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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Ginger Snaps

13:46 / 03.10.01

Best film I've seen so far this year, no question.

As someone who loves horror movies, loves teen movies but hates teen-horror movies with a vengence, It's exactly the kind of film I've been waiting to see for years!

A film that's well made, has solid characters, good script, top rate acting, clever ideas, is emotionally involving and completely avoids cliche but still has more than enough gross out violence to fully justify it's position as a great horror movie!

Punk rock film-making of the highest order!

Let's face it, anything that simultaneously reminds you of Heathers and The Evil Dead has to be worth watching..

15:52 / 03.10.01

Its not...ironic is it?

deletia

07:31 / 04.10.01

No, it's just fucking cool. Terrific central cast, funny but engaging script, loses it a bit at the end but in general it's superb. Imagine Buffy the Vampire Slayer directed by Todd Solondz and you're getting there.

11:43 / 04.10.01

quote:Originally posted by Johnny Mother:
Its not...ironic is it?

noooo... thank god.

It turns ironic for about three seconds when a character says 'forget the Hollywood rules', but otherwise it's just straight up bloody-good-film.

seriously readers, this film ROCKS.

I'll rant for hours to anyone who'll listen about how much I love the idea of horror movies and stories, but how so many of them are so crap that it spoils the whole genre, and this inevitably turns into a rant about how I think horror should be done and, well, Ginger Snaps is a pretty good example of the kind of film I end up describing.

And I'm also very glad that the title refers to a character going mad, rather than some biscuits.

13:01 / 04.10.01

Utterly brilliant flick - scary as hell, great characters, and I can't think of another film that deals so openly with the topic of menstration. Even without the outright horror bits, the story would still have been engaging and amusing.

Oddly, I've seen a number of good horror flicks in the last few months, including Ginger Snaps, The Others and The Devil's Backbone (new Guillarmo del Toro, stunning and creepy). Like Rizla, I'm generally disappointed with the crap horror offerings available, so I've got my fingers crossed.

SecretlyClarkKent

09:25 / 05.10.01

And here, I thought Rizla's opening post was extremely sarcastic... are you people kidding me? I mean, no, I haven't seen it. But I work in a video store, and the trailer is on our trailer tape, and it looks absolutely horrible... I couldn't fathom even watching it on a whim. The whole sensual-yet-incestuous-sounding-whisper-in-the-ear-line: "It's like we're not even related, anymore..." tackles all of our employees onto the ground in a fit of laughter.

Someone... explain. Help me, I'm confuzzed.

Later,
Jared

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:44 / 05.10.01

Well, um, y'know, call me Mr Arbitrary, but I'll trust the judgment of the people who have actually seen the fucking film over someone who's just seen the trailer...

11:17 / 05.10.01

Fuck trailers.

I just saw the original American trailer for Get Carter and it makes it look like the most hilarious piece of shit .. "Carter is a killer! A man of few words, but decisive action! Get Carter ..before he gets you!"

But I don't want this degenerating into a discussion of bad trailers, so back to Ginger Snaps...

Go see it Transpotr and, unless you're a complete lamo, you'll love it.

14:07 / 10.10.01

I'm so glad other people liked this movie. Have any of you heard any reviews of it? I'm just kinda curious as to what the critics thought of it.

20:06 / 13.12.03

BBC2 UK, 11.40pm Ginger Snaps (Film) 2000 Premiere. A teenage girl obsessed with death finds her life changed for ever when she is bitten by a strange beast, prompting a series of bizarre changes. As the full moon approaches, events take an even more sinister turn. Acclaimed Canadian horror providing audiences with thrills, chills and gore aplenty, starring Katharine Isabelle, Emily Perkins, Kris Lemche and Jesse Moss (888) (stereo)

22:50 / 13.12.03

Hated the film, myself, but thought you all might be interested to know that they're hard at work making a sequel and a prequel.

11:42 / 14.12.03

I can scarcely wait.

12:34 / 14.12.03

Yeah, this is good isn't it. I saw it wholly by accident last night on the basis of the most arresting opening I've seen since...I can't think what. And it just kept being good.

Now, cards on the table, I think Heathers is over-rated, never got into the Buffy thing, nor the genre generally; so this really took me by surprise. Tension and comedy were so skillfully combined, with the one never diluting the other. eg. Bridget's line as she and Sam - in search of the Monk's Hood antidote - creep, inch by inch, into the house where Ginger is lurking: 'Maybe we should do this faster'. I laughed; I continued to shit myself. The sexual awakening metaphors are played beautifully and the references to Heathers, Carrie, Blair Witch (and I'm sure many others I missed) never clunky. Mimi Rogers is fantastic in it, and what a great title.

So, Buffy. It's good is it?

Tryphena Absent

14:00 / 14.12.03

The end was the most depressing movie moment ever. Good acting, great script but yuk what a horrible film it turned out to be.

01

14:18 / 14.12.03

No shit. I wasn't down with this either. It was like the CBC decided to make a horror film. I kept getting the feeling that Anne of Green Gables might show up at any second. The script was crap and the soundtrack....ugggghhhh. There are talented people in Canada, but why can't we make a good film? And why do they always have to be about some coming of age crap in some Maritime cod fishing town, or some teen drama in some lame suburb of Toronto?

