IHR induction #33: "Ginger Snaps" (2000, John Fawcett)

And so we continue Halloween Horror Nerd Fest 2010 (or whatever). It takes a certain something for a horror movie to lend itself as essential viewing during the best month of the year; it might be a certain atmosphere, it might be a focus on oppression rather than gore, it might be just the simple fact that it reminds me of my college days spent indoors during October watching AMC MonsterFest back when the thing was actually good. Any way you look at it, "Ginger Snaps," a Canadian film from 2000, is a movie that is a modern-day werewolf classic, and one of my favorite DVDs to whip out during the season of the witch.

Many horror fans hold this movie in a very high regard, and for good reason. The acting is excellent for a film of this nature, the admittedly small budget lends the movie a definite charm, there are some excellent creature and gore effects, and there's some wicked doses of black humor thrown in as an added bonus (redundancy alert).

No long-winded introduction this time. Time for THE MOVIE!

The movie wastes little time introducing us to our two central characters - sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle, who is quite frankly amazing in this role) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins, who lends her character with just the right balance of apathy and soulfulness). In essence, they serve as the representation of Goth culture that director John Fawcett choses to present to the audience. They're ironic and morbid to the core; they spend the first few scenes obsessing over wishing death on their classmates and even "attempting suicide" (see the movie and the quotation marks will make sense). Every tried-and-true Goth and/or emo trend is well-represented in these two characters, making some of the future events take on a very keen meaning.

Of course, any movie whose DVD cover strongly features a beastly-looking woman backing the two main stars is going to revolve around a certain subject, and lycanthropy doesn't waste much time rearing its ugly head in "Ginger Snaps." The teens in the movie are all abuzz over the beast of Bailey Downs, a little-seen monstrosity killing the pets in the semi-idyllic little haven. Through a mix of coincidence and the girls' oh-so-present fascination with death, they eventually meet the beast face-to-face, which leads to Ginger - the prettier of the two sisters - as a werewolf.

Well, to make things as lazy as possible, much of the runtime of "Ginger Snaps" can be summed up with one sentence - a typical high-school movie where one of the characters is a vengeful werewolf. It has been pointed out by many other reviewers, but Fawcett made the bold move of making a horror movie with a very distinct allegory. Namely, puberty. Virtually everything that happens within "Ginger Snaps" when it comes to the horror departments can be seen as a metaphor for the most tumultuous period in almost any person's life, as Ginger finds herself morphing into a maneating (both literally and figuratively) seductress, alienating herself from her sister and becoming a beast in more ways than one.

There is little more that I can say, and in some ways I feel like I have said too much already. "Ginger Snaps" is "Superbad" with tons of fake blood; there's the teen movie cliches of popularity, losing virginity, and rivalry among high school girls that are hallmarks of the teenybopper genre. However, you haven't seen these common twists, turns, strained relationships with parental units (the sisters' mom is marvelously played here by Mimi Rogers) and random backstabbings between young female characters pulled off with the aplomb that "Ginger Snaps" gives you. This is often a very funny film, as well. This isn't a movie for everyone, but for those who like their teen-horror crossed with some very black comedy, you won't find shinier gold than this particular film.

The over-riding strength of this flick revolves around the journey that we go on with the characters, of the newly-found friends, the horrific deaths, and the rampaging teen hormones that serve as the impetus of Ginger's transformation from Uber-Goth to bloodthirsty werewolf. As such, it's one that every viewer must take in without too much knowledge of the events that go down; as such, it's easily the best movie in the series. Yes, folks, there are sequels - when this movie became a big hit on video in the States, "Ginger Snaps 2" was released theatrically and summarily became a huge flop, and a third movie was then released straight-to-video. Neither movie comes close to the level of power that this one has; in addition, the closing scenes take place at Halloween, with ever-present fall conditions serving as a wonderful atmospheric boon to the movie's story. Take my word for it - this one is well-worth the purchase price for some viewing during harvest season.