Ginger Snaps (film)

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Ginger Snaps

Ginger Snaps poster
Directed by John Fawcett
Produced by Karen Lee Hall
Steven Hoban
Written by Karen Walton
John Fawcett
Starring Emily Perkins
Katharine Isabelle
Music by Mike Shields
Cinematography Thom Best
Editing by Brett Sullivan
Distributed by Motion International
Release date(s) September 10, 2000 (Toronto Film Festival)

May 11, 2001
(Canadian theatrical)
Running time 108 min.
Country Canada
Language English
Budget Cdn$6,000,000
Followed by Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian werewolf film directed by John Fawcett. Its plot focuses on two close teenage sisters, Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins), who are obsessed with death. The title is a pun on the cookie of the same name. "Snap" also connotes losing one's self-control, or a quick, aggressive bite. During the film's production, the Columbine High School massacre and a school shooting in Canada took place, causing public controversy over the film's horror themes and the funding it received from Telefilm.

Ginger Snaps was well received by critics, and was compared to director David Cronenberg's work.[1][2] Critics also praised the lead actresses' performances and the film's use of lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty. Ginger Snaps won the Special Jury Citation award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Based on its commercial success, both a sequel, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, and a prequel, Ginger Snaps Back, were filmed successively in 2004. While Ginger Snaps 2 had a wider release than the original, Ginger Snaps Back went direct-to-video.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The two Fitzgerald sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) are inseparable; they are fascinated by the macabre and swear to commit suicide together before they turn sixteen. At school they are outsiders and have no friends but each other. When they set out at night to take revenge on a schoolgirl who has slighted them, a wild animal attacks Ginger. That same night, Ginger's body begins to change as she undergoes puberty, but the sisters suspect these changes are not caused by puberty alone.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The opening credits play over a slideshow of the Fitzgerald sisters' staged deaths, which they create for a school project on the life of Bailey Downs. Their disgusted teacher demands to see them in the counselor's office.

After school, on the sidelines of a hockey field, they smoke and play a game: predicting how people they know will die. As Brigitte describes Trina Sinclair's (Danielle Hampton) death, Trina's lackey overhears her and tells Trina. Noticing this, Ginger tells Brigitte she will cover for her. However, ogling boys distracts Ginger and Trina pushes Brigitte into the remains of an animal, the latest victim of the Beast of Baily Downs (a beast who has been killing local pets). Upset, Brigitte runs inside where a janitor offers her a towel and helps clean her face. Ginger vows to avenge Brigette. The two sisters form a plan to kidnap Trina's dog and leave the blood and guts from their slideshow in its place to suggest they killed it.

At night, as they set out to accomplish their plan, they encounter another dead dog. They decide to bring it with them to replace Trina's dog; but, as they pick it up, a leg comes off in Brigitte's grasp. They suddenly drop it in shock. Brigitte notes it is still warm and tells Ginger she has blood on her. However, this blood is not from the dog but from Ginger's menarche (which they call "the curse"). As Ginger is panicking about becoming "average", the Beast of Bailey Downs unexpectantly drags her into the woods. Brigitte pursues it' finds it with its teeth sunk into Ginger and hits it with her camera until it releases Ginger. Then together they flee the woods and run across a road. The Beast follows them but is hit by a van driven by the local drug dealer, Sam (Kris Lemche).

Without pausing, the sisters run home. As Brigitte tends Ginger's wounds though, she is awestruck that the wounds are already healing. After a few days Ginger grows hair from the sites of her scratches and heavily menstruates. A rift forms between the sisters as Ginger starts to smoke marijuana with Jason, who recommends it to take the edge off her cramps. Ginger then becomes more hostile, pushing Brigitte away and aggressively pursuing Jason. While flippantly ignoring her sister's warnings, she has sex with him. And as she returns home, she kills her neighbor's dog.

These incidents alarm Brigitte and she turns to Sam for help. They both agree the Beast of Bailey Downs is a lycanthrope. Sam suggests a pure silver ring to cure Ginger's illness but it proves ineffective. Meanwhile, Ginger grows thick white hair all over her body and a sprouting tail.

One night, Trina shows up unannounced and threatens the sisters but she slips, hitting her head on the kitchen counter, and then bleeds to death. The sisters bury her body in their backyard's playhouse, only narrowly avoiding their parents. Brigitte tells Ginger she cannot go out anymore for her own and everyone else's safety, but Ginger is defiant. Instead, the sisters visit Sam, who recommends a monkshood solution for Ginger's illness. He tells them it has to be grown and Ginger angrily replies they have no time for this and that he just wants to have sex with Brigitte.

On Halloween, Brigitte locks Ginger in a bathroom, takes her mother's monkshood (bought from a decorations store), and asks Sam to make the solution. She acquires the solutions but has to use it on Jason because, transformed like Ginger, he attacks her on her way home to cure Ginger.