01

14:20 / 14.12.03

Or even worse... the period piece.

14:52 / 14.12.03

yeah but who wouldnt have watched AOGG if she turned into a werewolf and started clawing at the throat of...well, anybody!

Anyway the sequel should be out soon (I still havent seen the first) and it comes bearing the horrid name: Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed!

17:03 / 14.12.03

The end was the most depressing movie moment ever. Good acting, great script but yuk what a horrible film it turned out to be.

?

how so?

I think the ending is probably the weakest part of the film.. it lacks the energy and general quality of the rest, and the conclusion isn't entirely convincing.. but why 'horrible'?

I watched it again last night and still think it's an absolute blast btw.. if only Hollywood had enough insight into the genres it's created to make films that good..

22:57 / 14.12.03

Finally got to watch this, and have been looking forward to it for ages.

yes i think its a good horrer film and i would be lieing if i said i didnt enjoy it but.....

i dunno i think i was expecting something a little bit subtler and a little bit darker, dont get me wrong i like gore as much as the next guy (unless the next guy is a butcher on pills and then he might have the edge, but i digress), but i think there was so much more room for the relationships of the characters to develop and the werewolfism just to be hinted at. Plus the subject of menstration automaticly scares and/or mystfys half the audaince already it would of been a good oppertunity to play on that fear.

if i didnt know better i would say that was a hollywood remake of a much darker and complex independant cult film.

i liked the ending altough it did fall back on the monster-in-the-house-that-jumps-out-while-you-shit-your-pants routine.

just a quick question what was Mr drug dealing gardeners motivation to help Ms werewolf sister, was it purely cos hes a nice guy deep down kinda thing or was he a "cherry hound" like was suggested?

foot long subbacultcha

13:21 / 19.12.03

I think it did a good job of capturing the effect of mundane Ontario suburbia. It makes you go furry and toothy.

I think there are two sequels being released close to each other?

Tryphena Absent

13:40 / 19.12.03

It was just so sad. There's Ginger and her sister and you're thinking to yourself, please don't let it end like this because it's making me feel really miserable and what the hell's going to happen next and... it leaves you empty.

It's like, what if Donnie Darko cut off the final scene and just left you with the laughing moment? It wouldn't work as well, Ginger Snaps was missing a scene, the house closed off and police scratching their heads, something along those lines.

13:58 / 19.12.03

I agree actually.. the ending really is a bit "er.. ok..", but I guess I didn't really mind seeing as how the preceeding 90 minutes are so, so, so far above the expected quality of a low budget horror movie in every respect..

I think a cool alternative ending would have been if both sisters - now both infected with Werewolf-ness - had made a run for it and their fate had been left hanging..

14:31 / 19.12.03

Pretty much from actually turning in to a warewolf onwards, it was dragging, hard. Surely you're supposed to be scared of the monster, not scared that they're going to show you the monster, and make you feel a bit embarresed, really.

That doesn't really make it look like I loved it, does it?

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:56 / 19.12.03

I think the thing about the ending is that earlier in the film, characters express their fear that the cliched werewolf movie ending is inevitable, and their refusal to accept that. And then, after the film itself has strayed from being a cliched werewolf narrative at various points, that ending comes crushing down inescapably upon us... It's simultaneously emotionally draining, artistically frustrating and fascinatingly meta.

22:29 / 22.12.03

rampantchargingintothechapeloftheageoldfuckyyooooooooooour
hosscikecyandyerwifefuryerstancefurityouechekyymmmuunyyyyyyyyyyy

12:12 / 23.12.03

I beg your pardon?

18:14 / 27.12.03

Got nothing to add to this, save that I'm so in love with this movie that I've rewatched it probably more often than just about any disc I own, and this despite its (the US version) being possibly Artisan's single biggest fuck-up, aesthetically -- the transfer isn't especially good, it's full-screen, there's no chapter menu (!) and the *only* extra is the afore-mentioned not-real-great trailer...which, by the way, is at least on my version switched buttons-wise with the feature, so that clicking on one brings you to the other. Really, it makes the mess Artisan made of Argento's Sleepless look like a Criterion disc in comparison. Since Ginger Snaps seems to be taking on steam as a cult movie, it'd be really, *really* nice to see someone release a US version that represents even a modicum of...I dunno...effort?

I paged through some article recently about feminist-type horror films (I think it was in Bust, but I could be wrong) while killing time at Borders, and they mention Ginger Snaps a lot. According to them, the sequel will be called Ginger Snaps: Addiction and apparently has a lycanthropy-infected Bridget in a rehab center for troubled teens. Which...well...to me, could go either way -- I'm not sure if it's the same writer or director as the first (or the same Bridget, even). Addiction (as a title) is less goofy (albeit vague) but kinda lacks the b-movie charm of Unleashed, methinks...of course, I was also a little disappointed when Carrie 2 wasn't subtitled The New Blood.

13:26 / 28.12.03

I've just recently re-watched this film and various interactions and dialogue between characters remain the most entertaining parts of the movie. Its more alt teen drama than creature feature... which is what I found appealing.