Oh I get the appeal. It's fun. Watching this back to back with The School for Good and Evil was an interesting experience because that movie is based on a surprisingly interesting and good narrative about female relationships but the movie was trash. THIS movie is a much better film about that. It's got gore. It's got depth. It's got subtlety. It's got great chemistry between the two lead girls. It explores their sexuality without being a movie that exploits their sexuality. Yeah I'll say it.. it's feminist as heck. It looks inexpensive but it doesn't look cheap. TLC went into this movie and it shows. Heck these are girls who DRESS like they think they're unattractive. It's something movies kinda suck at sometimes. They hire all these traditionally attractive actresses and the character has to be "ugly" or start from the point where they think they're ugly but they're dressing like anyone else. These girls dress down like their suburban goth kids who just want to leave. I respect the costuming so hard. Almost as much as I respect the practical effects. They don't hide the monster but they also don't overexpose it. Watching Ginger transform step by step was interesting and fun.

It's also darker than I anticipated. It's grim all said and done. But yeah I could watch this again and again on an annual basis.

To begin: this is my favorite werewolf movie. I remember seeing it in my video store, all the way back in the year 2000; as I dismounted my T. Rex, I recall thinking, given the cover, that this was going to be a low-budget crapfest with loads of nudity. Lucky for me, I like nudity - even though there is none here. No, I mean it's lucky because this immediately became a favorite for me.
So, the movie follows two Canadian goth sisters in high school - Ginger, and Brigitte. Now, I love me some goth girls, and Perkins, and Isabelle play a great pair of gloomy goths.
Anyway, yes, this is a werewolf movie, but don't expect werewolves running around Canada, maybe going to a Leafs game or slammin' some Labatt Blue, ah. There are only two werewolves and they don't have much screen time. The story is more about sisterhood, and the lycanthropy is serving as a metaphor for puberty.
Another nice touch is that the movie is set during October, ending on Halloween, so it is another must watch during that month.
A very solid horror movie, with moments of dark comedy, and an ending that is pretty grim and sad.
_Ginger Snaps_ is totally a journey, one that I have trekked many times. The full trilogy is great, but the first is the standout.
I highly recommend this for fans of _Jennifer's Body_ or _The Craft_. Any of my little goth kids out there, you need to watch this.
"I can't have a hairy chest, B, that's fucked!"

***Melancholy, foul (but amusing) werewolf flick in the suburbs of Toronto with Katharine Isabelle***

Two Goth-ish sisters in the burbs of Ontario are outcasts at their school and obsessed with death. Redhead Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is hot and blunt while Brigette (Emily Perkins) is mousey. When the former gets bit by an evident werewolf she slowly starts morphing and it changes the siblings’ lives forever. Kris Lemche and Jesse Moss are on hand as the dudes in the girls’ lives while Mimi Rogers plays the seemingly oblivious mother.

"Ginger Snaps" (2000) takes place in the Fall and there’s a gloomy pall with constant F-bombs (mostly from Ginger), but an edge of black humor. The blithe mother, for instance, is amusing. There are similarities to “The Rage: Carrie 2” (1999), but it’s nowhere near as effective. The set-up is good, but the story starts to drag from there and the suburban locations are disagreeably one-dimensional. Katharine Isabelle is the sole feminine interest, but Perkins plays a somewhat interesting character. Meanwhile Lemche’s Sam is notable as the unexpectedly gallant pot-pusher.

The film runs 1 hour, 47 minutes and was shot in suburbs of Toronto (Brampton, Mississauga & Markham).

GRADE: B-/C+

**Setup**: Depressed, uncultured edgelord sisters in white, suburban normie hell, obsessed with death, and opening with a suicide pact-- the beginning of this film is hard to watch if you're not currently one of the same, and the film's namesake doesn't really ever do anything to endear you to her. In fact, her behavior to everyone becomes worse, but it's understandable given the plot. She also transforms from hiding in baggy clothing and dark, oversized jackets to a progressively more feral predatory sex bomb. I'd be lying if I didn't enjoy the show. My inner edgelord from the time of production had to admit she looked pretty badass (moreso with the practical FX work as she progresses.) And she's a petite smoke-show. Her sister is the real main character, though, and I can sympathize with her plight, and her actions throughout the film.

This is the kind of film you would expect to be made by people who are really into practical gore and monster FX. It's obviously a minimal (for the time) budget, which means it's still better than most cheap horror films of today, but the prosthetics and fake bodies/parts are surprisingly well done. The ending is what I think gives the film its cult status. It's "_Gothic as fuck_". Right before this there's a bit of a surprise twist with one of the characters that I found pretty amusing, and makes the film more likeable, and imparts on the film slightly more depth than it would otherwise have. It's not exactly a satire, but it's actual character development.

I suggest watching this in the basement with your sister and a glass of Merlot or Cab sav stolen from upstairs around Halloween 2002.

It's pretty bad to be honest, but if you ever wore black nail polish and black mesh shirts around the millennium then you'll find something here you can identify with or get some guilty pleasure out of.

You can never go wrong with Katharine Isabelle. That's why I don't know why I waited so long to watch the "Ginger Snaps" series. This low-budget flick really packs a punch. Isabelle and Emily Perkins portray two sisters, one of whom slowly transforms into a monster after a werewolf attack. Both excel in their roles. Most importantly, they have fantastic chemistry.

However, not everything about the film is great. There is not much subtlety. That lycanthropy is meant to be a metaphor for puberty in this context is a little too obvious. In addition, the film is anything but timeless. If you consider the music and also the appearance of some of the characters, then you know exactly when "Ginger Snaps" was filmed.

Going back to the pros, I thought the werewolf transformation was fantastic. It's a gradual, painful process with elements of "body horror" that also involves some psychological changes. Most of the practical effects still work today. It's also a very feminist film, which cannot be said of the majority of movies in the genre.

But ultimately, the duo of Isabelle and Perkins is the strongest element of the movie. They are great in all aspects, whether it be one of the many humorous parts or the inevitable confrontation between the sisters. I'm really excited to find out how the sequels turned out. Where exactly the journey will go is not necessarily obvious to me after the end of the first film.