Ginger has escaped captivity and has returned to school, where she kills the counselor after he threatens to call her mother. Alarmed, Ginger summons Brigitte over the intercom and the sisters decide to wait till after school to clean up. After school however, as Brigitte heads off to procure cleaning supplies, Ginger kills the school janitor and leaves to attend a major Halloween party at Sam's greenhouse, against her sister's warning. Brigitte's mother (Mimi Rogers), after discovering Trina's corpse, picks up Brigitte as she's walking home and tells her her plan to quit town with them as she drives Brigitte to Sam's party to pick up Ginger. At the party, Brigitte finds Ginger making unwelcome moves on Sam. After she breaks his arm he leaves. Desperate to convince Ginger to let them help her, Brigitte infects herself. And, as they are about to leave, Sam knocks Ginger out with a shovel. Brigitte and Sam then take her back to the Fitzgerald house in Sam's van where they are to prepare more monkshood while Ginger completes her transformation, losing all vestiges of humanity.

However, Ginger escapes from the back of the van as they arrive at the Fitzgerald house. Afraid of her, Sam and Brigitte hide in the pantry while he finishes making the solution and they devise a plan to inject Ginger. But Ginger pulls him out of the pantry. Brigitte picks up the dropped syringe and follows the blood trail downstairs. She approaches Sam, who is now heavily wounded and chokes when she tries to drink Sam's blood, to calm Ginger. But Ginger kills him in front of her. After chasing Brigitte through the basement, Ginger's werewolf leaps at her and is impaled by her knife. The final shot is of Brigitte crying as she listens to Ginger's death rattle.

[edit] Production

[edit] Pre-production

In January 1995 John Fawcett "... knew that [he] wanted to make a metamorphosis movie and a horror film. [He] also knew that [he] wanted to work with girls."[3] 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 this film would re-interpret the genre.[3]

The two encountered trouble with financing the film. They approached produced Chris 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 finaciers.[3]

Motion International committed to financing and distributing the film in Canada, and Trimark agreed to be the American distributor and financier.[3] The film seemed ready to go into production by fall of 1998, however negotiations with Trimark made the producers miss the budgeting deadline for Telefilm Canada, the federal film funding agency. 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. Lions Gate Films took Trimark's place, and Unapix Entertainment agreed to distribute the DVD.[3] The film ended up being made for a relatively small budget of less than $6,000,000 Canadian dollars.[4]

[edit] Casting

Tracking down the two leads was met with substantial difficulty. While a casting director was easily found for Los Angeles, Canadian casting directors were appalled by the horror, gore, and language. When one finally agreed to pick up the film, the Columbine shooting and another school shooting in Alberta suddenly thrust the public spotlight on violent teens. The Toronto Star's announcement that Telefilm was funding a "teen slasher movie" was met with a flurry of debate and outrage in the media, which generated a remarkable amount of publicity for such a small, independent film.[5][3]

Casting occurred in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Emily Perkins and Katherine Isabelle auditioned on the same day in Vancouver and, when their taped auditions arrived, screenwriter Karen Walton said that they were exactly as she had pictured the characters.[3]

Interestingly, both actresses worked for the same agency, attended the same private school, elementary school, pre-school, and were born in the same hospital. Perkins was twenty-two at the time and Isabelle was four years younger at eighteen but Perkins was cast as the younger sister.

After six months of searching the two leads were set and now the next most important characters, the drug dealer and the mother, needed to be cast. Mimi Rogers agreed to play the mother, saying that she liked the black humor and comic relief in the role.[3] Robin Cook, the Canadian casting director, suggested one of her favorites, Kris Lemche, for the drug dealer. After seeing Kris's audition, Fawcett hired him.[3]

Katharine Isabelle having a facial prosthetic applied.
Katharine Isabelle having a facial prosthetic applied.

[edit] Shooting

The film was shot between October 25, 1999 and December 6, 1999, lasting six weeks and two days. Three of Toronto's suburbs, Etobicoke, Brampton and Scarborough served as the suburb of Bailey Downs.[3] Shooting outside during Toronto's winter for sixteen hours a day, six days a week meant that sicknesses would make their rounds through the cast and crew every few weeks.[6][3]

On the first day of shooting in the suburbs, all of the photographs for the title sequence were created. The bloody, staged deaths drew a crowd and Fawcett worried about upsetting the neighbors.[3] The girls were covered in blood for the shots and, at the time, a homeowner's basement was serving as their changing room. Each time they needed to change, someone had to distract the homeowner's four-year-old child.[6]

The schedule was so off kilter that shooting for a day scene in the greenhouse started at midnight. The director of photography solved the problem by using diffusion gel and four eighteen kilowatt lamps which generated enough light to be seen a mile off.[3]

