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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.

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!

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.

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.

"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.