Ginger Snaps

I’m not a big fan of werewolf movies. Most of them follow a very familiar series of plot points and tropes, and they all blend in together. Ginger Snaps broke this mold in a lot of ways. The first is shifting the story to teenage girls. The two sisters, a year apart but in the same grade (the younger one skipped a grade), are alike in almost every way: goth, dark, obsessed with death and gruesome things. Both are a few years late in getting their first periods. But the older one is a little more bold and outward and stronger in her sense of self. She gets bit by the werewolf, which coincides with the arrival of her first menses, making the werewolf transformation a parable for puberty. The relationship between the sisters is handled excellently. The younger sister, Bridget, worships her sister and is torn apart when Ginger starts exhibiting newer, bolder behavior. She embraces sexuality, and she becomes aggressive with a rival on the field hockey team. But as the werewolf transformation continues, the aggression becomes more animalistic and dangerous, and Bridget has to grow herself into someone more confident as she fights to save her sister. You can really feel the sisterly bond between the two, and how the werewolf curse starts to chip away Ginger’s side of it. She gets jealous that Bridget is spending time with a boy named Sam, but that relationship is based on him also believing in the werewolf curse, as he’s trying to help Bridget find a solution. Another difference from other werewolf movies is the werewolf transformation. It isn’t the every-full-moon transformation and back to human you see in any other werewolf folklore. This is more like a permanent mutation, slowly stripping its victim of all its humanity until it is nothing but a ravenous, bloodthirsty animal. Again, this functions as a metaphor for growing up, as childhood is forever left behind. The special effects in this are very well done. Pretty much all practical, the blood and carnage feels tangible and gross. The animatronics used when Ginger is full on werewolf is obviously an animatronic, but in that uncanny valley way, where it being fake makes it feel all the more monstrous and real. Of course, this isn’t perfect. The directing is, at times, a little wonky, with some camera angles feeling very TV movie-ish, and the lighting right out of an ABC Afterschool Special. Mimi Rogers as the mom is WAAAAAAAY over the top. She comes off cartoonish. And, at least at the beginning, the sisters’ obsession with death and talks of a suicide pact doesn’t feel real. Still, this was a lot of fun, and a clever idea, mixing a coming of age tale with a werewolf. Maybe not worth the 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, but definitely worth a watch.