Ginger Snaps (film)

Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, from a story they jointly developed. The film stars Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle as Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald, two morbid teenage sisters whose relationship is tested when Ginger (who has started her period for the first time) is attacked and bitten by an unknown animal, and then later, during the next full moon, slowly starts to transform into a werewolf. The supporting cast features Kris Lemche, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, John Bourgeois, Peter Keleghan, and Mimi Rogers.

After premiering at the Munich Fantasy Filmfest in August 2000 and screening at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival, Ginger Snaps received a limited theatrical release in May 2001. Despite modest box office receipts, the film was a critical success. It has since amassed a cult following and has been re-examined for its feminist themes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was followed by a sequel, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, and a prequel, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, which were filmed back-to-back and both released in 2004.

Plot

A rash of dog killings strikes the quiet suburb of Bailey Downs, Ontario. Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are teenage sisters who harbor a fascination with death. As children, they formed a pact to move out of the suburb or die together by the age of 16. One night, while on their way to kidnap a dog owned by school bully Trina Sinclair, Ginger begins her first period. The scent of blood results in the girls being attacked by the creature responsible for the maulings. The creature bites Ginger and as the girls flee, the creature is run over by a van belonging to Sam Miller, a local drug dealer. Ginger foregoes going to the hospital because her wound has already healed.

Following the attack, Ginger undergoes transformations that concern Brigitte. She begins behaving aggressively, hair grows from her scars, she sprouts a tail, and menstruates heavily. Ignoring Brigitte's warnings, Ginger has unprotected sex with classmate Jason McCardy. Later, she furiously beats Trina in public and kills a neighbor's dog. Brigitte seeks out Sam to obtain information on what his van struck, and they agree that Ginger was attacked by a werewolf and is transforming into one. After a silver navel piercing proves ineffective as a remedy, Sam suggests infusing an extract of monkshood, also known as wolfsbane, a perennial plant often referred to in lycanthrope folklore.

Trina appears at the Fitzgerald home and accuses Ginger of kidnapping her dog. As Ginger and Trina struggle, Trina dies accidentally when she slips and strikes her head upon the kitchen counter. The sisters hide the body in a freezer. Brigitte accidentally breaks off two of Trina's fingers while removing her body to bury it, and the fingers are misplaced. On Halloween, Brigitte brings monkshood to Sam and he creates an extract of the herb. Brigitte is attacked by an infected Jason, and defends herself by using the monkshood syringe on him. His behavior suddenly changes, proving that the cure works. At school, she discovers Ginger's murder of the counselor and witnesses her killing the janitor. Ginger discloses her intent to target Sam next at the Greenhouse Bash, a Halloween party hosted by him.

The girls' mother discovers the fingers and Trina's corpse. She drives Brigitte to the Greenhouse Bash, telling her that she will erase the evidence of Trina's death by burning their house down. Brigitte arrives to find Sam fending off a nearly-turned Ginger. Brigitte wounds Ginger's and her own palm and clasps their hands together, infecting herself with Ginger's blood. She convinces Ginger of her loyalty and willingness to help her. As the sisters leave, Brigitte decides to abandon her mother. As Ginger feels her transformation approaching, Sam knocks her unconscious with a shovel. They take Ginger back home to prepare more of the cure for her.

On the way, Ginger fully transforms into a werewolf and escapes from the van. Sam and Brigitte hide in the pantry as Sam makes the cure. When he goes to find Ginger, she mutilates him. After finding Sam, injured and bloody, Brigitte tries to save him by drinking his blood to calm Ginger, but is unable to go through with it. Ginger senses Brigitte's insincerity and kills Sam. As Ginger chases Brigitte, Brigitte returns to the room where they grew up. Brigitte defends herself while holding the syringe in one hand and a knife in the other. Ginger lunges at Brigitte and into the knife, fatally wounding herself. Brigitte lays her head upon her dying sister's chest and weeps.

Cast

Nick Nolan portrayed both the initial werewolf (nicknamed "the Beast of Bailey Downs" by the town's residents) and the "Gingerwolf", the werewolf which Ginger becomes.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>Template:Better source needed

Production

Development

John Fawcett, a fan of Monster movies and David Cronenberg, was inspired to write a story about the relationship between two female protagonists during horrific events after watching Heavenly Creatures (1994).Template:Sfn Fawcett stated that "I knew that I wanted to make a metamorphosis movie and a horror film. I also knew that I wanted to work with girls".<ref name="kit">Template:Cite press release</ref> In January 1995, he talked to screenwriter Karen Walton, who was initially reluctant to write the script due to the horror genre's reputation for weak characters, poor storytelling, and a negative portrayal of women. However, Fawcett convinced Walton the film would re-interpret the genre.<ref name="kit"/>

In 1996, Walton met with Vincenzo Natali, who was writing Cube, at the Canadian Film Centre and she later stated that Ginger Snaps and Cube were "cross-pollinating each other". Natali and Walton previously worked together on Elevated.Template:Sfn Walton viewed most werewolf films as the same and that while An American Werewolf in London was her favourite werewolf film, "it was still two white dudes grappling with the beast inside of them".Template:Sfn

Fawcett and Walton encountered trouble financing the film. They approached producer Steve Hoban, with whom they had worked before, and he agreed to produce the film. Hoban employed Ken Chubb to edit and polish the story, and after two years they were ready to seek financiers.<ref name="kit"/>

The $4.5 million budget for the film came from public and private sourcing.Template:Sfn Telefilm Canada contributed $1.25 million and the Canadian Television Fund contributed a similar amount.Template:Sfn Motion International committed to co-financing and Canadian distribution, and Trimark Pictures agreed to be the co-financier, U.S. distributor, and international sales agent.<ref name="kit"/> Hoban formed Copperheart Entertainment in 1999, and Ginger Snaps was the first project it supported.Template:Sfn Production seemed ready to go into production by fall of 1998; however, negotiations with Trimark caused the producers to miss the budgeting deadline for Telefilm. Rather than go ahead with only 60% of the funding, Hoban decided to wait a year for Telefilm's funding. During this interval, Trimark dropped the film. Lionsgate Films, who Trimark would end up merging with in 2000, took Trimark's place.<ref name="kit"/> Wendy Lill, the New Democratic Party's federal culture critic, was critical of Telefilm's financial support of the film due to its violence.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Casting

Six casting directors in Toronto, who chose to remain anonymous, announced they would boycott Ginger Snaps due to their worries about it depicting the murder of high school students after multiple school shootings in the United States and Canada.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 2021, Fawcett revealed that Scarlett Johansson was originally offered the role of Brigitte, but her mother did not want her involved after reading a National Post article about a boycott of the film by casting directors in Canada.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Auditions were held in Toronto, Vancouver, and Los Angeles.Template:Sfn Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle, who read for the parts together, were selected to play the Fitzgerald sisters. The actresses were noted for their similar backgrounds as both were born in the same hospital, attended the same school, and appeared in episodes of The X-Files.Template:Sfn Perkins, who cut her hair before confirmation of her casting, wore a wig during the film.Template:Sfn Isabelle credits the casting director boycott for her casting as independent and low-budget Canadian films would normally hire locally.Template:Sfn

Attention then turned to the next most important characters: the drug dealer and the mother roles. Mimi Rogers readily agreed to play the mother, Pamela, saying that she liked the black humour and comic relief in the role. Robin Cook, the Canadian casting director, put forward one of her favourites, Kris Lemche, for the role of drug dealer Sam. After seeing Kris's audition, Fawcett hired him.<ref name="kit"/>

Lucy Lawless, who Fawcett directed in several episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, appears in the film in an uncredited cameo as a school announcer and is thanked in the credits alongside Rob Tapert.Template:Sfn

Shooting

File:Isabellemakeup.jpeg

Katharine Isabelle having a facial prosthetic applied.

Principal photography took place between October 25 and December 6, 1999.Template:Sfn Thom Best, the film's cinematagrapher, previously worked with Fawcett on Half Nelson and The Boys Club.Template:Sfn Interior scenes were shot in a studio warehouse in Toronto. The Bailey Downs High scenes were filmed at a school in Scarborough. The exterior of the Fitzgeralds' house was shot at a home in Brampton, and a park in Meadowvale Village in Mississauga was also used.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shooting outside during Toronto's winter for sixteen hours a day, six days a week meant that sickness would make its rounds through the cast and crew every few weeks.<ref name=kit/><ref name=kat/>

On the first day of shooting in the suburbs, all the still photographs for the title sequence were created. The bloody, staged deaths drew a crowd and Fawcett worried about upsetting the neighbours.<ref name=kit/> The girls were covered in fake blood for the shots, and at the time, a homeowner's basement served as their changing room. Each time they needed to change, someone had to distract the homeowner's four-year-old child.<ref name="kat">Allan, Keri. "Katharine Isabelle Template:Webarchive" (2001). sci-fi-online.com. Retrieved November 19, 2006.</ref>

