Licantropia apocalypse

After the explosively entertaining "Ginger Snaps", I had some doubts that the sequels could live up to the original. But in this one, we are greeted to a wonderful film picking up exactly where the first one left off: now with Bridget trying to stop herself from becoming a werewolf, and escaping from the rehab center she has been placed in.

If you find cutting and self-mutilation to be disgusting, then this is the film you want to either see or avoid. The opening credits are over a scene of Bridget in the bathtub, cutting herself to pieces. She continues to cut herself throughout the movie, as well as give herself injections.

The scenery is fantastic, as rehabs, hospitals and insane asylums are always great places for horror films if you know how to film them. The makers of this film know exactly what they're doing. Add secret passageways and you're set.

The new cast is also wonderful, easily making up for Ginger having a very small role. The cast now has several male staffers working in an all-girl rehab center, leading to such activities as trading sexual favors for drugs. But most importantly is a new character named "Ghost" (presumably because she's almost like an albino) who is fascinated with the occult and death and befriends Bridget after finding out she might be a werewolf.

Some interesting plot twists happen I can't reveal here, and as the wolf blood begins to overtake the human blood, things heat up. And then another werewolf shows up to try and mate.

Oh, heck. Just watch the movie. These guys have taken a worn-out horror staple (lycanthropy) and added such a new dimension to it that it's almost like an entirely new invention. Excelsior!

I wasn't expecting to like this movie all that much. I did like Ginger Snaps, and thought that it was kind a of new twist on the tired old werewolf genre... but it didn't seem like it needed or warranted a sequel. This movie went in a direction that I wasn't expecting. Rather than just doing a retread of the first story, the filmmakers chose to follow Ginger's sister Brigitte into a mental institution after the events of the first movie. It becomes more of a psychological thriller, and focuses on whether or not Brigitte is really going to turn into a werewolf or if she might just be going crazy. Granted, that may be what a lot of people don't like about it, but I ended up really enjoying the movie. It was done with a decent amount of style and the concept was eerie enough to keep me watching. As far as sequels go, not a bad one.

You know t's such a shame that neither of these films went wide release. Sure they needed a little touching up in some places but these films are definate quality material. A breathe of fresh air in the horror films which is recreating itself once again as a truly important genre. Both of these films are good, and borderline great. they take somewhat sillacious storylines and make them somewhat believable filled with aggreassive dark humor and independent film dread. This sequel is pretty much a direct continuation of the original. It leaves the last films heroine Bridget infected and fighting her illness with the cure found in the last film. She's beginning to change when she's taken in by a youth facility and locked up for drug abuse. What insues is unfortunatly unwelcome and senseless visits from the first films title charachter but a vast mixing pool of other cringe inducing twists including the fact that a male werewolf has found her and wants to mate. A sleezy hospital guard who trades sexual favors for drugs. An innocent little girl obsessed with comic books. I wish I could truly give away the ending to you. Because it was so well done and I just didnt see it coming. And that is what this film prides itself on unpredictability. It goes in a completely opposite direction of where you though it was going and it makes sense. All in all the film has much to be successful with believable performances, especially from the film's lead Bridget, a good storyline, suspenseful direction, a creepy score all adding up to a startling refreshing take on an otherwise dying genre. Don't be fooled this sequel has major bite!

Brigitte (Emily Perkins) is going through a transformation that she is fighting, but will not be able to stop. Just when she thinks she is close, she gets locked up in a drug treatment facility. Perkins is fantastic in her depiction of someone who is fighting her own demons while no one can possibly understand them. She makes this movie and she is really fun to watch.

Also impressive is Tatiana Maslany (Eastern Promises, Diary of the Dead) as Ghost. She seems a little flighty at first and we really don't get to know her until the very end. It is that ending where she comes into her own with a surprising twist.

The was a good sequel to the first film, and it picked up right where it left off. Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) even makes a few ghostly appearances.

Well worth watching.

Because the second film is so strongly connected to the first, the way this film ends is pretty strange considering how the overall story (from the first film) started. The ending isn't earned, nor does it connect to the overall themes presented and carried along the two films. This would have worked better as a standalone film; as a sequel, if falls a bit flat given how a character we've invested in for two movies and care about is treated in the end. So, while I'm not saying this film is bad (I don't think it is), it's not a good sequel. It's a very interesting standalone film if they hadn't leaned so heavily on the connection to the first film.

Still, the movie had great performances by Emily Perkins and Tatiana Maslany. As much as I didn't appreciate her ultimate goal, the Ghost character was well characterized, and the actress was very versatile in how she played her. A role like what Emily Perkins played (both in the first film and this one) could have EASILY been played vapidly, blandly, emotionlessly (Like Selma Blair in Hellboy or Jennifer Lawrence in the Hunger Games), but she infused just the right amount of emotion into it. You could actually feel for her rather than just watch someone recite lines and act like a living zombie (like a LOT of mediocre albeit successful young actresses have done/do).

If there was anything that I straight-up disliked, it's one nitpick: I don't know if it was a wig or a bad bleach job, but I don't understand why they made Ghost blonde. Maybe she's meant to be "fair" (?), but her hair is very distracting the entire film. It looks terrible and not at all convincing. Seems like it's not a Ginger Snaps movie without a main character having bad hair.

Overall, it's an interesting, entertaining film, but it's docked some points for not being a good SEQUEL.