Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Emily Perkins | ... | Brigitte | |
Katharine Isabelle | ... | Ginger | |
Kris Lemche | ... | Sam | |
Mimi Rogers | ... | Pamela | |
Jesse Moss | ... | Jason | |
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Danielle Hampton | ... | Trina |
John Bourgeois | ... | Henry | |
Peter Keleghan | ... | Mr. Wayne | |
Christopher Redman | ... | Ben | |
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Jimmy MacInnis | ... | Tim |
Lindsay Leese | ... | Nurse Ferry | |
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Wendii Fulford | ... | Ms. Sykes |
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Ann Baggley | ... | Mother |
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Graeme Robertson | ... | Toddler |
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Maxwell Robertson | ... | Toddler |
Is becoming a woman analogous, in some deep psychological way, to becoming a werewolf? Ginger is 16, edgy, tough, and, with her younger sister, into staging and photographing scenes of death. They've made a pact about dying together. In early October, on the night she has her first period, which is also the night of a full moon, a werewolf bites Ginger. Within a few days, some serious changes happen to her body and her temperament. Her sister Brigitte, 15, tries to find a cure with the help of Sam, a local doper. As Brigitte races against the clock, Halloween and another full moon approach, Ginger gets scarier, and it isn't just local dogs that begin to die. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
Ginger Snaps is one of the best revisionist horror movies I've seen - if you liked "Ravenous" you'll enjoy this. Contrary to a previous reviewer's remarks, the film is not heartlessly "cool" - no chilly hipster would be capable of the compassion this film shows to its outcast, unbeautiful characters. Like all the best horror films, the true subject of fear is very real - the earthquake effect of sexual maturity on teenagers, girls in this case, and the disruption of sibling relationships by differing levels of sexual maturity. It also speaks to a genuine post-Columbine concern. When youth culture admires alienation, morbid affectation and misanthropy, how can genuine psychosis be distinguished from acting out? The highest praise goes to Isabelle and Perkins, whose characterisation is superb. Mimi Rogers as the mother who raises denial to an art form is also excellent.
On the downside, the last twenty percent of the film declines into cliched stalk-and-slash, with typically idiotic behaviour by previously intelligent characters, and an embarrassingly polymeric monster. The humanoid werewolf makeup is so derivative of "Buffy" I'm surprised Optic Nerve didn't sue. Moreover, for its revisionist pretensions, the films underlying attitudes to sexuality are disappointingly regressive, as are the final fates to which it consigns its characters.
On balance though, highly recommended.