Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

Director:

Grant Harvey

Writers:

Christina Ray (writer) &
Stephen Massicotte (writer)

Release Date:

27 August 2004 (Canada)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror

Plot:

Set in 19th Century Canada, Brigette and her sister Ginger take refuge in a Traders' Fort which later becomes under siege by some savage werewolves.

Plot Keywords:

Fort | Werewolf | Wendigo | Native American | Stabbed In The Head

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Katharine Isabelle	...	Ginger
Emily Perkins	...	Brigitte
Nathaniel Arcand	...	Hunter
JR Bourne	...	James
Hugh Dillon	...	Reverend Gilbert
Adrien Dorval	...	Seamus
Brendan Fletcher	...	Finn
David La Haye	...	Claude (as David LaHaye)
Tom McCamus	...	Wallace Rowlands
Matthew Walker	...	Doc Murphy
Fabian Bird	...	Milo
Kirk Jarrett	...	Owen
David MacInnis	...	Cormac
Stevie Mitchell	...	Geoffrey
Edna Rain	...	Elder

Also Known As:

Entre soeurs 3 - Le début (Canada: French title)
Ginger Snaps 3
Ginger Snaps III: The Beginning (Canada: English title) (working title)
Ginger Snaps: The Prequel (Canada: English title) (working title)
Hellwolf: You Will Be Eaten Alive (Philippines: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and some language.

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Germany:16 | Philippines:R-13 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Company:

49 Films

Trivia:

Shot back-to-back with Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The movie states it takes place in 1815. All of the rifles/muskets used in the movie are percussion locks, not flintlocks. The percussion cap was invented in the early 1820's. Percussion style rifles did not start becoming prevalent until the 1840's. In fact many of the "Northwest trading companies" produced flintlock trade guns well into the late 1880's.

Quotes:

Brigitte: Where are we going to go?
Ginger: Same place we always go. Away.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Nightmare in Canada: Canadian Horror on Film (2004) (TV)

Somewhat Disappointing

This prequel concerns the sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, making their way through 19th century Canada in what one can assume to be a previous incarnation.

Having lost their parents, the orphaned girls trek alone through the wilderness during a cold, harsh winter. They stumble upon the remains of an Indian village, which looks to have been ripped apart by some great beast. One of the few survivors, an old wise woman, warns them that they must "kill the boy" or "one sister will kill the other." When Brigitte accidentally steps into a bear trap a short time later, the two girls are rescued and assisted by a handsome Indian man known only as The Hunter, who leads the girls to nearby Bailey Fort...perhaps the very fort around which the future suburban community of Bailey Downs will spring. The fort is in poor shape. The men are suspicious, the atmosphere is bleak and the supplies are running low. It seems that the men who were sent for winter provisions several months before never returned...at least, not in human form. Indeed, several strange and vicious beasts seem to be stalking the woods just beyond the fort...and there may be one within as well!

This 3rd installment in the imaginative and intelligent Ginger Snaps series lacks the black humor and witty script of the previous two. The girls are lovely and convincing, the setting of a snowbound fort is both creepy and beautiful, and the new character of The Hunter is intriguing and nice to look at, but this film takes itself far too seriously. I also had a hard time accepting the fact that a young girl in the 19th century would utter a phrase like: "These people are f-cked." Such instances of modern dialogue inserted into a setting of 100+ years past is disconcerting at best...but maybe I'm the only one it would bother.

The beasts are highly visible in the final scenes of the film, and are pretty impressive looking. Other than that, the films gets a little weighted down by the gloomy atmosphere, with nary a joke to be found. The religious metaphors and Native American mysticism seem to have been pulled right out of "The Crucible," "The Scarlet Letter" and "Thunderheart" and seem to have been used for set dressing rather than as crucial plot devices. Still, there's a good amount of blood and gore to please most splatter enthusiasts, and an open ending which seems both to resolve the second film and bring us right back around to the first.

It's not a terrible movie by any means, but since I'd come to expect a certain amount of smart black comedy and found none here, it was just a little disappointing. The girls do a great job with their characters, as they always do, but they had far less to work with this time around. I give this a 6 on a scale of 10, whereas the first two each get a 9.