Goth teens Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) have sworn an oath to always be together. They also will do anything to be different. On the night that Ginger begins to menstruate, she is bitten by an oversized wolf. As Ginger becomes sexual, violent, and irrational, Bridget works with the local drug dealer (Kris Lemche) to find a cure, and their mother (Mimi Rogers) gives them advice about becoming a woman.
Part of the new, post-modern horror movement where everyone knows the old films, Ginger Snaps, is a clever werewolf picture that never works out what it wants to be. At its best, it is a dark, twisted comedic take on female adolescence. At times, it’s an emotional drama on the pain of dealing with an abusive loved one, and it ends as a standard run-from-the-monster horror flick.
The werewolf-puberty metaphors are frequent and obvious. There’s blood flow, hair growth, irritability, new desires, new acquaintances, changed appearance, sexually transmitted diseases, and social pressures, although they skip moon cycles being relevant. These would be annoying if conveyed with great importance, but Ginger Snaps plays them out with a glee that made me think of Heathers. Sure, this sounds like a female movie, and it is, but males shouldn’t avoid it just because it mentions menstruation (hey, it does it with a monster ripping out people’s throats, so relax).
For a low budget film, the production values are high and the direction is good. Isabelle and Perkins are flawless, both with the dry humor and in the deeper, emotional moments. It’s surprising that Isabelle is so accomplished at her young age, and even more astounding that the older Perkins is believable as a character close to eight years her junior. Mimi Rogers gives a nicely quirky performance, and Kris Lemche is sympathetic as a good-natured and intelligent drug dealer.
One of the best modern werewolf films (not that the competition is all that fierce), Ginger Snaps’s main flaw is failing to merge its divergent parts. Plot problems, like everyone knowing about a killer beast, but no one actually doing anything about it, the absence of police, the disappearance of the parents, and the blatant and unlocked drug greenhouse, are not problems for a black comedy, but damaging for heartfelt drama or horror. The film can’t hold any kind of tone. You get very serious emotions from Bridget, and then the mom is talking about burning down the house and how it will be fun to be “just girls.” The horror segment, which is the last twenty minutes, has the biggest problems, as not only has it been done many times before (hero, caught in a house, chased by a monster), but up till then, there’s been nothing even attempting to be scary. There’s been no buildup for a fright fest.
Enough good parts, and witty dialog make Ginger Snaps enjoyable. It could easily have been better, but they fell into the trap of making their innovative film take the customary path.
It is followed by Ginger Snaps: Unleashed and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning.