Film Review

Ginger Snaps (18)
Ultimate Picture Palace from Friday 13th July, 2001

I love this film. It's only a teenage werewolf horror comedy, but really, what more do you want? It's taut, fresh, rude, funny, scary and clever. The dialogue is superb, and the growling is just great. Predictably enough, given these attributes, it's a debut feature from outside Hollywood, which had to fight for its general release.

 

Brigitte and Ginger are sisters, cynical goth-ish outcasts in a teenage world of nice teeth, ankle socks and dating. They have agreed on a suicide pact at sixteen, rather than turn into the people they see around them. So far, so Heathers.

 
However, Ginger's long-awaited first period attracts an attack from whatever has been mincing the neighbourhood's canines. The beast is killed by a van, but not before passing on its "infection". The results are initially very funny as the symptoms of budding lycanthropy are understandably mistaken for those of puberty.
As the film progresses the humour gets darker and darker as the girls, chiefly Brigitte, struggle to conceal Ginger's deeds and to find a cure. Ginger herself, though, becomes increasingly uncooperative as she starts to lose her humanity and revel in her power. The girls' mother flounders wonderfully through all this, attempting to relate to them as teenagers in an excruciatingly understanding way.
There have been complaints that the ending is too normal for such an original film. True, the comedy is more or less on hold as Ginger, now fully lupine, goes in for the kill and Brigitte and her friend the dope-dealer have to scramble about in the dark for the syringe of antidote. But there remain some important improvements on your standard horror finale.

One is that you are aware that you really don't know what is going to happen or who is going to survive. Happy ever after is by no means guaranteed. Another is that Brigitte remains loyal to her sister to the end. Those who prefer their evil compartmentalised and joyfully slain may find this a bit cheesy, but for me it made the film more real, less disposable and more thought-provoking. And finally, as the credits roll, you may remember that the mother is still wandering about helplessly with two severed fingers in a Tupperware box.

 
It's a gem. Don't miss it.
Ian Threadgill 27/06/01