-and-slash, with typically idiotic behaviour by previously intelligent characters, and an embarrassingly polymeric monster. The humanoid werewolf makeup is so derivative of "Buffy" I'm surprised Optic Nerve didn't sue. Moreover, for its revisionist pretensions, the films underlying attitudes to sexuality are disappointingly regressive, as are the final fates to which it consigns its characters.

On balance though, highly recommended.

Plenty of films equate the bloody lusts of vampires with sexual desire, usually without much subtlety or imagination; but John Fawcett's film 'Ginger Snaps' makes a rather more explicit link: one between lycanthropy and puberty. In fact, so lovingly does the film recreate the world of two Gothic sisters (including their hopeless mother, who wants them to be normal and happy in a way that doesn't help anyone) that becoming a werewolf seems like nothing more than a natural extension to the growing pains of a disturbed teenager. It's the believable psychology that makes this film genuinely scary, even though it's almost completely devoid of special effects until the very end; and even in the final showdown, one can still half-believe in the kinship of girl and beast. Overall, it's proof you can make a high class horror film set not in some fantastic landscape, but in the bland anonymity of suburban Canada.