Another major hardship was the special effects. Since Fawcett had eschewed CGI effects to use the more traditional means of prosthetics and make-up, Isabelle had to spend five hours getting outfitted to create Ginger's transformation and two hours to remove all the effects.[6] She was often covered in sticky blood that required Borax and dish detergent to remove. She had to wear contacts that hindered her vision and teeth that made her speak with a lisp. The most aggravating thing was that the full facial prosthetic gave her a runny nose that she had to stop up with Q-tips.[3]

[edit] Post-production

Starting in December 1999, Brett Sullivan, the editor, worked with John Fawcett for eight weeks to create the final version of the film.[3] Despite the short time for editing the film was nominated for a Genie in editing.[7] Sound designer David McCallum from Tattersall Sound had just as short a time period and yet the film was also nominated for a Genie in sound editing.[7]

[edit] Cast

Katharine Isabelle as Ginger Fitzgerald
Katharine Isabelle as Ginger Fitzgerald

[edit] Reception

The film was well received by critics and boasts an 89% freshness rating on Tomatometer.[8] Critics' praise was centered on the quality of acting by the two leads, the horrific transformation reminiscent of Cronenberg, the use of lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty, and the dark humor.[9][10][11][12]

Critics who panned the film thought the puberty metaphor was too obvious, the characters too over the top (especially the mother), and the dark humor and horror elements unbalanced.[13][4] However, they did credit it as a worthy attempt and often gave it half marks on their star scales.

In terms of the public's opinion, the film earned Cdn$425,753 domestically, making it the fifth highest-grossing Canadian film between December 2000 and November 2001.[14] Owing to a cult following, it has managed to post significant video and DVD sales. These earnings combined with moderate success abroad have translated into the creation of a trilogy.

Because the film links lycanthropy to menstruation and stars two sisters, Ginger Snaps lends itself particularly well to a feminist critique. "By simultaneously depicting female bonds as important and fraught with difficulties, Ginger Snaps portrays the double-binds teenage girls face." and "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."[15]

[edit] Awards

The International Horror Guild named Ginger Snaps the best film of 2001.[16] Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema awarded it best film, best special effects, and best actress (Emily Perkins).[17] The Toronto International Film Festival gave it a Special Jury Citation.[18] Ginger Snaps won the first Saturn Award for best DVD release of 2002 from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA.[19] Karen Walton won a Canadian Comedy award for Pretty Funny Writing.[20]

Ginger Snaps was nominated for Genie awards in cinematography, editing, and sound editing.[7]

[edit] TV series

The trilogy's producers have stated that they are interested in making a TV series based on the films, possibly an anthology series based on Brendan Fletcher's appearance in the latter two films playing different characters.[21] As of 2007, nothing has materialized.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kehr, David (2001). "She Was a Teenage Werewolf". New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2006.
  2. ^ Lim, David. "Vicious Cycles Ginger Snaps; A Chronicle of Corpses; Kill by Inches" (2001). Village Voice. Retrieved November 18, 2006.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o TVA International (07-17-2000). Ginger Snaps: Press Kit. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
  4. ^ a b Nusair, David. "Ginger Snaps (2001)". reelfilm.com. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  5. ^ Taylor, Charles (Oct. 26, 2001). "Ginger Snaps". salon.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
  6. ^ a b c Allan, Keri. "Katharine Isabelle" (2001). sci-fi-online.com. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  7. ^ a b c Canadian Awards History Search. Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
  8. ^ Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
  9. ^ "Blood Sisters"(2000). Sight and Sound. Retrieved November 28, 2006.
  10. ^ Waldron-Mangani, Ian. "Ginger Snaps" (2001). ukcritic.com. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  11. ^ Axmaker, Sean. "'Ginger Snaps' is a teen werewolf film with real bite". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  12. ^ Gonzalez, Ed. "Ginger Snaps" (2000). Slant Magazine. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  13. ^ Chambers, Bill. "Ginger Snaps" (2001). filmfreakcentral.net. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  14. ^ Bracken, Laura. "Monsters make move on Edmonton" (2003). Playback Magazine. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  15. ^ Nielsen, Bianca (March 2004). "Something's Wrong, Like More Than You Being Female": Transgressive Sexuality and Discourses of Reproduction in Ginger Snaps. Thirdspace. Retrieved on 2006-12-15.
  16. ^ International Horror Guild. Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
  17. ^ Semana Internacional de Cine Fantàstico de Málaga (Spanish). Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
  18. ^ The Film Reference Library. Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
  19. ^ Saturn Award Winners. Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
  20. ^ IMDB list of Canadian Comedy Awards. Retrieved on 2006-12-29. IMDB is used because the official site repeats the television winners as the film winners.
  21. ^ Grove, David. "Ginger Snaps - The Series" (2004). creaturecorner.com. Retrieved November 18, 2006.

[edit] External links

  • Fan site contains interviews with the director and actresses, the official press kit, soundtrack listing, and pictures.
  • "the curse is back..." contains additional screenshots as well as the music themes
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