Ginger Snaps
There is a saying; “to a child Mother is God.” And in most respects, that is true, especially for people who have great parents like I do. But, if like me you had an older siblings, a lot of your attention goes to them. See, I have an older sister and growing up with her was like growing up with a rock star and she still continues to amaze me.
I do have a movie point with this. See, when we were younger, we watched a lot of horror movies together and one that has always resonated with us was werewolf teen thriller flick Ginger Snaps. One because we were sick twisted children who enjoy blood, gore and fright. Two because I largely believe the sister pairing between the leads resonated loudly with us.
Ginger Snaps is a 2000-2001 horror flick. Sisters Brigette and Ginger Fitzgerald are siblings with a morbid obsession with death. Living in the suburbs, a series of dog attacks have occurred. Hoping to document this, they take a dog for a walk but unfortunately, Ginger’s menstruation causes the attraction of a supernatural beast. Bitten, Ginger slowly starts to turn into a creature, a lycanthrope; a werewolf. It is up to Brigette to save Ginger from this inevitable plight as they swore that they will die together.
This movie was so much more than just a teen flick and shouldn’t be marketed that way. Don’t turn away from it, it fits none of the tropes or ideals that came before it. Instead, director John Fawcett makes it much more symbolic and is reminiscent of truly astonishing classic horror movies. Leaning towards the Landis’ and Cronenberg aspect of horror, Fawcett creates a supernatural world using some excellent prosthetic’s; with Ginger’s transformation being terrifyingly real and detailed. It is scary, ghastly and pretty disgusting as well as being a spot on satire and hilarious quips.
Ginger Snaps is a far more sophisticated film because rather than just focusing on the horror, it also focuses on the themes. Gingers’ decent into wearwolf-dom represents the dreads of puberty and the relationship of the sisters. In a way, it epitomises is the fear that Ginger is growing up away from Brigette. As she develops, she is further parted from the childlike “promises” that she had made with Brigette and grows into this unrecognisable person or beast. Ginger Snaps is about that relationship being split by age. The film effectively represents (although, yes a little over the top,) an anxiety we feel growing up and growing away from childhood.
Much like the classic tales of fright, Ginger Snaps is much more a comment on the pressures that girls have, the relentless rage and being outcast. Balancing the dark comedy against the fantastic shocks and disgusts, as well as the deeper themes, Ginger Snaps was largely miss due to tragic events surrounding it’s release. Like most cult movies, it was brought back because it is one of the greater teenage central horror movies of the past decades.
It is monstrous, it is funny and it is bloody as hell.
Put down your Twilights and Teen Wolfs, come watch this
TTFN
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