Review of Ginger Snaps (2000) by Cody L — 17 Nov 2013

I vaguely recall watching a film a few years ago called 'Teen Wolf', starring Michael J Fox. It's a light-hearted and silly romp in which the myth of lycanthropy (or werewolves) is implemented as a coming-of-age metaphor for the shames of adolescence. This movie, directed by John Fawcett, does a similar thing. While I admit that I don't remember 'Teen Wolf' particularly well, I can safely say that despite the similar thematic premise, both movies have little else in common. This is a dark, gritty and gore-laden horror movie, albeit with a savage sense of humour that stays true right to the end.

In this superior teen werewolf flick we meet the Fitzgerald sisters: 16-year old Ginger and her 15-year-old Brigitte( Katherine Isabel and Emily Perkins). They are uncommonly morose teenagers who share a morbid obsession with death. They are not so keen on conformity and they are not exactly popular with the other kids either. Hunched together at the school yard, they are united in their shared hostility to the world around them. They are miserable, but quite content in their misery. That is, until one day a werewolf intervenes, attacking Ginger and infecting her with the lycanthropic curse. Ginger undergoes the inevitably grotesque transformation: grows strange hair, sharper teeth, a tail etc. Brigitte remains loyal her sister throughout this difficult time, even as she begins to embrace her animalistic instincts and act with a rapid appetitive for perversity and destruction.

This is a really great, inventive horror movie that successfully links the legend of werewolves with themes of puberty and sexuality. It's also wryly perceptive when it comes to adolescent behaviour. For instance, when Ginger first notices signs of her transformation, she is as much concerned about keeping her ailments secret from her parents and the kids at school as of any potential risk to her health. Like most great teen-horror movies, the horror is rooted in down-to-earth adolescent anxieties. Above all though, this movie is a whole lot of fun. It's dark and gory but is sprinkled with a macabre sense of humour throughout. And let's face it, a movie with a title like 'Ginger Snaps'(a playful pun on a cookie snack) is not exactly begging to be taken seriously.