Ginger Snaps

TIFF [2000]

(Canada 2000) 107 minutes
Cast: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers
Written by Karen Walton
Directed by John Fawcett

THE STORY:

Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are proud teenage misfits who rebel against high-school conformity and suburban isolation by staging gruesome photos of their own mock suicides. While the neighborhood is in terror over a series of savage assaults on pets, the girls bravely decide to pull a prank on a "popular" classmate. But the stunt goes horribly wrong when a wild animal attacks Ginger, on the night of her first period.

Ginger, having somehow survived, begins to change physically. Her scars sprout hair, and her sexual appetites verge on blood lust. Convinced that her sister's "lycanthropy" is biological in nature, Brigitte enlists the help of neighborhood pot dealer/amateur botanist Sam to find a cure for the infection, which Ginger is spreading throughout the school.

ROBERT L'S REVIEW

Is it "GINGER SNAPS" or "Ginger SNAPS"?

However I'm supposed to interpret it, writer Karen Walton confessed at the screening that the name of her first produced feature film script (after coscripting Vincenzo Natali's short "Elevated") was inspired by a box of President's Choice cookies.

Mimi Rogers is a hoot as the sisters' clueless mom with the worst fashion sense this side of a vintage Tony Basil video.

Taking a cue or two from the subtext of Neil Jordan's "A Company Of Wolves", "Ginger Snaps" is yet another modern variation on the werewolf myth distinguished by a witty script, a wickedly morbid streak, and an affection embrace of genre conventions. Inspired by junk food, maybe, but "Ginger Snaps"' fun and frothy spirit is a far cry from the empty calories of way-too-many "Howling" sequels and the lingering stench of "Teen Wolf 2".

Until it becomes a full throttle monster movie in its final third, "Gingers Snaps" plays like a Canadian version of "Heathers", complete with the expected skewering of high school jocks, rich kids, stoners, ineffectual teachers, etc.

Talk Back

John ("The Boys Club") Fawcett's direction perfectly captures the drab tapestry of suburban development projects that surround Toronto and other Ontario cities. One can certainly see how modern teens would embrace lycanthropy if for no other reason than to enliven an otherwise anonymous, monochromatic existence.

Newcomers Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle are delightful as sarcastic Brigitte and flamboyant Ginger, and American actress (and recent "X Files" semi-regular) Mimi Rogers is a hoot as the sisters' clueless mom with the worst fashion sense this side of a vintage Tony Basil video.

Fawcett and Walton lose their way in the climax, in which Bridgette and Sam face off with Ginger--now a fully developed werewolf--in the maze of the Fitzgerald home. The fake latex and puppet FX (looking more like Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark At The Moon" video than "An American Werewolf In London") simply aren't convincing enough to compensate for the cheap scare tactics that were already ancient back in the 80s when trotted out in teen horror schlock like "The Beast Within".

I still can't figure out if the title is adjective/noun or noun/verb...

- Robert L

Talk Back

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