Long shooting days pushed the earliest possible start later each day until the scenes written for day were being shot after late into the night. Director of photography Thom Best solved the problem by using diffusion gel and four eighteen kilowatt lamps which generated enough light to be seen a mile high in the sky.<ref name=kit/>

Fawcett stated that Ginger's wolf transformation was meant to be similar to Seth Brundle's transformation in The Fly.Template:Sfn

The special effects proved to be a major hardship, as Fawcett eschewed CGI effects and preferred to use more traditional means of prosthetics and make-up. Consequently, Isabelle had to spend up to seven hours in the makeup chair to create Ginger's metamorphosis and a further two hours to remove them.<ref name=kat/> Often covered in sticky fake blood that required Borax and household detergent to remove, she further endured wearing contacts that hindered her vision and teeth that meant she could not speak without a lisp. The most aggravating thing was the full facial prosthetic which gave her a permanently runny nose that she had to stop with cotton swabs.<ref name="kit"/>

Industrial metal and Gothic rock are used in the film's soundtrack and appear diegetically in Sam's van.Template:Sfn

Fawcett requested Brett Sullivan to consistently trim down scenes and produce a tightly paced film.Template:Sfn

Post-production

Beginning in December 1999, Brett Sullivan worked with Fawcett for eight weeks to create the final cut of the film.<ref name="kit"/> Despite the short time for editing, the film was nominated for a Genie in editing.<ref name="genie">Template:Cite web</ref> Despite a similarly tight schedule in the sound department, the film would also be nominated for a Genie in sound editing.<ref name="genie"/>

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on Roadrunner Records. Template:Track listing Template:Track listing

Release

Ginger Snaps premiered at the Munich Fantasy Filmfest on 1 August 2000.Template:Sfn It was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival the next month. Word-of-mouth marketing led to the film's showings on 10 and 11 September to have high ticket sales. However, the hype for the film declined and few theatres in Canada showed it for more than one week.Template:Sfn It was theatrically released in Canada by Motion International through TVA Films Template:Sfn in May 2001. It grossed CAD $425,753 domestically, making it the fifth highest-grossing Canadian film between December 2000 and November 2001.<ref>Bracken, Laura. "Monsters make move on Edmonton Template:Webarchive" (2003). Playback Magazine. Retrieved November 19, 2006.</ref>

In the United States, Ginger Snaps received a limited theatrical release by Unapix Entertainment and Village Features while Artisan Entertainment released it on home video; 20th Century Fox was later given a license for a DVD release. For its home video releases it was distributed by Optimum Releasing in the United Kingdom and Paradiso Entertainment in the Netherlands and Belgium.Template:Sfn In France and Germany, the film was released on VHS and DVD under the titles of Between Sisters and The Beast Is Inside You respectively.Template:Sfn

Reception

The film has a 90% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 61 reviews; the average rating is 7.3/10. The site's consensus reads: "The strong female cast and biting satire of teenage life makes Ginger Snaps far more memorable than your average werewolf movie – or teen flick".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Metacritic film prose<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Critics' praise was centered on the quality of acting by the two leads, the horrific metamorphosis reminiscent of Cronenberg,<ref>Kehr, David (2001). "She Was a Teenage Werewolf Template:Webarchive". New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2006.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the use of lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty, and the dark humour.<ref>"Blood Sisters Template:Webarchive"(2000). Sight and Sound. Retrieved November 28, 2006.</ref><ref>Waldron-Mangani, Ian. "Ginger Snaps Template:Webarchive" (2001). ukcritic.com. Retrieved November 19, 2006.</ref><ref>Axmaker, Sean. "'Ginger Snaps' is a teen werewolf film with real bite". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved November 19, 2006.</ref><ref>Gonzalez, Ed. "Ginger Snaps Template:Webarchive" (2000). Slant Magazine. Retrieved November 19, 2006.</ref> The humour of the film was praised by Scott Tobias, writing for The A.V. Club, and he noted that it was a hybrid of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the works of Cronenberg.Template:Sfn

