It was funny, because I was standing in the video store looking back and forth between "Ginger Snaps" and "The Grinch" (they were both in the G section, after all), trying to decide. I tried to go and see "The Grinch" a year ago, but the sound in the theater was screwed and I didn't get to. So here's my chance. But something about this lone box with two morbid-looking girls on the front of it vs. the panorama of Jim Carrey roused the rebel in me, so I snapped up the indie and left the commercial geegaw behind.
So anyway. "Ginger Snaps" concerns two sisters, Ginger and Brigitte (known as 'B'), living in a town called Bailey Downs, which I think is supposed to be a satellite town of Toronto. Ginger and B are just-turned-16 and not-quite-15 respectively, and they really, really hate the suburban mundaneness they're stuck with. They might well be called Goths, as they do dress in a good deal of black and are obsessed with death. They spend their time on wholesome activities like faking fatal accidents for school projects and planning the details of their suicide pact. The post title up there is their motto. All the boys are hot for Ginger, but she and her sister scorn them. They are both enormously proud of fact that neither has menstruated yet, as it sets them apart from the simpering girls they see all around them. One of these girls is particularly annoying to them- a stereotypical bimbo-bitch named Trina. Another of the girls' greatest joys is imagining the horrible deaths of their peers, so they decide to really freak Trina out by doing something evil to her big-ass dog. Dogs are important in this movie, in part because "something" around town has been mauling them and in part because they're obviously related to wolves. And in case you didn't know, "Ginger Snaps" is a teenage horror movie about werewolves. On the way to Trina's, they discover two things: one of the town dogs mauled to death and Ginger's first period. And whoops! Two seconds after this second discovery a huge, incredibly ugly dog-man thing attacks Ginger and bounds off with her into the woods. And here we discover just how surface-only the girls' death obsession was. This is the single scariest scene in the whole movie, and there is no question that Ginger wants to live and that B wants to save her. Eventually Ginger does get away from the thing and she and B start running like hell. They do make it to the road, which proves advantageous as the thing is subsequently run over by the friendly neighborhood drug dealer.
So now Ginger has been chomped and clawed by this thing. And pretty soon all kinds of weird stuff is going on. And that's all I'm gonna say about the plot. Now I'm gonna yap about the acting. It's good- really good for a horror movie. In fact, how often does the acting in horror movies even merit mention? With this one, it does. The two central actresses are terrific, and the whole movie hinges on whether you can be concerned about them and believe in their very strong relationship. I'm hard pressed to say who gives the stronger performance, because they are significant for different reasons. Ginger is, quite literally, the libido-driven crotch of the flick while B is it's sad, neglected heart. The drug dealer turns out to be an important character, and even he has a bit more depth than you initially imagine. Mimi Rogers- an actress primarily known for her role as The Wife in Tom Cruise's first marriage- plays the girls' mother with some sort of disturbing mixture of psycho glee (she makes a strawberry cake to celebrate Ginger's period) and over-earnest intent to bond.
Their are streaks of humor to be found in this movie (although they are so pitch black I fear not everyone would catch them), which is delightful in that its not the typical ironic `Scream'-inspired post-modern sort of humor. A word of warning to anyone with a delicate stomach: this movie absolutely gushes gore. Some truly gross stuff is here, but really I don't think it matters. I don't like gore, and except for the occasional flinch it didn't bother me. I was concerned with the characters and what would happen, and the gore was incidental. It feels almost classic, in a way, as it's focus is the struggle inherent to werewolf lore, the one that makes it such a great metaphor for (particularly female) puberty- the fight for and against one's own body and its impulses. That said, the ending does veer into far-too-familiar territory toward the end, only to be saved by its final, quietly shattering last shot.
So anyway. "Ginger Snaps" concerns two sisters, Ginger and Brigitte (known as 'B'), living in a town called Bailey Downs, which I think is supposed to be a satellite town of Toronto. Ginger and B are just-turned-16 and not-quite-15 respectively, and they really, really hate the suburban mundaneness they're stuck with. They might well be called Goths, as they do dress in a good deal of black and are obsessed with death. They spend their time on wholesome activities like faking fatal accidents for school projects and planning the details of their suicide pact. The post title up there is their motto. All the boys are hot for Ginger, but she and her sister scorn them. They are both enormously proud of fact that neither has menstruated yet, as it sets them apart from the simpering girls they see all around them. One of these girls is particularly annoying to them- a stereotypical bimbo-bitch named Trina. Another of the girls' greatest joys is imagining the horrible deaths of their peers, so they decide to really freak Trina out by doing something evil to her big-ass dog. Dogs are important in this movie, in part because "something" around town has been mauling them and in part because they're obviously related to wolves. And in case you didn't know, "Ginger Snaps" is a teenage horror movie about werewolves. On the way to Trina's, they discover two things: one of the town dogs mauled to death and Ginger's first period. And whoops! Two seconds after this second discovery a huge, incredibly ugly dog-man thing attacks Ginger and bounds off with her into the woods. And here we discover just how surface-only the girls' death obsession was. This is the single scariest scene in the whole movie, and there is no question that Ginger wants to live and that B wants to save her. Eventually Ginger does get away from the thing and she and B start running like hell. They do make it to the road, which proves advantageous as the thing is subsequently run over by the friendly neighborhood drug dealer.
So now Ginger has been chomped and clawed by this thing. And pretty soon all kinds of weird stuff is going on. And that's all I'm gonna say about the plot. Now I'm gonna yap about the acting. It's good- really good for a horror movie. In fact, how often does the acting in horror movies even merit mention? With this one, it does. The two central actresses are terrific, and the whole movie hinges on whether you can be concerned about them and believe in their very strong relationship. I'm hard pressed to say who gives the stronger performance, because they are significant for different reasons. Ginger is, quite literally, the libido-driven crotch of the flick while B is it's sad, neglected heart. The drug dealer turns out to be an important character, and even he has a bit more depth than you initially imagine. Mimi Rogers- an actress primarily known for her role as The Wife in Tom Cruise's first marriage- plays the girls' mother with some sort of disturbing mixture of psycho glee (she makes a strawberry cake to celebrate Ginger's period) and over-earnest intent to bond.
Their are streaks of humor to be found in this movie (although they are so pitch black I fear not everyone would catch them), which is delightful in that its not the typical ironic `Scream'-inspired post-modern sort of humor. A word of warning to anyone with a delicate stomach: this movie absolutely gushes gore. Some truly gross stuff is here, but really I don't think it matters. I don't like gore, and except for the occasional flinch it didn't bother me. I was concerned with the characters and what would happen, and the gore was incidental. It feels almost classic, in a way, as it's focus is the struggle inherent to werewolf lore, the one that makes it such a great metaphor for (particularly female) puberty- the fight for and against one's own body and its impulses. That said, the ending does veer into far-too-familiar territory toward the end, only to be saved by its final, quietly shattering last shot.
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