Teenage angst sucks. It got tiring REALLY quickly, I found that as soon as I stopped being a teenager it lost all the appeal. Of course, that didn't stop the media companies strip mining this particular area down to nothing to make some money off the world's self-absorbed, hormone riddled youth. Ginger Snaps starts off with a typical pair of miserable-as-sin teenagers, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins, nuh uh, no relation) 16 and 15 respectively. Brigitte must be pretty smart, having skipped a grade and sharing a class with her sister, though they never actually say she's smart, I'm just kind of taking it for granted. They're very much social outcasts and quite happy to be that way, they take extremely morbid pictures of each other pretending to be dead. They also face the derision of the 'in-crowd', and Ginger in particular becomes the centre of attention for some hormone-riddled idiot teenage boys. From since they were very young, they'd make a blood pact that they would die together, and they're pretty much attached at the hip. That is, however, until Ginger is attacked by something, something which has been viciously slaughtering neighbourhood dogs at night. This something is hit by a van while chasing Ginger and Brigitte, the owner of which is a local gardener and drug dealer.




Ginger is mauled during the attack, getting scratched and bitten by the creature, though mysteriously her injuries heal unusually quickly. Things get even stranger when Ginger starts to change. She becomes far more confident, dressing more sexily and not only encouraging the attentions of one of her admirers but returning the attraction when previously she'd rejected him totally. Brigitte starts to worry, and ends up finding help in the form of Sam, the part-time drug dealer who is the only one who agrees with her suspicions, even having some ideas about what to do about it. Ginger gradually changes more and more, coming home at night with a mouthful of blood after killing a neighbour's dog. Meanwhile their extremely naive mother (superbly played by Mimi Rogers) thinks everything is attributable to Ginger having her first period, even when more compelling evidence comes to light. Brigitte must save her sister and any potential victims before Ginger runs out of fodder of the canine variety!

So, teenage angst and werewolves. Neither are terribly original anymore, so what happens when you combine them? In this case, you come out with one the few really great horror movies I've seen in the 21st century! It features some very convincing performances (especially from the two female leads and Mimi), a much better than average script, and a fabulous atmosphere throughout. Though this movie really is a big bunch of clichés (even using the “ignore the Hollywood rules” joke Scream cursed us with) it doesn’t trot out the same tired formula, this film is refreshing in its approach to werewolves. The whole idea is that its seen as a ‘disease’ with a possible cure, and that it slowly devours the victim from the inside out, so we see Ginger being effected psychologically before the physical changes become evident. At some points these changes are disturbing, but at other times they have humorous overtones, this is still a knowing take on the werewolf genre, it doesn’t take itself 100% seriously.



A lot of the humour comes from Mimi Rogers as the mother of Ginger and Brigitte. She’s an absolute hoot in this film, a very idealistic and old-fashioned cliché of a housewife and mother, having absolutely no idea how to handle or associate with her outcast daughters. The looks on their faces while their mother talks to them over dinner are priceless, especially when she pulls out a massive plate of Ginger’s favourite dessert to celebrate Ginger’s changing from a girl to a young woman! There are a number of these dinner scenes tying the film together, as you can see Ginger’s reactions to her mother getting gradually more and more angry and expletive-filled.

Balancing with this humour is a nice big wedge of horror, because this is a horror movie when you get down to it. This is one of the few films that I can honestly say scared me. There is something disturbing about the twisting and mutating of the human form, the subversion of normality into something dangerous and threatening. The sequences with the creatures themselves too are superbly done, the attack on Ginger was frantically filmed but still grisly and realistic as she's hacked at by this thing, screaming loudly; leaving me quite shaken. Though the creature doesn’t look quite as good once you get to see it properly, the sheer size of the thing is enough to build tension, and along with atmosphere we get that by the ton. Its good to see a film with genuine scares without having to constantly rely on cheap shock tactics. A mention must also be made about the sound, seeing this in a cinema like I did, the use of stereo was inspired. Distant sounds phased in and out to the sides of you, adding a great deal to the excellent atmosphere this film creates in the scary parts.

All in all, this is a great, great horror movie. Though it’s arrived on very little fanfare, this is a horror fan’s movie – a fine mix of contemporary style with good old fashioned werewolf scares. Watch the damn movie already!