"Ginger Snaps" is a very clever film that combines humor with horror. There is a story line involving two sisters who encounter a werewolf near their suburban home one night, and how they deal with the changes one of them undergoes after being bit, but in the midst of some very tense scenes, someone says something that makes you burst out laughing.
Ginger and her younger sister, Bridgett, played by Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins, are disenchanted with suburban life and fantasize endlessly about running away or killing themselves. Their mother, played by Mimi Rogers, is a ditz who still imagines herself as just one of the girls. The father is silent and hardly there at all.
The film is about teen alienation, told through a conventional horror story line - girl gets bit by werewolf, begins turning into one, sister tries to help her out. The really good part is the humor. There is a sly social commentary running throughout the film, much in the way "The Lost Boys" was constructed. Teen angst, social alienation in the suburbs, high school madness - they are all themes that are dealt with in this film.
Emily Perkins is especially good as Bridgett - her portrayal of a goth teenager is classic. The rest of the cast is good also, but the real star of this film is the writer, Karen Walton. Her biography lists her previous experience as singing telegrams and handing out cold cuts in the supermarket, so I can see where the satire comes from.
An all-Canadian production, from director to writer to actors, "Ginger Snaps" is a terrific film and a must see.
Ginger and her younger sister, Bridgett, played by Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins, are disenchanted with suburban life and fantasize endlessly about running away or killing themselves. Their mother, played by Mimi Rogers, is a ditz who still imagines herself as just one of the girls. The father is silent and hardly there at all.
The film is about teen alienation, told through a conventional horror story line - girl gets bit by werewolf, begins turning into one, sister tries to help her out. The really good part is the humor. There is a sly social commentary running throughout the film, much in the way "The Lost Boys" was constructed. Teen angst, social alienation in the suburbs, high school madness - they are all themes that are dealt with in this film.
Emily Perkins is especially good as Bridgett - her portrayal of a goth teenager is classic. The rest of the cast is good also, but the real star of this film is the writer, Karen Walton. Her biography lists her previous experience as singing telegrams and handing out cold cuts in the supermarket, so I can see where the satire comes from.
An all-Canadian production, from director to writer to actors, "Ginger Snaps" is a terrific film and a must see.