Ginger Snaps

Overview: Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald are teenage suburbanite sisters and social outcasts who find themselves trying to navigate the pressures of school, life, and lycanthropy.

The Film: Ginger Snaps opens in a small Canadian suburb where a mysterious animal is on the loose and killing all the area’s dogs. Quick note up front, while this is a horror-comedy (heavier on the comedy aspect), if you are not a fan of animal deaths in movies it’s probably a good time to check out one of my other reviews. Now if you’re still with me… lots of Fluffy’s and Fido’s are being killed and their mauled corpses are turning up all over town. Separately, we meet the quirky Fitzgerald sisters, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) who are obsessed with death (as are many teenagers who see themselves as outcasts) and we even learn that they made a death pact with one another as children (damn, and I was playing with He-Man toys at that age!).

Let’s have a brief aside regarding the Fitzgerald clan. The sisters, aside from being morbid and moody teenagers, are also unusually late regarding the onset of their menstruation. This is an important element to the plot so, you know, keep that nugget handy. The parents are typical horror/horror-comedy parents (and I mean that in the best way). The dad is pretty much hands-off regarding his daughters, I guess he’s just trying to ride out those teenage years with his head down. The mom (played by the awesome Mimi Rogers) is the caring but aloof genre mom who won’t/can’t see supernatural stuff happening. Mom and dad also happen to be in couples therapy. So there you have a nice picture of the family…

So, as hobby photographers, the Fitzgerald sisters shoot macabre scenes with one or both of them depicted as dead. We’re shown a slide show of their works and it is revealed that they are presenting this to their class. The teacher is horrified (apparently this kind of art isn’t his thing) but the students seem to love it although it reinforces the “weirdness” of the sisters. We later see the girls playing field hockey and are introduced to some of the secondary players: Trina (Danielle Hampton) the popular girl/bully/”girlfriend” of the drug dealer, Jason (Jesse Moss) the sex-crazed guy that ogles the girls on the field, and Sam (Kris Lemche) the “not too long out of high school” guy who deals drugs to the students and maintains the school’s landscaping. So Trina the bully is a constant trash-talker regarding the sisters and likes to especially pick on Brigitte during field hockey. During a game, while Brigitte is running down field and trying to avoid Trina, she stumbles and falls face first into some goopy dog remains (oh, those awkward teenage years). Of course everyone else thinks that’s hilarious but Ginger conspires with Brigitte to get revenge on Trina by stealing her dog and making her think it also got torn apart by whatever is killing the other dogs.

That evening, we learn that Ginger is starting to get cramps and other symptoms of beginning menstruation. Dad is right to just keep his head down and mom is, by adult standards, caring and quick to offer useful advice to Ginger about her changes but, by teenage standards, she’s just being annoying and intrusive. Later that night while the sisters are out for some dog-napping, they stumble across another dead dog (which I think is actually Trina’s dog but even if it’s not, Trina’s dog does bite it in the near future). Ginger suddenly begins to lose a lot of her womanly blood and, because she was too stubborn to listen to mom she doesn’t know what to do other than bleed a lot. All that bleeding was bound to catch something’s attention and, sure enough, Ginger and Brigitte are chased down and attacked by the mystery beast (see, remember when I told you that menstruation info would come in handy?). There’s a pretty funny line about bears smelling menstruation but the girls are quick to realize that the beast is clearly not a bear. Whatever it is attacks Ginger and drags her off. Brigitte manages to club the beast away and off of Ginger (who is pretty bad off at this point) and the beast runs off across the road where it gets hit by a van, exploding blood and guts everywhere. Brigitte tries to get Ginger to the hospital but Ginger refuses noting that her wounds are already healing. Brigitte is reluctant but agrees to keep an eye on her sister all the same.

During the period (literally and figuratively) after the attack Ginger goes through some substantive changes. Ginger becomes more of an extrovert, seemingly brimming with wild sexual energy, and more overt in flaunting her curves, much to the delight of her horny classmates and much to Brigitte’s dismay. Brigitte also notices some other odd traits in Ginger such as hair sprouting from the wounds she suffered during the attack and what appears to be the nub of a tail growing on Ginger’s back side. She also catches Ginger hanging out in Sam’s van smoking weed (although Sam isn’t aware of that) with Jason and some other guys. While Sam catches them in the van and kicks them out we see that it was his van that hit and killed the beast the night before and Sam realizes that it was Ginger and Brigitte that were attacked.

Let me also provide a brief aside as to why Sam is a great character. Sam is great because he: a. pays absolutely no attention to his so-called girlfriend Trina, b. pays extra attention to the Fitzgerald sisters after the beast’s attack (which pisses off Trina so, bonus I guess), c. quickly pieces together the attack with Ginger’s sudden new behavior and immediately thinks “lycanthrope!”, d. has an amazing knowledge of plants/herbal remedies and their usefulness in occult situations for someone who otherwise appears to be a shiftless stoner with a menial job.