Because the film links lycanthropy to menstruation and features two sisters, Ginger Snaps lends itself to a feminist critique. Feminist scholar Bianca Nielsen wrote: "By simultaneously depicting female bonds as important and fraught with difficulties, Ginger Snaps portrays the double-binds teenage girls face. Ginger is an embodiment of these impossible binaries: she is at once sexually attractive and monstrous, 'natural' and 'supernatural', human and animal, 'feminine' and transgressive, a sister and a rival".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Critics who panned the film thought the puberty metaphor was too obvious, the characters too over-the-top (especially the mother), and the dark humour and horror elements unbalanced.<ref name="reel">Nusair, David. "Ginger Snaps (2001) Template:Webarchive". reelfilm.com. Retrieved November 19, 2006.</ref><ref>Chambers, Bill. "Ginger Snaps Template:Webarchive" (2001). filmfreakcentral.net. Retrieved November 19, 2006.</ref>

Melora Koepke, a reporter for Maisonneuve, was one of the first people to declare Ginger Snaps a cult film.Template:Sfn Frederick Blichert, writing for Vice, stated that Ginger Snaps was one of the greatest Canadian films of the 21st century.Template:Sfn Perkins was inducted into Fangoria Hall of Fame in 2005, and Ginger Snaps was listed as one of the 101 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen by Fangoria in 2009.Template:Sfn It is ranked 78 on Time Out London's list of 100 best horror films, Tom Huddleston calling it "the best teenage werewolf movie, period".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Accolades

Award	CeremonyTemplate:Efn	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Template:Ref heading
Toronto International Film Festival	September 17, 2000	Best Canadian Film - Special Jury Citation	Ginger Snaps	Template:Won	<ref name="FRL">Template:Cite web</ref>
Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema	February 28, 2001	Best Feature Film	Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, director)	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="FRL"/>
		Best Special Effects	Ginger Snaps	Template:Won
		Best Actress	Emily Perkins	Template:Won
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards	December 20, 2001	Best Canadian Film	Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, director)	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="TFCA Awards 2001">Template:Cite web</ref>
Vancouver Film Critics Circle	January 31, 2002	Best Canadian Film	Ginger Snaps	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
		Best Actress in a Canadian Film	Katharine Isabelle	Template:Nom
Genie Awards	February 7, 2002	Achievement in Cinematography	Thom Best	Template:Nom	<ref name="genie"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
		Achievement in Editing	Brett C. Sullivan	Template:Nom
		Achievement in Sound Editing	David McCallum, Donna Powell, Fred Brennan, Garrett Kerr, Jane Tattersall, Mishann Lau, Rob Warchol	Template:Nom
Canadian Comedy Awards	April 4, 2002	Best Writing - Film (Pretty Funny Writing)	Karen Walton	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
International Horror Guild Award	April 13, 2002	Best Film	Ginger Snaps	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Saturn Award	June 10, 2002	Best DVD Release (inaugural)	Ginger Snaps	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="FRL"/>
Fangoria Chainsaw Awards	2002	Best Limited-Release Film/Direct-to-Video Film	Ginger Snaps	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
		Best Screenplay	Karen Walton	Template:Won
		Best Actress	Emily Perkins	Template:Nom
		Best Supporting Actress	Mimi Rogers	Template:Nom

Analysis

Ginger Snaps was compared to The Company of Wolves after it was shown at Fantasy Filmfest.Template:Sfn Aviva Briefel stated that Ginger Snaps was a "self-conscious rewrite" of Carrie and that both dealt with suffering and menstruation.Template:Sfn Baxter, the first dog to die, shares the same name with the dog in the horror film Baxter.Template:Sfn

Franchise and influence

Based on successful DVD sales, both a sequel, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, and a prequel, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, were filmed back-to-back in 2003.Template:Sfn Even though Ginger Snaps 2 had a wider release than the original, it underperformed at the box office. Consequently, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning went direct-to-video.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In October 2020, a television series was announced to be in development.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The 2009 film Jennifer's Body draws frequent comparisons to Ginger Snaps. Their plots, and the relationship between the two main female characters, are strikingly similar in many ways. Despite this, Jennifer's Body writer Diablo Cody and director Karyn Kusama have controversially not referenced it as an influence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The music video for Sabrina Carpenter's "Taste" features a visual reference to the scene where a character is impaled by a white picket fence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The album WLFGRL by Machine Girl samples Ginger Snaps on several tracks, those being "Out by 16, Dead on the Scene", "Ginger Claps", "Excruciating Death (phase γ)", and "Phase α".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of cult films

Works cited

Books

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News

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External links

• Official website (cached) Template:Webarchive
• Official UK website
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• Template:Metacritic film
• Template:Rotten Tomatoes