A breath of fresh air for the teen horror film and a thumbs-up for the independent movie, this low-budget Canadian werewolf film is a real shocker which starts off slowly and gradually builds to a fantastic climax which is pretty much edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff. The standard "innocent is bitten by werewolf and begins to turn" story is propelled by some original touches, like the puberty angle which sees the teenage bite victim mistaking her transformation for mere menstrual woes. Frank dialogue, excellent developed characters, and actors who play each other off superbly are just some of the reasons this film became something of a sleeper hit, garnering generally rave reviews from critics who actually bothered watching it.What kept me watching the film closely is the unpredictability of the narrative; you're never quite sure where the film is going, or who might be the next victim, so you just have to keep watching to see where they're going with the story. The pacing is spot-on and the story ideal. Things start off on a decidedly realistic tone, with teenage woes and high school heartbreak on the top of the list. This gives us time to learn about and even like the principal characters, namely Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle as teenage sisters Brigitte and Ginger. Once the characters are properly introduced, the morbid and gory events begin to build up and we're then sucked into the film all the while, eagerly awaiting the next macabre happening and seeing what will happen. Themes of morbidity, friendship, and power run throughout to keep things interesting and the characters are likable only because they're all too human - no mindless sentimentalising here, thank god.Emily Perkins is the unorthodox leading lady and has a really interesting, thought-out character. Thankfully she isn't the pretty, vacuous untalented crowd-pulling lead a la Katie Holmes but instead a damn good actress. The person who really shines, however, is Katharine Isabelle, lending pathos and sympathy to her character's plight whilst at the same time being the monster and the villain. Some of her scenes are heartbreaking and difficult to watch as you end up liking her character so much despite her actions. The supporting cast are uniformly excellent, whether it be Mimi Rogers as the quirky mother or even the Chinese janitor. Respect to Kris Lemche, who invests his drug dealer with subtlety and charm.Thankfully for a modern horror flick, GINGER SNAPS doesn't skimp on the gore effects either. It isn't the goriest film ever made or anything but there are plenty of severed body parts and arterial fountains to appeal to the car-crash crowd, especially in the blood-drenched finale. But a sense of humour and lots of black comedy (involving severed fingers) keep it from becoming just too dark. Being a low budget film, the special effects aren't exceptional but they are solid and more than adequate, especially the much-criticised werewolves which aren't so bad either - it's nice to see animatronic creatures instead of CGI abominations and I know which I would take over the other any day. Despite being a tragic, downbeat tale this is never less than gripping and one of the best modern horrors I've seen for some time.

As taken from: http://www.beyondvalwood.com/#!A-review-of-the-movie- Ginger-Snaps/c218b/5744d7480cf29ab9ec2c8270Hello readers,It was a typical Monday night. Hazel and I were bored and playing the usual "What would you like to do?" game while I procrastinated on writing my sequel to Beyond the Veil, A Veil of Stars."Do you want to watch a movie?" Hazel barked at me."Yes, but I want to watch something inspiring", I said. "Hey, maybe a werewolf movie, since I'm writing about werewolves!" And so folks, this is how we came to watch Ginger Snaps on Hulu last night. And OMG, do I wish I hadn't. Of all the inspiring movies we could have filled our eyeballs with last night, I chose this horrifyingly bad flick and I want my hour and forty eight minutes back. Think of all the amazing, awe inspiring words that I could have written today that may have been inspired from watching an amazing, awe inspiring werewolf movie (do any of those exist?)...but no. Instead you get this review :PNumerous problems abound with Ginger Snaps, including characterization, pacing, special effects, and the writing itself. Katharine Isabelle as Ginger seems to be trying to hold this entire film together herself, while the other actors are clearly struggling with their parts (with perhaps the exception of Kris Lemche as Sam). This unintentionally funny/horror movie does not know what it wants to be, and it suffers for it with a title that does not match the tone of the film. Hazel, being easily entertained, bless the little dog, gave this film 2 stars. I was not so kind, so it only receives a measly one star from me. Harrumph.This film follows the lives of sisters Brigitte and Ginger as they stage their own deaths and go to school. Things quickly take a darker turn when Ginger swiftly approaches puberty (and by that I mean she starts spewing blood at very inconvenient times) on their way to prank a snotty, popular chick. A werewolf, smelling her menstrual blood, attacks and she is bitten. We follow her journey into lycanthropy (and this could not be any more boring if this film tried, which it clearly didn't). Emo, expressionless and uninteresting Brigitte skulks throughout the entire film as she tries to hide her sister's "curse" and cure her. When we finally do see Ginger in her most glorious werewolf form, I was disappointed to see that she quite resembled the love child between a bat and a pig. And while most of the film is lacking in sufficient action, the ending is so gratuitous that it quickly loses steam into its very fitting, but altogether unsatisfying conclusion.The puberty=werewolfiness angle was bad enough. But the biggest problem Hazel and I had with this movie was the suspension of belief. I don't mean that I had trouble believing werewolves were really pig/bat mutants, but none of the actors would be believable in any setting except for Ginger. If you were thrown into the eviscerated remains of a dog you would be horrified, not merely humiliated and if you suspected your daughter of murder, you would not simply "light a match in the house, forget your husband, and start a new life with your kids!" It was moments like these, AKA bad writing, that pulled Hazel and I out of the story and prevented us from fully enjoying what I believe was a good story buried in the rubble. Somewhere.Now Hazel was not nearly as harsh on this movie as I was. The acting is alright, the cinematography solid, if not a bit bland, and the gradual transformation of Ginger was well done, if not a bit tedious. The adjusted score for this film is 1.5 stars.

I just finished watching this very underrated gem. A good, solid horror/comedy flick with great acting from Katherine Isabelle and Emily Perkins. It's a werewolf picture that instead of steering away from most of the clichés, reinvents them. But it's more than a werewolf picture; it's a movie about a bond between two young sisters who are obsessed with gore and how far little sister is willing to go to save big sister. Ginger is attacked by a lycan on their drive home and immediately starts noticing physical changes. The funny thing is everyone else is blaming her changes on her period. At times it seemed like an episode of "Goosebumps" (crooked camera angles, some overacting, etc.), and not in a necessarily bad way. This is probably because it was the director, John Fawcett's first full length picture. But overall, it was a very entertaining and fun film that really makes you care about the characters - at least it did for me! And there are some genuinely creepy moments.

I have no idea how I have never heard of this movie before. It seems to have been left off the cult horror movie list, maybe due to all the let's call it "animal cruelty" - which honestly made me want to puke but aside from that it's a good horror film. There is so much teen angst and drama to keep you entertained and it's truly frightening and freaky. To break up some of the tension there are the occasional moments of hilarity, whether intentional or not it provides the audience with some much needed lightness in an otherwise dark film.If you love horror films and have not yet had the pleasure of watching Ginger Snaps then I highly recommend it. I hope the rest of the installment proves to be as good as this one.