Licantropia apocalypse

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

Brigitte now has the virus in her blood that destroyed her sister Ginger in the first film. So to prevent herself from changing into the beast she injects monksblood into her system, but after an overdose she wakes up in a rehabilitation clinic. Which now she has become so attached to the syrup and without it, the affects of the curse starts to transform within her. From the physical to the mental attributes. But also on her tail is that of a male werewolf who wants to mate with her and Ginger is keeping a tab on her by haunting her mind.

I remember when I picked up 'Ginger Snaps' I was expecting another mediocre or below-average werewolf flick. Gosh, I was wrong! Just like 'Dog Soldiers' it was more then good and added some new life to the whimpering sub-genre. And I'm happy to say it worked out again in this monstrous sequel and I was actually digging this one a tad more, though that was up until the stalling sequences involving hiding out in a house. It would've been great to see more Katharine Isabelle as Ginger too, but you can't have it all your own way I guess. I wasn't expecting anything incredibly special, but it did have big boots to fill and we all know the law of diminishing returns. Well, this sequel keeps far away form that trend and doesn't lean away from the quirky and offbeat nature of its predecessor, but it actually enhances it with a very morbid and cold-hearted appeal. It's depressing to the bone, I but I get kick out of any films that create this sort of tone! Though what made the original rejuvenating was that it had warm and natural relationships between the characters, especially between Bridget and Ginger, but also with the parents. Because of the sequel's depressing vibe, it does lack the heartache of the horrifying matter that drove the sisters even closer in the first film. Also it sorely does miss the characteristic interactions between the sisters. Although saying that they do share some screen time here, but only in small doses meaning far less impact.

The plot is an absorbing one, which doesn't break a whole lot of new ground like the original, but still comes up with enough hunger to set it out from most other horror flicks of the last decade, but also adding another dimension to the tale. Just like in the first film and like many reviewers have painted it's a metaphor for adolescent life, from angst, drugs and sex. But this cocktail is mixed with a refreshing twist involving the werewolf mythology, introducing the metaphor part of all of this. The snappy script holds up well and the story moves along pretty quickly with enough excitement initiated and the twists are far from easy to detect. No way is this story's structure predictable! The actual ending was kind of clever, but felt odd and left me feeling a little unsatisfied. The editing was swiftly sharp and potent to the pacing. It also recaptures the slickly handled production of that of the original, but it looks like it had more to work with here. That's especially because the special effects and werewolf designs were vastly better this time around and the attacks were more callous and bloodier. The isolated setting was made to great use with its cold wintry backdrop and gloomy awe. The action might have up the ante in this sequel, but so did the soundtrack by igniting itself with the Gothic and haunting tunes that made the original great. The upbeat tempo of the soundtrack bounds the mood. The spectral sound effects also worked its way into the picture and it was hard to shut out its thumping vibration throughout. The out-and-out stylistic camera-work sinuously develops some inventive shots. The direction by Brett Sullivan is above par and he hones down his skills with preciseness but adding such tautness and tension to the picture. The performances were magnificent. Emily Perkins comes out of the shadow of Katharine Isabelle here, and she made the most of it by turning in a convincing performance. Tatiana Maslany as Ghost one of the kids in the clinic provides on the humour side of things and Eric Johnson is perfectly scummy as one of the workers at the clinic. Katharine Isabelle makes some small but yet effective glimpses and adds in with some voice-overs. This production most definitely went one step bigger.

After two worthy werewolf films, I wonder if the film makers can repeat this winning formula in their third flick of the series Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004) or will it come crashing back to earth with a thud. The sequel is very much on par with the original and definitely well worth the look. Actually I would say it's a must-see if you seen the original.

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.

There are some films that just shouldn't have a sequel.

So, given that I firmly believe this about 'Ginger Snaps', 'Ginger Snaps Unleashed' clearly had a tough act to follow. And y'know, it didn't do too badly.

So by now we've all got the plot - Bridgit mainlining wolfsbane to not become like her sister, passes out in the snowy streets after another werewolf attack and wakes up in a rehab centre. Yada yada, this is IMDb, you can look up the plot summary earlier. But the way it develops...OK, it's no way as symbolic as the first film but it's damn logical. It all makes sense in context, right down to the *deeply* messed up ending. Which in some ways is a drawback because it's a little *too* realistic to always engage; it's a bit dull at times, just like rl. And all the characters are 2-dimensional except for Bridget, Ghost, and maybe the creepy Tyler.

But! Those three? Carry the movie. Emily Perkins is as great as she was in the first film, and Eric Johnson shows us that when it came to Smallville, *Lana* should have left on the bus to go into military. But the real find is Tatiana Maslany, who quite frankly is *terrifying* as Ghost. Which is maybe another criticism; given the ending I shouldn't have worked things out as quickly as I did, but that's not just due to Tatiana, that's also due to other clues in the film. This aside, she rocks as Ghost and it's great to see the kind of character Ghost is lead to the conclusion it does because frankly? Yeah, makes sense. And I really cannot say much more without spoiling it.

So, in conclusion. A lot of holes, not so special second time round, and too few 3 dimensional characters. But he cinematography is ace and very like the first (which makes sense given this one's director edited the first one, and John Fawcett did some unofficial second unit stuff on here too) and I think it's a film that'll grow on me. It's certainly worth a go - 7 out of 10.

"Ginger Snaps" single-handedly raised my interest in lycanthropic cinema, and "Ginger Snaps Unleashed" is a remarkably strong sequel that works for many of the same reasons. Like the thoughtful horror cinema of George Romero, where deeper human issues boil under a more obvious horror surface, "Ginger Snaps" used lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty and its impact on teenage relationships; "Unleashed" uses it as a metaphor for addiction, with Brigitte Fitzgerald (Emily Perkins--"It"), sister of the ill-fated Ginger (Katharine Isabelle), injecting herself with wolfbane to curb her increasingly wolf-like tendencies. While in a rehab clinic for troubled teens, Brigitte forges a relationship with Ghost (Tatiana Maslany), a precocious girl whose seeming innocence unravels her secret. The new writing/directing team of Megan Martin and Brett Sullivan pick up where the previous film left off, skillfully bridging the two with a bare minimum of rehashed exposition, and the end result is extremely satisfying (though the machinations of "Unleashed"'s final third made me wish the script had tied some thematic/character arcs together better). Perkins, who is becoming a real horror ingénue, plays Brigitte with sympathy and sarcastic bite, and her relationship with Maslany comes close to matching the sense of sisterly love that provided the endearing backbone of the original "Ginger Snaps." "Unleashed" is the rare sequel that does its parent proud.