Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

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.

Director:

Grant Harvey

Writers:

Christina Ray, Stephen Massicotte

Stars:

Katharine Isabelle, Emily Perkins, Nathaniel Arcand

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited 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

Storyline

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. And an enigmatic Indian hunter decides to help the girls, but one of the girls has been bitten by a werewolf. Brigitte and Ginger may have no one to turn to but themselves.

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Plot Keywords:

female protagonist | canadian horror | fort | 19th century | wendigo | 

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Taglines:

Find the source of your fear.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and some language

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English Cree

Release Date:

27 August 2004 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Ginger Snaps 3

Filming Locations:

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 3,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

49 Films,Combustion,Lions Gate Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shot back-to-back with Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004).

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Goofs

At the point of the dinner scene, you can see both the doctor and Ginger not actually eating anything (the doctor eats air and Ginger waves her spoon around a bit for some reason), then somehow Ginger ends up with a rather large chunk of meat on her spoon that wasn't even on her plate.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Brigitte: The Indians say the curse began in the time of the Ancients and was passed down through the blood of generations. There are legends of the Wendigo and the coming of the Red and the Black. Legends of the Day of Reckoning, when Death would consume the land, and good would face evil; of the day the curse would be broken forever - or grow stronger, and live on to plague generations to come. But ours was a story of survival; of two sisters bound by blood. A bond that would not be broken...

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Crazy Credits

Near the end of the credits, it says "No animals or werewolves were harmed badly during the production of this film."

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Alternate Versions

The DVD release contains deleted scenes. The additional footage is as follows:

• While looking for a set of keys, Finn tells the girls that he is a map maker. The girls ask what has happened at the fort. Finn doesn't answer them. They see a pile of werewolf drawings on a desk, and look at Finn questioningly. He says that the pictures are of old wives tales.
• An extended dinner scene with additional dialogue amongst the men. Seamus says that the scripture has made Gilbert twisted. James loudly questions Hunter's motives for staying at the fort. Seamus defends Hunter. Hunter puts a knife to James' throat before letting him go. Rowlands begins to make a speech before being interrupted by the howling of werewolves outside.
• Returning to the fort after helping Ginger escape, Brigitte is brought before Rowlands. Gilbert claims she is a disciple of the devil and will steal the souls of the men. Rowlands tells Brigitte that when he looked into his son's eyes before shooting him, he saw nothing. He then says that when he looks into Brigitte's eyes, he sees only her sister. He tells the men they can do what they want with Brigitte, and that he washes his hands of the whole thing.
• An extended burial scene where Gilbert makes several veiled attacks towards Seamus' personal life.

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Connections

Referenced in Nightmare in Canada: Canadian Horror on Film (2004)

User Reviews

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.