I can’t help myself. I’m a sucker and a half for a good werewolf movie. Yeah, I know, there are more bad werewolf flicks than there are good werewolf flicks, but when I stumble across something quality, I just can’t help but share the wealth. Consider the wealth shared.
“Ginger Snaps” is a Canadian (wait, let me finish) horror movie about two youngish-teen sisters, 15 year old Ginger (Katharine Isabelle from “Freddy vs. Jason”) and 14 year old Brigette, otherwise known as ‘B’ (Emily Perkins, with freaky wig). Ignoring the fact that it’s practically impossible for anything Canadian to be great, and ignoring the fact that these two girls are supposed to be high-school sophomores when Katherine Isobel has an incredible rack, this flick is fucking insane in the best possible way. Just think, Canadian readers. Your tax dollars go to support a nascent film industry that cranks out quality like this bad motherfucker. Hug your government today.
Anyway, moving on.
What is there to love about this flick? Well, you know all those crappy self-referential “Scream”-style horror flicks that were churned out in the last 90’s and early double-aughts? Well this isn’t fucking one of them. There are no cheeky, joking references to other werewolf movies here. This shit takes itself seriously, and as a result, you take it seriously too because this wolfy bastard grabs you by your throat and throttles you with werewolf goodness.
Right from the very beginning this bad boy (or bad girl) opens up with some spectacular gore effects. It seems there’s a beast on the loose that’s horribly murdering local dogs, because I guess dogs are delicious, and this movie is festooned with bloody dog carcasses and entrails, making for some amazingly realistic canine corpses. The special effects on this flick are practical and dirty, and very, very, very well done. It’s nice to see where the budget went on this flick.
As for our heroines, Ginger and B are those two creepy gothish girls that always sat in the back of the class writing poetry about death, except these two enjoy faking together elaborate death scenes in the privacy of their home, taking pictures of their faked deaths, and using these pictures as school projects when they’re not playing field hockey in gym class (which is a lot of the time, as field hockey takes up half the day in the Canadian girl’s education system). In the beginning, Ginger is kind of plain-looking and B is a hopeless introvert, but once Ginger becomes Ginger the Werewolf, she manages to go from average kid to surprisingly hot. It’s amazing what good you can do, ladies, with a little makeup, a lot of cleavage and tight, revealing outfits. Oh yeah, becoming a werewolf helps a fuckin’ lot, too.
Take two teenie Goths, toss in a helpful drug dealer named Sam, who reads a lot of old books (Kris Lemche), mix liberally with heavy doses of vaguely crazy mom (Mimi Rogers) and an unfortunate kid named Ben who gets the worst possible STD in the world (Christopher Redman), sprinkle over a bunch of guts and blood and menstruation, toss in an awesome werewolf puppet model thing, and you’ve got yourself a fucking movie. Be on the lookout for a guest appearance by Xena’s voice, too.
This bastard is a great flick, and if you’ve got any love for the werewolf or for our creepy neighbors to the North, this is the flick for you. But don’t take my word for it. Cue the Reading Rainbow music.
Subtle Bluntness 