Two sisters at a Canadian high school are both complete outsiders from the rest of the students, having no friends except each other and spending more time than anyone could consider healthy sat in their dank, morbid bedroom fantasizing about suicide pacts and harboring resentment towards pretty much everyone else they know. Their school media project involves mocking up and photographing an assortment of grisly deaths and suicides (a really cool sequence of stylish shots and imaginative poses), while PE lessons are the bane of their existence. Their parents seem happily oblivious to their daughters� problems, especially their father who is pretty much the silent partner in the relationship. The only thing that seems to occupy their mother�s mind is when they will have their first period, as both have yet to start despite being in their mid-teens.
Following a fight at school, the girls set out for revenge by hoping to fake the death of their enemy�s dog. However, it is already dead when they get there, victim of the wild animal that is roaming the streets and evading capture. In fact, the beast is still there and attacks one of the girls, Ginger. They escape and the next day Ginger begins to menstruate, however there are other changes happening which her mother never told her about...including growing a tail.
The movie is packed with dark humour and nicely juxtaposes Ginger starting her period with the only slightly more scary changes brought on by her lycanthropy (I can�t actually remember them using the word werewolf now I think back). The unknown leads perform excellently and equipped with a knowing script, which is unafraid to talk about puberty, they make Ginger Snaps an excellent horror, which is by no means a by-the-numbers teens in peril affair. Despite this the ending does resort to an actiony standoff with a slightly dodgy rubber werewolf costume, presumably due to budget restraints. However the copious amounts of claret on display more than make up for the lack of originality. |