So that aside lets me skip over some exposition and move on to Brigitte and Sam teaming up to try to treat Ginger. Well, Brigitte tells Sam that she is the one afflicted so as to try to protect Ginger but, as I said, Sam is great so he knows that it’s Ginger that needs the help. Anyway, they work on some crazy anti-werewolf potion in his drug/botany lair and meanwhile, Ginger engages in angry menstrual werewolf coitus with Jason which turns out to also give him lycanthropy (that’s one hell of an STD). Also, Trina who is jealous of Sam spending all his time with Brigitte and thinks the sisters stole her dog, shows up to the Fitzgerald house to raise some hell and even tries to warn the sisters that Sam is no good and says some other crazy, blasphemous stuff about Sam when the gods decide to strike her down… in the Fitzgerald kitchen… There’s a bloody mess everywhere just when the parents are coming home from therapy. The girls quickly cover up the scene by pretending that they are staging another of their horrific photo shoots and we learn that Trina’s body has been stuffed into the family deep freezer. Later, when the sisters attempt to move Trina’s body, some fingers snap off due to being stuck to the freezer which is both funny and pertinent later on. They girls then finally manage to bury her in the potting shed out behind their house.

After the whole “Trina’s death” mess, Brigitte decides to ramp up the efforts to find a cure for Ginger. Sam uses a plant called monkshood (related to wolfsbane) and boils it down into an injectable form and hoping that it will offer Ginger a release from the beast inside. When Brigitte takes the “cure” and tries to find Ginger (last seen going to the guidance counselor) she is attacked by Jason who is also succumbing to his wolfiness. Brigitte stabs him with the needle in self defense and Jason immediately starts to calm down and go back to his normal self so it appears that Sam did find the cure.

While the cure things are occurring, Ginger has been sent to see the guidance counselor to talk about her recent behavioral shift. She’s not really into talking about her feelings at this point though and it more interested in satisfying her blood lust. Sorry ‘bout that Mr. Counselor! As she leaves the office (after school hours) she runs into the janitor and yet another poor, hard-working school employee gets an undeserved death. Brigitte, looking for Ginger, stumbles onto this bloodbath at the school and Ginger takes off.

And while all of those things have been going on, good old mom stumbles upon the fingers and then body of Trina and realizes that her sweet, odd daughters might be up to no good. She heads out looking for them when she runs into Brigitte who has just fled the school. Mom tells Brigitte that she knows about Trina and is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her daughters. In an awesome, hilarious exchange, mom notes that she will burn down the house if necessary to help dispose of the body and then she and the girls can just move and start over somewhere. When Brigitte says something like “what about dad?” mom just gives her a shrug and a look that says “fuck it”. Again, Mimi Rogers is a great actress and that just clenched it. She then drives them to look for Ginger at Sam’s where he is supposed to be having a big Halloween bash.

When Ginger arrives at Sam’s party she is in quasi-wolf form but it’s okay because it’s Halloween so she doesn’t have to hide it. She gets to do the slo-mo “I’m hot and dangerous” walk through the crowd to find Sam and then she corners him in a private room and hops on to give him a ride. Sam, not really digging the implications of semi-bestiality, pushes her away. Brigitte arrives to save, well, both of them really. During a brief struggle, Sam gets hurt and Brigitte gets infected. Ginger tries to bolt once again but Sam knocks her out with a shovel. They load her up in the van to take her back home and cure her once and for all, however, as they arrive at the house Ginger finishes the transformation and goes full wolf.

Brigitte and Sam run into the house and try to hide from Ginger while they mix up the rest of the cure. As Ginger closes in on the pair, Sam tries to play hero and winds up paying the price. Brigitte uses that chance to run and try to hide downstairs but is once again cornered. She does, however, find a knife that Ginger had used to try to cut off her tail. When wolf Ginger lunges at Brigitte, she gets stabbed and appears to die, inches from the cure.

Impressions: Visually, the style reminded me of an old episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? though not in a bad way mind you. The dog gore was well done as far as dead animal effects go, and the wolf transformation was done pretty well even though it’s less graphic than other films/tv shows.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Ginger and Brigitte and I thought the family dynamic was also well done. Katharine Isabelle plays a great Ginger and I only realized after the movie was over that she also plays the title character in the more recent American Mary (another one I’d recommend).

I was a little baffled by how Ginger was able to survive her wolf wounds to turn into a werewolf, Jason was given the love bites and also turned, but the counselor, janitor, and Sam didn’t make it. Or maybe they did? I know there’s a sequel that I probably won’t see so maybe in that one everyone gets to go on working at or attending Wolf High and they all have happy murderous romps together once a month. At least that’s how the sequel plays out in my mind.

While the themes of the movie are none-too-subtle – the transformation of Ginger to wolf used as an allegory for girl transforming to woman – it’s still a clever use of a classic movie monster; it also offers some nice comedic moments. I felt like there were some elements that were echoed in the more recent Jennifer’s Body where the transformation and occult connections to the title character could represent a taking charge of one’s sexuality to transform herself and take charge of her life. Both films also have the more timid female companion that is forced through their own transformation due to the actions of the liberated female. That’s probably just a poor man’s feminist framework perspective but this is an amateur review site after all.

As a final thought, I really enjoyed typing the phrase angry menstrual werewolf coitus. If anyone chooses to use that as a band name (which would be awesome) please remember good ‘ole Rabid Fox in your liner notes 🙂

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