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!

This is a genuinely creepy film, with creepy plot, creepy filming and creepy story with several creepy scenes. A sequel inspired by but not a thematic continuation of the first. With most sequels you walk in expecting an extension of the first, all the things that worked in the first film delivered in the second. Seldom does the sequel collect the audacity to march off in a different direction.

This one bravely does and creates and entirely different film, a much darker one spun cleanly from the first.

Apologies to all the nay sayers but this is dead solid perfect.

A cult niche and maybe a lesson on how to do sequels ... get creative people on board to use the engine of unexpected popularity, or expected popularity, for inventive film making.

I'll own this one and the original.

Cool.

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.

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. * * 1/2 Actors: Emily Perkins, Tatiana Maslany, Eric Johnson Writer: Megan Martin Director: Brett Sullivan.

The second part of the "Ginger Snaps" trilogy picks up after the first one. Bridgitte has infected herself with Ginger's blood who has turned into a werewolf. In order to keep herself from becoming like her sister, she must inject herself daily with monkshood. After barely escaping a werewolf that has found her, she awakes in a clinic that treats all things including drug addiction. With her drugs taken away, Bridgitte can't escape what she is becoming.

I loved the 1st movie and I found the second one to be a worthwhile sequel. While the first one simmered with satire on female hormones and puberty, "Unleashed" is a straight horror film. It's too bad we don't see much of Ginger in this one, but she does turn up as a ghost who warns Bridgitte that another one waits for her. Bridgitte is a lot more confident and a lot hotter than the first one. But although this is her story, the one character that steals the show is a young girl at the hospital named Ghost. Bridgitte befriends this girl because she can help get her monkshood and I'm sure she feels a little bad that all the other patients make fun of her. There is a twist at the end of this movie that I was not expecting, but on my second viewing of it. I don't know how I could have missed it. All the warning signs were shown in the first thirty minutes.

If you haven't seen the first one you could just watch this one alone. It has a good enough story to keep you interested. It's not as fulfilling as the original, but it's a nice desert

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!